Mama can I ride my bike?
A few metres West of our miniature railway is Mote Park's very own Stone Circle. Not a great ring of standing stones like Wiltshire's Stonehenge but a smooth flat circle of concrete beloved by little kids with bikes. Its original purpose is a mystery to most park visitors. It has a hidden history that few would expect.
In these hi-tech days of radio control where every toy has a computer chip inside and batteries to make it go the simpler methods of years ago are all but forgotten. The Stone circle was originally used for "Tethered Car" racing. This pastime dates back to the 1920's and became increasingly popular after the Second World War. The cars originally were simple toy models modified to use small petrol engines. Control, if you can call it that, was by tethering the car with a length of steel wire to a pole in the centre of the circular tracks. There was no throttle control because the whole idea was to go flat out, as fast as possible.
The cars were capable of reaching speeds well in excess of 150 actual miles per hour (that is 240 actual kilometres per hour in new money). The Mote Park track was surrounded by two chain link fences, the inner around 2 feet six inches (76 cm) tall and the outer around 3 feet tall (91cm). The wire used for the tethers was the same as used for aircraft controls and had a breaking strain around 60 tons. Operators would push the cars round with a stick until the engines fired then get out of the way fast!
It is worth remembering that, as well as tethered cars many modellers used to fly "Control Line" planes. These were a not dissimilar idea. Instead of a pole the operator had to stand in the middle of the flying field and follow the plane as it flew in a circle. Again there was minimal control except that the planes used two wires and these were linked to the elevators.
With the introduction of increasingly sophisticated (and also increasingly affordable) radio control the number of tethered car enthusiasts declined. The live and let live attitude to noise, (and these mini racers were extremely loud), also changed and safety considerations also played their part in the demise of tethered car tracks. Those three foot high chain link fences would probably not be considered enough today.
For all that there are still occasional enquires from enthusiasts abroad who may have seen the Stone Circle on google maps and correctly deduced its true meaning. It is unlikely every to be resurrected but is a fascinating footnote in our history.