Dorking

This article is about the market town in Surrey. For other uses, see Dorking (disambiguation).

Dorking
Dorking from Denbies Hillside
Area	6.57 km2 (2.54 sq mi)
Population	11,185 (2011 census)
• Density	1,702/km2 (4,410/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TQ165496
• London	21 mi (34 km) NNE
Civil parish	n/a
District	Mole Valley
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Dorking
Postcode district	RH4
Dialling code	01306
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Mole Valley

South Street in Dorking in about 1959

South Street in Dorking in May 2009

Dorking /ˈdɔːr.kɪŋ/ is a market town in Surrey, England, in the valley of the Pipp Brook between the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge 21 miles (34 km) from London. It lies between two hills, Box Hill and Leith Hill.

In the Georgian and Victorian periods, seven foothills and slopes in the neighbourhood became grand country estates: Norbury Park, Denbies Vineyard, Betchworth Castle, Polesden Lacey, Wotton House and Deepdene.

Dorking is a commuter settlement and has three railway stations. In 1911, it was described as "almost entirely residential and agricultural, with some lime works on the chalk, though not so extensive as those in neighbouring parishes, a little brick-making, water-mills (corn) at Pixham Mill, and timber and saw-mills."

Dorking chickens with an extra toe are a major breed. Sand of fine texture and often in veins of pink, used for mortar and in glassmaking, was dug, particularly in the 19th century, and the Dorking Caves were excavated for this purpose under southern parts of the town centre.

History and development

Dorking began to become more than an agricultural village as a small staging post on Stane Street, the Roman road between London and Chichester on the English Channel.

Dorking appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as the Manor of Dorchinges. It was held by William the Conqueror. Its Domesday assets were: one church, three mills worth 15s 4d, 16 ploughs, 3 acres (1.2 ha) of meadow, woodland and herbage for 88 hogs. It rendered £18 per year to its feudal system overlords.

Subsequent Lords of the Manor included the Dukes of Norfolk, who lived in Dorking until they moved to Arundel. One of them is buried in Dorking churchyard. In the medieval period, Dorking was a prosperous agricultural and market town with businesses, including milling and brewing, capitalising on its position on the junction of a number of long distance roads and local tracks.

In 1750, the construction of a turnpike road made Dorking a staging post on the route to Brighton and the coast. The Bull's Head in South Street had a famous coachman, William Broad, whose portrait hangs in Dorking Museum in West Street. An inn in the centre of Dorking, the White Horse, was developed in the 18th century; previous buildings on this site belonged to the Knights Templar and later the Knights of St John.

Dorking held a big wheat and cattle market in the High Street. The poultry market was held in the corner of South Street and round Butter Hill. Here the famous Dorking fowl were sold. This breed, which has five claws instead of the normal four, was a favourite for 19th century tables, including that of Queen Victoria.

Dorking lost its stagecoaches when the railways arrived, but then attracted wealthy residents who built large houses in and around the town, such as Denbies House and Pippbrook House (now with council offices in the grounds). Surrounding land and beauty spots such as Cotmandene and Box Hill were donated by landowners for public use, protected by the Metropolitan Green Belt and the AONB designation of the North Downs and Greensand Ridge.

Cotmandene is a 4.78 ha (12-acre) area of common land to the east of the town centre, (the name is thought to mean the heath of the poor cottages). Cricket matches were played on the heath during the 18th century and are recorded in Edward Beavan's 1777 poem Box Hill. A painting entitled A Cricket Match on Cotmandene, Dorking by the artist James Canter, dating to around 1770, is now held by the Marylebone Cricket Club.

A game resembling rugby was once played here. The two sides were unlimited in number, representing the east and west of the town. The goals were the two bridges on the Pipp Brook. The Town Crier kicked off the ball at 2 pm and stopped play at 6 pm. The game was started at the church gates and was "rioted" up and down the High Street. It ceased in 1897 after complaints by tradesmen and it was officially stopped under section 72 of the Highway Act 1835.

Dorking was an urban district from 1894 to 1974. In 1911 it was described in the Victoria County History, compiled for the county that year and the next, as "almost entirely residential and agricultural, with some lime works on the chalk, though not so extensive as those in neighbouring parishes, a little brick-making, water-mills (corn) at Pixham Mill, and timber and saw-mills."

Geography

The town is in the west of the area between hill ranges in southern England known as Holmesdale which has headwaters of several rivers. The town's geography is undulating; for example, the elevation of the southern point of the central one-way system is 76 metres and on its northern side the elevation is 59–60 metres. The Mole's nearest point to the town lies at 45 metres.

Just northeast of the town the River Mole cuts a steep-sided valley through the North Downs. On the west bank is Denbies Vineyard, the largest vineyard in the UK. On the east bank is Box Hill, owned by the National Trust and Britain's first Country Park. The hill has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, because of the large number of rare orchids which grow there in the summer.

Further north is Norbury Park, which contains the Druids Grove, a forest of ancient yew trees.

To the south west of the town is Leith Hill, also owned by the National Trust, the second highest point in the south east of England after Walbury Hill. The tower on the summit elevates the hill to 1,000 ft (300 m) above sea level. The area is towards the east of the Surrey Hills AONB surrounded by the Greensand Ridge, including Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill, as well as the nearby escarpment of the North Downs from Box Hill to Newlands Corner.

A species of fish-eating dinosaur, Baryonyx walkeri, was discovered in clay pits just south of Dorking. The creature had a long curved claw on each hand and remains of its last meal were discovered fossilised in its ribcage. The skeleton can be seen at the Natural History Museum in London. One disused clay pit (Inholms lane) is now open to the public as a nature reserve.

Climate

Dorking experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.

Amenities and landmarks

'Let there be light', a decorative moulding above one of the shops in the High Street.

Dorking Halls

Much of the original character survives, whilst accommodating businesses that serve the needs of the 21st century. The town is well known for its antique dealers. The town's three main trading streets of High Street, West Street and South Street are complemented by a small open-air shopping centre, St Martin's Walk, which is adjacent to the town's main car park and easily accessed from the High Street.

In the late 1990s Dorking Halls was given a huge refit, to make it a cinema and theatre complex. In 2003 a new modern leisure centre and swimming pool were added to the Dorking Halls Complex.

There is a thin, somewhat shiny metal statue of a Dorking cockerel on the Deepdene roundabout.

Dorking and nearby Box Hill were chosen as part of the route for the 2012 London Olympics cycling road race and have featured in the FIA-ranked London-Surrey cycle classic every year since.

In the mid-1960s the Goodwyns council estate was built at the south end of the town, adjacent to North Holmwood. The design of the terraced houses, three- and four-storey flats and twin eleven-storey tower blocks was praised by architectural historians Ian Nairn and Nikolaus Pevsner.

Governance

Surrey County Council elected every four years, has three representatives, with only a few close but outlying farms falling under the latter two wards :

First Elected		Member	Ward
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" |	2005	Steven Cooksey	Dorking and the Holmwoods – includes the town Dorking
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	2001	Helen Clack	Dorking Rural – comprises farms and villages east of Dorking
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" |	1993	Hazel Watson	Dorking Hills – comprises farms and villages south & west of Dorking

Five councillors sit on Mole Valley borough council, who are:

Election		Member	Ward
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" |	2008	Paul Elderton	Dorking North
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" |	2012	Derrick Stanley John Burt	Dorking North
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" |	2011	Stephen Cooksey	Dorking South
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" |	2010	Margaret Cooksey	Dorking South
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" |	2012	Tim Loretto	Dorking South

Famous residents and literary connections

Laurence Olivier in Pride and Prejudice

People born in the town include: Laurence Olivier, Lord Olivier, in 1907 – a blue plaque marking his birthplace can be found in Wathen Road.

Other people born in Dorking include Walter Dendy Sadler (1854–1923) artist and painter, and Queens Park Rangers F.C. Striker Jamie Mackie (born 1985).

General Sir Lewis Halliday, a Victoria Cross recipient, died in Dorking.

The famous composer Ralph Vaughan Williams lived in Dorking for much of his life, and penned most of the works which made him famous in Dorking. The lark in "The Lark Ascending" is known to have been heard in the Mole Valley to the north of the town.

Absolute Radio DJ Christian O'Connell resides in Dorking with his wife and two children.

Kenneth Baker served as Member of Parliament for Mole Valley from 1983 to 1997 and lived for most of that time in Betchworth. On retirement he was made a life peer and took the title 'Kenneth Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking'.

People who have lived in the town in the past include: Daniel Defoe who attended Rev. James Fisher's boarding school in Pixham Lane, and Defore later mentioned Dorking in his tour through the whole Island of Great Britain.

Dorking also gets a mention in Defoe's book A Journal of the Plague Year, as a refuge for his brother's family.

Henry Hope and his nephew Thomas Hope spent summers at Deepdene in the beginning of the 19th century. Benjamin Disraeli wrote his novel Coningsby also while staying in Deepdene House (demolished in 1967) on the outskirts of the town. Emma Holland was brought up in the town.

The famous irrigation engineer Sir Arthur Cotton spent his last days, preaching the Bible and experimenting on cultivation of new wheat strains here. His tombstone at a local cemetery describes Sir Arthur as "irrigation Cotton" who was involved in construction of large scale irrigation projects, dams, aqueducts, bridges and canals in India. His daughter, Elizabeth Cotton, Lady Hope, founded an influential evangelistic temperance Coffee-room here.

Dorking and its environs, including Box Hill and the Deepdene Hotel, feature heavily in British author Robert Goddard's thriller Closed Circle (1993). In this novel there are also several allusions to the notorious money-for-titles trader Maundy Gregory, the owner of the Deepdene Hotel in the inter-war years.

The Cubitt family had links with the town also. Thomas Cubitt was born and lived in the town, and later built up large areas of London from the early 19th century. His politician son George also had connections with the town, and notably financed the building of St Barnabas Church on Ranmore Hill known by its nickname of Cubitt's Spire, Cubitt's Finger or Cubitt's Stump.

The English writer George Meredith and the Polish poet Marian Hemar are also buried at the local cemetery.

The Battle of Dorking, a short story written by Lt. Col. Sir George Tomkyns Chesney in 1871, was set in the town. Describing a fictional invasion and conquest of Britain by a German-speaking country, it triggered an explosion of what came to be known as invasion literature.

In The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Cecily Cardew's grandfather, the late Mr. Thomas Cardew, had three addresses one of which was Gervase Park, Dorking, Surrey.

In The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, Sam Weller's father and stepmother live in Dorking.

Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart of the band 10cc opened a studio, Strawberry Studios South, in a former cinema in Dorking at the end of South Street in 1976 following the departure of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. Songs recorded here include "The Things We Do for Love" and "Good Morning Judge". Songs recorded here by other artists include "Ebony and Ivory" by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. The building was later demolished and the site was used as a builders yard for a time; a housing development now occupies the site. In addition, The Cure recorded and mixed at Rhino Studios, which was at Pippbrook Mill, Fairfield Drive.

Child composer and musician Alma Deutscher lives in Dorking.

Dorking is also home to Britain's Got Talent finalist Lettice Rowbotham.

Meta Brevoort lived here until December 1876. Meta Brevoort a well known alpinist is commemorated by the Pointe Brevoort, the summit of the Grande Ruine in the Dauphine Alps. Her dog Tschingel who made ascents with her, her nephew W.A.B. Coolidge and Christian Almer is commemorated by a summit of the same name in the Bernese Oberland was also a resident.

Local government

Dorking is the administrative centre of Mole Valley District Council. It is in the Mole Valley parliamentary constituency.

Twin towns

The town is twinned with Gouvieux, France since 1997 and negotiations began in 2007 to twin with the German town of Güglingen.

Transport

The "Dorking cockerel" as seen from the A24 roundabout.

Dorking is at the junction of the A24 (London to Worthing) and A25 (Maidstone to Guildford) roads.

The town has three railway stations.

• Dorking railway station, on the Epsom to Horsham Sutton & Mole Valley Line. Services are run by Southern to London Victoria via Sutton. South West Trains run services to London Waterloo.
• Dorking Deepdene, on the Guildford to Redhill North Downs Line. Services are run by Great Western Railway.
• Dorking West, also on the Guildford to Redhill North Downs Line.

Most bus services are run by Arriva, the main locations served being Guildford, Redhill and Reigate including villages in between, as well as some local services. Sunray Travel operates a Surrey CC supported route to Leatherhead and Epsom, and running via Box Hill. Metrobus took over Arriva's Horsham depot, and now run route 93 to Horsham, and London Buses route 465 to Kingston.

Education

Various Primary Schools cater for 5–11-year olds:

Secondary education is largely provided for by:

• The Ashcombe School
• The Priory School, formerly Sondes Place School (from 1996)
• St Teresa's School

Emergency services

Surrey Police, Dorking Station (now demolished)

Dorking is served by these emergency services:

• Surrey Police are situated at the council offices of Mole Valley District Council in Pippbrook, Dorking. The old police station in Moores Road has now been demolished to make way for a new housing development.
• Surrey Fire & Rescue Service are based in Spook Hill, North Holmwood, which is contiguous with the town
• Dorking Ambulance Station, South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust are based in Spook Hill, North Holmwood, which is contiguous with the town
• Dorking Hospital, small hospital with no A&E.

Leisure and culture

The public library

Vines at Denbies Wine Estate, looking towards Ranmore Common (taken in Autumn)

On 15 June 2004, Dorking was granted Fairtrade Town status.

The Dorking Halls is a cinema, theatre, leisure centre and swimming pool complex. There is also an "Arts Alive" Festival which takes place annually during the last two weeks of October. Dorking Halls is also yearly host to a professional pantomime which was re-introduced in December 2006, after several years of hosting Zippo's Circus.

Dorking also has a museum, a library, about twenty pubs and a CIU affiliated club. It is noted for its antique and art shops on West Street. Dorking has two Non-League football clubs Dorking Football Club who play at county level and are based in the centre of the town and play at the Meadowbank. Dorking Wanderers F.C. play at the Dorking Wanderers Stadium, which is near Westhumble.

Dorking rugby football club, which plays at Brockham, attracted national attention when it won the Powergen Vase in 2005/2006 and continues to do so having won promotion from National League 3 (London & South East) to National League 2 South and Surrey Cup double in 2014. Dorking and Mole Valley Athletics Club is based at Pixham Sports Ground. They host the annual Dorking Ten road race starting from Brockham Green. Dorking also has a cycling club that meets on Sunday mornings at the Sports Centre in Reigate Road at 8:45, offering group rides for all abilities and cycling interests. Peter King CBE former Chief Executive of British Cycling is the Honorary President of Dorking Cycling Club http://www.dorkingcycling.co.uk/. The Mole Valley Bowmen meet in the grounds of St Martin's primary school.

Near to Dorking lies the Leith Hill escarpment of the Greensand Ridge, including the hills of Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill, as well as the nearby escarpment of the North Downs from Box Hill to Newlands Corner. Both ridges are notable in southern England for country walks, rambling and mountain biking, and the town in one of the narrowest gaps between high parts of them has a number of premises catering to these pursuits. Part of the 'Vale of Holmesdale', much of the post town but not town itself is within the Surrey Hills AONB. Also adjacent to Dorking is Denbies Vineyard. The Dorking Group of Artists exhibit locally twice a year, in Betchworth and at Denbies. They celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2007.

Underneath part of the town centre are the Dorking Caves which are open occasionally to the public and were dug for sand, mostly in the 19th century.

Leith Hill Music Festival

Each year in April, the town plays host to the Leith Hill Music Festival for local choral societies. This was founded in 1905 by Margaret Vaughan Williams, sister of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Lady (Evangeline) Farrer, wife of Lord Farrer of Abinger Hall. Ralph Vaughan Williams was the Festival Conductor from 1905 to 1953. The present Festival Conductor is Brian Kay. It is a competitive festival lasting three days, each day with a different division of choirs; each evening the choirs who have competed during the day combine to give a concert of the works which form the subject of the competitions. Following the tradition established by Vaughan Williams, the St. Matthew Passion or the St. John Passion of J. S. Bach are also frequently performed by the combined choral societies. After the death of Vaughan Williams in 1958, the festival committee commissioned from David McFall A.R.A., two identical bronze plaques with a likeness of the composer; one was placed in St. Martin's church and one in the Dorking Halls. In 2001 a smaller than life size bronze statue of Vaughan Williams by William Fawke was erected outside the Dorking Halls.

Demography and housing

In groupings by such bodies as Surrey County Council, the unparished area in terms of civil parishes in England, North Holmwood is grouped with Dorking, and is subsidiary to the town as lacking many amenities and services. However, as with Westcott, neighbouring settlements with their own church and a degree of physical divide (a hill and fields respectively) are considered separately.

2011 Census Homes

Ward	Detached	Semi-detached	Terraced	Flats and apartments	Caravans/temporary/mobile homes/houseboats	Shared between households
Dorking North	378	548	451	465	0	0
Dorking South	865	695	417	1,045	0	3

2011 Census Households

Ward	Population	Households	% Owned outright	% Owned with a loan	hectares
Dorking North	4,157	1,842	34	38	255
Dorking South	7,001	3,025	34	32	402
Regional average			35.1	32.5

See also

• List of places of worship in Mole Valley

Bibliography

• Nairn, Ian; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1971) [1962]. The Buildings of England: Surrey (2nd ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-300-09675-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Mole Valley District Council
• Template:Dmoz