Thames Tributary Bents Brook - North Holmwood

Thames Tributary Bents Brook
The brook continues to flow north east towards Tanners Brook and the River Mole


Post to the west North Holmwood
Post to the east Tanners Brook

Blackbrook Road
Boldhams Farm

Chart Lane South
Royal Oak. Young’s pub
Brickworks. The first site of the Dorking Brickworks was established around 1870 with the original kiln near the Royal Oak.
Stone bridge over Bent’s Brook

Deepdene Lane
King George V Playing Field. Playground, football pitches, skate park and pavilion

Holmbury Drive
Arch to take brickworks clay under Inholms Lane at the end of the road. The arch was created in 1951
Inholms Lane Open Space Local Nature Reserve. Access under the arch. Managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust. The area formerly quarried for brick making clay is a mixture of open grassland and young woodland. the first phase of succession started here about 1961 where the tallest birches form a block. The remainder of the site was dug out, then left alone to recolonise. Of interest are the orchids, D. fuchsii, and the insects, green hairstreak and small blue butterflies, and Roessel’s bush cricket. There are common lizards, and buzzards are seen overhead. There is lichen heath. The site shows ecological succession - freshly disturbed clay slopes benefit insects and lichens; the birch scrub attracts foraging birds and mycorrhizal toadstools in the autumn. Around the site are fragments of ancient woodland from medieval hedge lines where dormice live, with bluebells, dogs mercury and wood anemones

Holmesdale road
North Holmwood Estate. This is built on the site of the Dorking Brickworks. The Dorking Brick Company Ltd was set up in 1914 and in 1921 F Howard Paget developed it for the production of multi coloured, sand-faced, wire-cut bricks. IN 1940 the firm became the Sussex and Dorking United Brick Co Ltd and it became part of the Redland Group in 1958. During The Second World War it partly closed and produced common bricks for building air raid shelters, and emergency projects. The works included a 2ft 10in gauge railway system operated by stationary engines and an automatic driverless locomotive, now in Amberley Museum. In the 1960s output was 15 million bricks per year. It closed in 1981 as the clay source became exhausted.

Inholms Lane
The main clay pit of the Dorking Brick Co was south of Inholms Lane and the clay was transported from there to the works through an arch below the road to the clay pit area which has been landscaped and planted.
North Holmwood Sports Club. Cricket ground and pavilion.
Ada Cottage. Home of Christopher Whall Arts and Crafts stained glass artist

Lodge Close
Site of Holmwood Lodge home of George Rennie bridge designer, civil and mechanical engineer and designer of the Royal Navy's first screw-propelled vessel, the Dwarf

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