Thames Tributary Pipp Brook - Dorking
Thames Tributary Pipp Brook
The Pipp Brook continues to flow eastwards to the River Mole
Central area of this country town
Post to the west Milton Court
Archway Place
Local authority housing development 1987
Brookside. The first public water supply here was from a pumping station adjoining the Pippbrook. The building has an iron plate which says ‘R P Waterworks erected 1738’ – RP was Resta Patching, a local Quaker and a founder of the company. Spring water was pumped by engines powered by the Pippbrook - part of one of the original pumps remains in the cellar. Later the spring became polluted and the works closed in the mid-19th. Originally the building had a veranda supported on columns which are now in the garden.
Two waterworks cottages.
Arundel Road
Street laid out as part of a grid pattern in 1852.
Beech Close
Water works. In 1965 the East Surrey Water Company - who had taken over the Dorking Company in 1959 - built a new pumping station equipped with automatically operated electrically-driven pumps and standby diesel generators. This replaces the works in Station Road.
Butter Hill
A poultry market was held on the corner with South Street. Here the famous Dorking fowl were sold
Friends Meeting House built 1846.
Chequers Place
Development designed by Donald McMorran 1953.
Chequers Yard
Goes down the side of the shops in High Street
Church Street
The street was once known as Back Lane.
Stane Street is said to pass through the north west angle of the churchyard.
Abinger House – modern office block
Dorking Christian Centre – day centre and cafe. Site of meeting house established by the Methodists in 1722. Built in 1977 with money from the sale of the South Street church and shared with the Anglicans.
St.Martin's Church. There was a medieval building here, which itself replaced an earlier structure. In 1837 a new church was built by William Brookes but it was replaced by the current church. The church was Built 1868-77 by Henry Woodyer and the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Wilberforce in 1873, the church being a memorial to him. It is in knapped flint with a Welsh slate roof with a 210 feet high spire with eight bells and a clock which chimes. Inside an octagonal font, of 1897, as well as a carved wooden font of c1500, made in Holland. There is a bronze memorial to Ralph Vaughan Williams in the porch. Memorial to Bishop Wilberforce. George Meredith is buried here.
Lesley Cottage. 17th timber-framed cottage with rough-cast front.
Lesley House. Tudor style house with a date stone of 1838.
Chapel Court. Local authority housing built 1983
Club Court
Salvation Army. Cinema Royal. In 1910 the earliest films to be shown in the town were screened here in 1910 in a building later used by the Salvation Army. It closed soon after the First World War.
Cotmandene
Common – part of the manorial waste. In the 18th it had ‘wholesome air’ and doctors sent patients there. The cricket club here dates from 1777 and were founders of the County Cricket Club
1-18 Almshouses. Mid 19th red brick for eighteen poor persons built on land given by Charles Howard of Deepdene and Adam Browne of Betchworth Castle in 1677, and endowed by Mrs. Susannah Smith. Rebuilt in 1848 using money from the original grant by Richard Browne, and subsequent donation. Modernised again in 1961.
11 Rose Cottage. 18th brick. This was once a dairy.
12–13 house with a front from 1800 on a timber framed core. Once a farmhouse.
Curtis Road
Dorking Foundry moved to new premises here in 1976 and closed in 1992.
Parsonage Mill. This was demolished in 1959 but had stopped being water-driven around the time of the Great War. It had a date stone for 1792 but there had been earlier mills on the site. It was a very eccentric size and shape - it was white painted brick and weatherboarded. A leat from the Pippbrook fed the pond which has been drained. A later roller mill was built on the site which milled animal feedstuff. Industrial units on site and the remaining mill building used for storage.
Dene Street
5 The White Hart
35 -38 17th timber-framed block of 4 cottages. There is a Sun Insurance Company Mark on the front wall of 'Timber Hatch’ .
41-42 18th timber-framed cottages with brick infilling and partly tarred weather-boarded front
45 Arty Ps. This pub was previously The Butchers, and changed again to The Red Bar.
63 17th timber-framed building with brick infilling. Used as a bakery
70 -71 Early 18th house
Adult Education Centre. Red brick and dramatic. Dates from the early 1870s and provided by John Evelyn as a working men’s institute. Did not prosper and in 1892 the Dorking Boys High school moved here. Adult education classes began at the same time.
Cotmandene Lodge 18th.
Dorking
Dorking is in the valley of the River Mole near Roman Stane Street – the road from Chichester to London – and may have been a staging post. The town held land in the Capel area of the Weald where a subordinate chapel was built.
Drill Hall Road
Drill Hall, used by Surrey Army Cadet Corps. Originally funded by George Cubitt in 1892 at a time when forts were being built in the North Downs in 1968 it was sold to Surrey County Council, and they continue to use it.
Drill Hall used by the Air Cadets
Dorking Bowls Club. In 1912 a 14 year lease agreement was made with Henry Cubitt (later Lord Ashcombe) on a piece of land for a Bowling Club. The resulting green was said to be the best in the county. In 1921, the club purchased the land for the sum of £250. In 1917 a proposal was put forward to allow ladies to be admitted but despite playing a crucial role with teas and cleaning, the proposition was turned down. It was not until 1964 that women were eventually admitted. The club had use of the Drill Hall
High Street
Road which is curved at each end with a raised pavement on the south side. Bollards installed by the Dorking District Local Board are DDLB and from 1895 this was Dorking Urban District Council DUDC. Granite setts delineate the site of the old market place.
2-4 Costa Coffee in red brick building back off the street with modern metal arcade frontage.
3-11 Kings Head Inn, now in other use but is a 17th L-shaped building with decorative brickwork and bay windows. It was originally the Lower Chequers Inn but the name was changed in 1660 to the King's Head Inn. It was also known as the ‘Marquis of Granby’ because it was thought to have served as the model for the Inn in "The Pickwick Papers". Timber-framing exposed within and Traces of mural painting. In the 18th there was a magistrates' court, here and it was also converted to four shops .There is an underground chamber beneath entered from the cellar under the shop- above via a long flight of steps. It has been suggested that it was a cell for the Court. Old King’s Head Court lets out on to the High Street and has shops and a cafe in it.
13-15 Shoerite and Thomas Cooke in an early 19th house with a modern shop window and altered windows above.
20-22 Robert Dyas hardware. A sweeping 18th shop front. Originally the building had a 16th core but only the facade remains. A wall painting was found inside during demolition and part of Royal Coat of Arms. Site of the Chequers Inn.
21-27 Edinburgh Woollen Mill - modern building with projecting front with columns.
29 –31. Phones4u in late 18th house with a modern shop front on the ground floor.
37/39 Bookends and other shops in the old premises of the Wheatsheaf Inn with extensive outbuildings and stables at the rear. Timber-framed building with a modern public house front.
The yard extends behind, with cobblestones and a mounting block. There are large cellars and two cave systems. A steep flight of stairs leads to another flight upwards going to the stables. More steps lead into a dead end passage under the street. They have niches for wine storage. Another branch descends to a large amphitheatre with ledges cut as seats. This was a cockpit for illegal cock-fighting. No longer a pub
32-38 Sainsbury’s on the site of Stone & Turner ironworks shop
40-46 Steamer Trading in early 19th house. This was the Medical Hall, chemists shop.
41 - 47 Carphone Warehouse & Lemon Tree in late 18th - early 19th timber-framed building with a modern shop fronts and altered first floor windows. 47 is the site of the George Inn and painted beams from the pub are preserved in the upper front room
48-56 Caffe Crewe and Johnsons in one building, now 2 shops with living accommodation over. Timber-framed building Faced with red mathematical tiles. Modern shop fronts.
51–53 Amplifon in 18th building which could have been a public house; long narrow yard behind and vehicle entry from the street
58–60 Watsons Bakery with an early 19th front
62-64 Emslie optometrists. Timber-framed building now fronted with plaster and imitation timbering. Modern shop front and advertisement above it. A cave which ran beneath the garden has been destroyed.
68 This was once called Farnborough Cottage and is down a passageway. It is also the site of the Ram Inn. A door at the rear goes to a brick lined chamber with a floor of engineering bricks which slopes to a sand-cut cave. There was also a 140 ft straight tunnel with blind entries on either side and three shafts at the end .There was another entry at the rear of 82 where there is now a garden with a door into another brick-lined 10ft square chamber with a capped shaft in the roof and a blocked doorway
70 Scotts of Dorking, Jewellers. Building much taller than its neighbours. With hooded eaves
82 shop which has below it a tunnel to the same system as 68
94/98. Tudor Williams - there is a tunnel from the rear of this modern shop which is on the site of an older building. From the rear a tunnel heads south with a rectangular shaft in the roof with a grill and glass sky-light.
100-106 White & Sons in late 18th painted brick building with modern shop front.
108-116 site of the Red Lion. Used to be The Cardinal's Hat. Starting point of the London coach. Oak panelling and Jacobean chimney piece. A red brick house of old-world appearance with a high double flight of steps to the front door.
115 -117 Fat Face in early 19th stuccoed building with 2 windows on upper storey each. A passage way down the side of the building has a shield above it with an S and a cross.
Projecting, slightly forward.
125/127 This is the site of old Manor House and Sun Inn built in 1830 and demolished in 1971. There are sandstone caves but concrete pillars through them support new buildings above. The entrance is via a man-hole in front of the shop which goes drops into the old pub cellar and a flight of steps leads to a cave shaped like a K. One branch is a dead end and another forward. At the far end of a large chamber is an upward flight of bricked up steps.
131 Martin’s Walk open air shopping mall. Frontage with dramatic entrance with clock and weather vane.
132 -138 Early 19th shop fronts on a 17th building called the Dutch House – there is a passageway marked to this effect. The house was part of a fashion following the fame of William of Orange. It has been changed drastically over the years.
140- 148 White Horse Hotel. 16th building which used to be called the Cross House belonging to the Knights Hospitallers. Earlier timber framed parts behind. Coaching inn taking coaches between London and Brighton. Mentioned in Jane Austin’s ‘Emma’ and by Dickens.
Carriage entrance to the yard between two sides of the building. One part is a timber-framed building with 18th front but some is early 19th. There are Iron-stone setts and cobbles in the entrance pathway.
150 – 156 Early 19th with modern shop front.
155-161 late 18th or early 19th houses in red brick, some parts stucco. Under 157 is an underground chamber beneath the cellar, from which it is accessed. Any steps are covered by rubble. The main chamber is sandstone with some brick lining.
164 and 166 Whittals in late 18th - early 19th house.
175 Post Office which originally also housed the telephone exchange.
179-193 18th houses
196 - 218 early 19th terrace of 6 houses.
220 – 222 Surrey Yeoman Pub. Timber-framed L-shaped building. This was the Royal Oak but was renamed for Col Leslie of the Surrey Yeomanry.
227 house with iron railings and gate
266 Gascoigne Pees . Single storey building with arcade type front
270 Odd Fellows Hall. By local architect William Shearburn, main double door with notice boards and plaques and bow windows above over adjoining shop premises.
290-294 site of Shrub Hill House originally built 17th. A bay window from the house still exists on the Paper Mews frontage. It was home of the Leslie family after which some local properties are named.
Old Court House now a dentist. Police station, police house and court built 1894 and closed as such 1938. It was demolished expect for the police superintendents house.
235 Pizza Express on the site of what was Walker's coach building works in the late 19th. In 1898 the weather-boarded workshop was demolished and replaced by a brick building with a terracotta frontage – with the pizza shop at the original entrance to the showroom. By 1882 the business was taken over by Ventham and Sons of Leatherhead, and from about 1920 it became a motor engineer's works, first occupied by Warne & Williams and then by Williams Motor Engineers. By the 1930s it had been converted into retail shops.
Howard Road
Street laid out as part of a grid pattern in 1870
Arundel Arms. Stuccoed pub now closed and demolished
Junction Road
Road built in the 19th to relieve traffic congestion
Crossways Community Baptist Church. Built in 1876 and extended in 1902.
Mulberry Youth Centre Sports Hall
Wall with plaque and ‘AD 1750’
London Road
Telephone exchange
Pippbrook Gardens built up on a bank with an old retaining wall
Pippbrook Mill. There was an earlier mill on this site from 11th, called East Mill, defunct by 1570. The current mill was also called Dorking or Patching Mill and originally built in 1792 but the building there now was constructed in 1979 because the earlier mill had burnt down, but being a listed building it was rebuilt exactly as before. It is on the site of an 11th mill. The mill actually stopped working in 1932 and its mill pond is now part of Meadowbank Recreation Ground. The mill was in the ownership of the Denbies Estate for many years. It was a particularly powerful mill with the spillway going through the centre of the mill driving the southern part and the northern part powered by an overshot wheel. There were two separate systems but a wheel made by Booth of Congleton went for scrap in 1940. In the Second World War it was an AFS Station, and later an upholstery firm.
Rest Harrow. House 1800
Rose Cottage. House at right angles to the road mid 19th.
Meadowbank Recreation Ground
This was the area of Meadowbank House which the UDC bought in 1928 for a park and local authority housing. It was landscaped as a park in the 1930s.
Mill pond given to the town by Maurice Chance because it stank.
Meadowbrook Road
Football ground – site of the millpond for the long defunct Town Mill. The team is known as ‘The Chicks’.
Mill Lane
This went to the long defunct Town Mill. Had stopped running by 1570.
Pottery in the 19th on the east side.
Tannery in the 19th on the west side. This was replaced by Boxall’s Brewery in the 1840s.
Malthouse Pub
North Street
Pump Corner. This was the original centre of the town at the the junction of north street, west street, south street and high street. This was the areas where the market was held. There was a gabled market house here, demolished in the 19th.
Queens Arms. Which was on the North Street corner- there is a surviving Elizabethan window behind the HSBC bank. This was a large establishment going from North Street right down to 48 West Street. Opened in the 1590s by Edward Goodwin his initials remains on a rear window bracket. On part of the site was a 19th iron foundry
1-2 16th timber framed jettied house with moulded beams. This was once the Gun Public House. It has gables carved with sunflowers and brackets decorated with a carved lion's head.
10 Corn Store built 1854. Built in red brick with a carriage entrance
Leslie House Gothic stone house
Maltings old malt house now used for the antiques trade. Bricks by the door at the south end engraved W Attlee, July 1854
Structure at the junction with Church Street on the west side. This forms part of the area of the 17th Vicarage. The cottages at right angles to the road are part of the stable block and the archway on North Street was the entrance. Ceased to be the Vicarage in 1800.
Paper Mews
Pit area along the back of the High Street – there were three cave systems but now partly destroyed. Car park area,
Strict Baptist Chapel built 1910.. There are underground chambers in the cliff face behind. A short tunnel leads under the scree at the cliff foot. There is a single chamber with two off-shoots, two windows and socket holes apparently for cross beams. This may be the remains of an older tunnel
Parkway
Built in 1934 by Davis on the site of Meadowbank House.
Portland Road
This road is unique in that the houses are identified by letters rather than numbers. The letters are a permanent feature as they are set in the brickwork on the front of each house.
Ranmore road
Venhill Engineering
Ranmore House
St Martins Church of England Primary School
Rose Hill
Houses built in the grounds of Rose Hill House. Villas arranged around the paddock. At the top of the hill north facing villas by the Dorking Villa Building Co.1846-1946.
1 Holly House Tall early 19th house.
3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, 19 and 20 mid 19th semi-detached villas in Tudor-Gothic style,
11 alongside it is the bricked-up access doorway to an underground chamber.
15 Rose Hill Lodge. 19th house with 19th conservatory.
18 The Cottage mid 19th Stuccoed house
21 Stone House. Mid 19th house in firestone.
22 Early 19th house.
25 Butter Hill House. Large house with 18th stuccoed front. Garden Wall and gate piers are listed. Rose Hill House next door was once part of it. The attached archway is Victorian and originally went to Back Field behind, and was private. The house was divided into 1831.
26 Rose Hill House. 18th front on a 17th building
99 Rosehill Cottage 19th house
Sewer vent pipe, sometimes known as 'Wimbledon Columns'. The columns also supported gas street lamps. Lighting fittings have disappeared
South Street
4-6 these were once marked ‘established 1757’
7 mid 19th front to a timber-framed building. Keystone over the shop front and fascia board with date 1906.
8 and 10 17th timber-framed building. Faced with roughcast. Modern shop fronts
Junction road corner – site of first local authority offices built 1895 and designed by William Shearburn. This also housed the post office.
9 19th front to timber-framed building. 19th shop front below with butcher's hooks hanging from above the shop window and a board saying: "Established 1800".
11 Bull's Head. Wood-panelled, town-centre pub with a single L-shaped bar with areas used for devotees of horse racing. Timber-framed building. A former inn for coaches travelling from
London to the coast
15-19 The Rotunda. Dorking Domestic Appliances
12 -14 Early 19th house. Modern shop front.
16-18 Early 19th house
20-26 2 early 19th houses now joined
38–40 16th timber-framed building. Shop fronts on ground floor.
39 small cottage late 18th with a paved fore-court. A concealed trapdoor by the stairs leads to a steps to a rock-hewn chamber under the front room. Daylight enters from a shaft in the forecourt.
42-46 Spotted Dog Pub. Timber-framed building
Cheesman’s Brewery south of the pub in the early 19th
66-70 Stoneroof. 18th house.
77 Little Dudley House. 18th front on an older building in red brick. Modern shop front. Wall of sandstone and rubble around the garden. Converted to offices and garden sold separately
80 and 82 18th house. The front has an advertisement painted
on it. Dorking Advertiser.
Dorking Business centre corner of Vincent’s Road. Site of Methodist Church built 1901 and closed and demolished 1974.
81 The Cricketers. Fuller’s pub. Traditional drinking pub with an L-shaped bar of bare brick with photographs and mirrors. Large flags represent the home rugby teams. The cellars are ancient sandstone caves, with a walled Georgian garden behind.
86 18th house with 19th shop front.
94 and 96 early 19th Painted brick mid 19th shop front. Beams exposed inside.
Spicer Marsh Ltd. Plaque high up Dorking tool hire
97 Rosedene with separate treatment room Early 19th house with iron trellis porch
98 Mount House. 18th fronted house
113 and 115 Southleigh Terrace Early 19th buildings
122-130 site of the first almshouses built in 1613 by Richard Browne. The workhouse was built adjacent to these in 1728. Some parts of this survive in the South Street cottages. .
142 The Old House. Early 19th.
House built 1720 on older foundations. There are extensive cellars and from one steps lead to a cave used as a wine cellar. In the Second World War it was used as an air-raid shelter and a ventilation pipe was laid to the surface.
156 Old Printers Yard behind art nouveauy Bartholomew press front
K6 traditional red telephone kiosk designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Listed, Grade II.
Pavilion Cinema opened in 1925 and showed only 'talkies'. It closed in 1963 and was used as a theatrical props store and then as a DIY shop. A recording studio operated at the rear. Since demolished.
Royal Electric Cinema opened in South Street in the garden of Stapleton House in 1913. It later became the New Electric and then the Regent and closed in 1939. I was then used as a furniture warehouse and auction room and eventually demolished.
South Street Caves. It is generally assumed that these were a gentleman's folly. They are accessed by a door near the war memorial and there are a few hundred feet of passages, stairways and chambers. The caves have been used by local brewers and wine merchants for storage and in 1912 they were bought by Dorking Urban District Council.
Town Pump in the shape of a 19th cast iron pillar. In the 19th a well was reopened and the pump installed. At one time a paving slab here was marked ‘WELL’. This is in front of Nos 2 – 6
Dorking War Memorial. Erected in 1921 and designed by Thomas Braddock MP in Portland stone. Braddock was also a designer of Odeon Cinemas. It is inscribed “IN MEMORY OF DORKING MEN WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR". There are also panels of those who died in the Second World War. There are two flagpoles on either side and spotlights. At one time it also incorporated a bandstand and seating.
Hole in the Wall – this was a house built behind the others in the 18th, now gone. It was the home of Major Peter Labelliere who is buried upside down on Box Hill.
Spring Gardens
1 Footcare Centre. East Surrey House. Small building beside the road
Late 18th row of 2-storey cottages
7 late 18th with a bread oven.
9 cottage built 1750 with ground floor of brick and with upper floor of oak timber-frames with brick infilling. Ground floor ceiling beams exposed, ground floor brick fireplace, stone slab floor at ground level
Station Road
Dorking West Station. Originally called ‘Dorking’, then ‘Dorking Town’, this was Dorking's first railway station, opened in 1849 between Redhill Junction and Guildford by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway Company. It now has two staggered platforms with bus-stop type shelters and a subway, but before 1969 it had a two-storey building on the down side. There were once considerable goods sidings serving, but with no rail connection to, an adjacent timber yard and the gas works. Sidings on the up side had been paid for by Thomas Cubitt for the construction of 'Denbies' in 1850-51. The goods shed still exists, with no connection to the railway.
Canterbury Court sheltered housing built 1989
Dorking Brewery in The Engine Shed, Station Yard.
The Pilgrim was the South Eastern Railway Hotel
Railway men’s houses.
Power Station. In 1903 Dorking Urban District Council financed a power station here built by Edmundson's Electricity Corporation who leased it to them. The original plant consisted of two 90kW steam-driven DC generators later supplemented by diesel generators in 1928. AT first the supply was only to the town centre but from 1913 it was extended to surrounding area. In 1931 it was taken over by the London and Home Counties Joint Electricity Authority (JEA) who established a bulk supply point here allowing alternating current to be available. The power station building remains as does the engineer’s house. An early electric street lamp is mounted at the corner of the building.
Dorking Gas works was built in 1834 by the Dorking Gas Light Company to provide street lighting and in 1871 they became the Dorking Gas Company. The works was extended in 1882, 1896 and again in 1902 when a large gasholder was erected and another holder was built here in 1951. The company merged with the Redhill Company in 1928 to become the East Surrey Gas Company. In 1937 the gas company bought the adjacent timber yard of Taylor and Brooker to be used for coke storage. It had no rail connection to the sidings at Dorking Town station and the coal was transported by horse and cart and later by lorry. Gas production ceased in October 1956. The buildings were demolished and the site became a business park
Dorking Water Company. The pumping station was set up here in 1902 with steam-driven equipment by Warners Ltd to pump from three artesian wells alongside the station. It was closed in 1965 and the building is in other use. Bros
1 Station Road, Double fronted building
Mole Valley Environmental Services Dept.
Parsonage House. From 1908 this housed the St Martin (Church of England) Girls School but provided inadequate facilities.
Parsonage Court office developments
Grocery warehouse of H.G.Kingham. Red brick building three storey with double doors for cranes in each floor. Now part of the business centre.
Old Char wharf
Havenbury trading estate
Refuse destructor built here by the local authority in 1910.
Swimming pool built on the south bank of the Pippbrook on the west side of the road in 1893 and taken over by the local authority but it leaked and had to be closed in 1939.
Vaughan Way
Ralph Vaughan Williams lived at The White Gates on this site.
Vincent's Lane
The area is part of a worked out sandpit
Lengths of railway line are used to support handrails
The Highland. 1830 building.
Road Plant Company had been W L Bodman Ltd. who made agricultural, road making and road sweeping equipment. Moved to this site from West Street they were taken over by Johnston Engineering Ltd.
Glebeland centre
Wathen Road
Named for Captain Augustus Wathen who was court martialled and won.
17 Blue plaque on the birthplace of Laurence Olivier
West Street
1 early 19th building of painted brick with 19th shop front with pointed arches to windows
2 18th front on a timber-framed building now Roughcast
3 and 4 17th timber-framed building with 18th front and Early 19th shop fronts
5 and 6 Early 19th house
8a this stands back in a small courtyard. It is a timber-framed building rebuilt in red brick and the ground floor of the north-west corner is corbelled to allow carriages to pass through into the yard of the Rose and Crown Inn
9 and 10 Timber-framed building with plastered front.
11 18th Painted brick and a bay cut away for a 19th shop front.
12-15 18th house timber-framed with 19th shop fronts.
16 West Street House. 18th house, weather boarded with bays.
19 with balcony
22 and 23 early 19th.house with 19th shop fronts
32-33 18th houses
45 and 46 The King's Arms. 16c timber framed building. Restored 1950
50 -52 mid 19th front to an 18th building. 20th shop windows
54 18th - early 19th front to an early 18th building. 20th shop front below
55 and 56 Early 19th. Modern shop fronts on ground floor.
57 The Bell Hotel 18th Timber-framed building. Carriage arch.
58-61 17th range. Red moulded brickwork, once painted. Home of William Mullins, one of the Pilgrim Fathers – only known surviving home.
62 The Dorking Foundry. Dorking Museum. This is believed to have been the site of a blacksmith's shop from c. 1550, and the site of some of the oldest casting of iron in Surrey. James Bartlett operated a forge and foundry in the mid 19th. By 1871 it was a brass and iron foundry was operated by Fletcher & Puttock and was operated by various companies until 1939 when Harold Carter carried out general iron casting and the manufacture of machinery for Redhill Tile Company there. Carter became director of what was to become Redland. During World War II the machine shop was rebuilt to produce munitions. Throughout Dorking area is much street furniture made at the Dorking Foundry and they continued to make machine tools. They left this site in 1976. Two of the former foundry buildings were leased by the Council for a museum.
7 18th house
Maltings old malt house now in use for the antiques.
Congregational church. Handsome Italianate front in brick of 1834 designed by local architect William Shearburn. This is on the site of the oldest non-conformist church in Surrey established in 1719 and which remained in use until 1834. Now United Reform with garden in the front of it and the organ is said to come from Brighton Pavilion. Memorial to Mary Alexander who was influential in setting up schools in Dorking.
Public Hall. Built in 1871 by a private company designed by Charles Driver and Charles Rew. It was in use as a cinema, the Playhouse, 1919 -1930. It has also been used as a theatre, for petty sessions, county courts and a boys' high school. Between 1890-1920s part was occupied by T H Sherlock & Son for their coach building business. In 1881 it housed the HQ of the volunteer fire brigade in 1881 and the fire appliances and ambulances remained housed here until 1971. In 1994 it was the HQ of the county library service. In the 18th there had been a clay pipe maker on the site.
36 The Star pub
Dorking Nursery School
24 The Old House at Home
Westcott Road
32 West Lodge & 33 One 18th house subdivided. Trelliswork porch with tent-shaped canopy.
Clarendon House. House with 18th front added by Resta Patching, father of the water works builder, on an older 17th core timber-framed and refaced with cement. In use as an NHS facility having been saved from demolition in the 1980s.
Sondes Place. 17th house with plaque saying ‘Dorking Vicarage’ Established 1837 as the Vicarage. In 1986 the Vicar moved into the stable block and the rest converted to flats.
Sources
Tarplee. Industrial archaeology of the Mole Valley’
Jackson. Dorking, a Surrey Market Town
Stidder. Surrey Watermills
Pevsner. Surrey
Penguin Book of Surrey
Chelsea Speleological Society 7
Haselfoot, Batsford Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of South East England.
The Pipp Brook continues to flow eastwards to the River Mole
Central area of this country town
Post to the west Milton Court
Archway Place
Local authority housing development 1987
Brookside. The first public water supply here was from a pumping station adjoining the Pippbrook. The building has an iron plate which says ‘R P Waterworks erected 1738’ – RP was Resta Patching, a local Quaker and a founder of the company. Spring water was pumped by engines powered by the Pippbrook - part of one of the original pumps remains in the cellar. Later the spring became polluted and the works closed in the mid-19th. Originally the building had a veranda supported on columns which are now in the garden.
Two waterworks cottages.
Arundel Road
Street laid out as part of a grid pattern in 1852.
Beech Close
Water works. In 1965 the East Surrey Water Company - who had taken over the Dorking Company in 1959 - built a new pumping station equipped with automatically operated electrically-driven pumps and standby diesel generators. This replaces the works in Station Road.
Butter Hill
A poultry market was held on the corner with South Street. Here the famous Dorking fowl were sold
Friends Meeting House built 1846.
Chequers Place
Development designed by Donald McMorran 1953.
Chequers Yard
Goes down the side of the shops in High Street
Church Street
The street was once known as Back Lane.
Stane Street is said to pass through the north west angle of the churchyard.
Abinger House – modern office block
Dorking Christian Centre – day centre and cafe. Site of meeting house established by the Methodists in 1722. Built in 1977 with money from the sale of the South Street church and shared with the Anglicans.
St.Martin's Church. There was a medieval building here, which itself replaced an earlier structure. In 1837 a new church was built by William Brookes but it was replaced by the current church. The church was Built 1868-77 by Henry Woodyer and the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Wilberforce in 1873, the church being a memorial to him. It is in knapped flint with a Welsh slate roof with a 210 feet high spire with eight bells and a clock which chimes. Inside an octagonal font, of 1897, as well as a carved wooden font of c1500, made in Holland. There is a bronze memorial to Ralph Vaughan Williams in the porch. Memorial to Bishop Wilberforce. George Meredith is buried here.
Lesley Cottage. 17th timber-framed cottage with rough-cast front.
Lesley House. Tudor style house with a date stone of 1838.
Chapel Court. Local authority housing built 1983
Club Court
Salvation Army. Cinema Royal. In 1910 the earliest films to be shown in the town were screened here in 1910 in a building later used by the Salvation Army. It closed soon after the First World War.
Cotmandene
Common – part of the manorial waste. In the 18th it had ‘wholesome air’ and doctors sent patients there. The cricket club here dates from 1777 and were founders of the County Cricket Club
1-18 Almshouses. Mid 19th red brick for eighteen poor persons built on land given by Charles Howard of Deepdene and Adam Browne of Betchworth Castle in 1677, and endowed by Mrs. Susannah Smith. Rebuilt in 1848 using money from the original grant by Richard Browne, and subsequent donation. Modernised again in 1961.
11 Rose Cottage. 18th brick. This was once a dairy.
12–13 house with a front from 1800 on a timber framed core. Once a farmhouse.
Curtis Road
Dorking Foundry moved to new premises here in 1976 and closed in 1992.
Parsonage Mill. This was demolished in 1959 but had stopped being water-driven around the time of the Great War. It had a date stone for 1792 but there had been earlier mills on the site. It was a very eccentric size and shape - it was white painted brick and weatherboarded. A leat from the Pippbrook fed the pond which has been drained. A later roller mill was built on the site which milled animal feedstuff. Industrial units on site and the remaining mill building used for storage.
Dene Street
5 The White Hart
35 -38 17th timber-framed block of 4 cottages. There is a Sun Insurance Company Mark on the front wall of 'Timber Hatch’ .
41-42 18th timber-framed cottages with brick infilling and partly tarred weather-boarded front
45 Arty Ps. This pub was previously The Butchers, and changed again to The Red Bar.
63 17th timber-framed building with brick infilling. Used as a bakery
70 -71 Early 18th house
Adult Education Centre. Red brick and dramatic. Dates from the early 1870s and provided by John Evelyn as a working men’s institute. Did not prosper and in 1892 the Dorking Boys High school moved here. Adult education classes began at the same time.
Cotmandene Lodge 18th.
Dorking
Dorking is in the valley of the River Mole near Roman Stane Street – the road from Chichester to London – and may have been a staging post. The town held land in the Capel area of the Weald where a subordinate chapel was built.
Drill Hall Road
Drill Hall, used by Surrey Army Cadet Corps. Originally funded by George Cubitt in 1892 at a time when forts were being built in the North Downs in 1968 it was sold to Surrey County Council, and they continue to use it.
Drill Hall used by the Air Cadets
Dorking Bowls Club. In 1912 a 14 year lease agreement was made with Henry Cubitt (later Lord Ashcombe) on a piece of land for a Bowling Club. The resulting green was said to be the best in the county. In 1921, the club purchased the land for the sum of £250. In 1917 a proposal was put forward to allow ladies to be admitted but despite playing a crucial role with teas and cleaning, the proposition was turned down. It was not until 1964 that women were eventually admitted. The club had use of the Drill Hall
High Street
Road which is curved at each end with a raised pavement on the south side. Bollards installed by the Dorking District Local Board are DDLB and from 1895 this was Dorking Urban District Council DUDC. Granite setts delineate the site of the old market place.
2-4 Costa Coffee in red brick building back off the street with modern metal arcade frontage.
3-11 Kings Head Inn, now in other use but is a 17th L-shaped building with decorative brickwork and bay windows. It was originally the Lower Chequers Inn but the name was changed in 1660 to the King's Head Inn. It was also known as the ‘Marquis of Granby’ because it was thought to have served as the model for the Inn in "The Pickwick Papers". Timber-framing exposed within and Traces of mural painting. In the 18th there was a magistrates' court, here and it was also converted to four shops .There is an underground chamber beneath entered from the cellar under the shop- above via a long flight of steps. It has been suggested that it was a cell for the Court. Old King’s Head Court lets out on to the High Street and has shops and a cafe in it.
13-15 Shoerite and Thomas Cooke in an early 19th house with a modern shop window and altered windows above.
20-22 Robert Dyas hardware. A sweeping 18th shop front. Originally the building had a 16th core but only the facade remains. A wall painting was found inside during demolition and part of Royal Coat of Arms. Site of the Chequers Inn.
21-27 Edinburgh Woollen Mill - modern building with projecting front with columns.
29 –31. Phones4u in late 18th house with a modern shop front on the ground floor.
37/39 Bookends and other shops in the old premises of the Wheatsheaf Inn with extensive outbuildings and stables at the rear. Timber-framed building with a modern public house front.
The yard extends behind, with cobblestones and a mounting block. There are large cellars and two cave systems. A steep flight of stairs leads to another flight upwards going to the stables. More steps lead into a dead end passage under the street. They have niches for wine storage. Another branch descends to a large amphitheatre with ledges cut as seats. This was a cockpit for illegal cock-fighting. No longer a pub
32-38 Sainsbury’s on the site of Stone & Turner ironworks shop
40-46 Steamer Trading in early 19th house. This was the Medical Hall, chemists shop.
41 - 47 Carphone Warehouse & Lemon Tree in late 18th - early 19th timber-framed building with a modern shop fronts and altered first floor windows. 47 is the site of the George Inn and painted beams from the pub are preserved in the upper front room
48-56 Caffe Crewe and Johnsons in one building, now 2 shops with living accommodation over. Timber-framed building Faced with red mathematical tiles. Modern shop fronts.
51–53 Amplifon in 18th building which could have been a public house; long narrow yard behind and vehicle entry from the street
58–60 Watsons Bakery with an early 19th front
62-64 Emslie optometrists. Timber-framed building now fronted with plaster and imitation timbering. Modern shop front and advertisement above it. A cave which ran beneath the garden has been destroyed.
68 This was once called Farnborough Cottage and is down a passageway. It is also the site of the Ram Inn. A door at the rear goes to a brick lined chamber with a floor of engineering bricks which slopes to a sand-cut cave. There was also a 140 ft straight tunnel with blind entries on either side and three shafts at the end .There was another entry at the rear of 82 where there is now a garden with a door into another brick-lined 10ft square chamber with a capped shaft in the roof and a blocked doorway
70 Scotts of Dorking, Jewellers. Building much taller than its neighbours. With hooded eaves
82 shop which has below it a tunnel to the same system as 68
94/98. Tudor Williams - there is a tunnel from the rear of this modern shop which is on the site of an older building. From the rear a tunnel heads south with a rectangular shaft in the roof with a grill and glass sky-light.
100-106 White & Sons in late 18th painted brick building with modern shop front.
108-116 site of the Red Lion. Used to be The Cardinal's Hat. Starting point of the London coach. Oak panelling and Jacobean chimney piece. A red brick house of old-world appearance with a high double flight of steps to the front door.
115 -117 Fat Face in early 19th stuccoed building with 2 windows on upper storey each. A passage way down the side of the building has a shield above it with an S and a cross.
Projecting, slightly forward.
125/127 This is the site of old Manor House and Sun Inn built in 1830 and demolished in 1971. There are sandstone caves but concrete pillars through them support new buildings above. The entrance is via a man-hole in front of the shop which goes drops into the old pub cellar and a flight of steps leads to a cave shaped like a K. One branch is a dead end and another forward. At the far end of a large chamber is an upward flight of bricked up steps.
131 Martin’s Walk open air shopping mall. Frontage with dramatic entrance with clock and weather vane.
132 -138 Early 19th shop fronts on a 17th building called the Dutch House – there is a passageway marked to this effect. The house was part of a fashion following the fame of William of Orange. It has been changed drastically over the years.
140- 148 White Horse Hotel. 16th building which used to be called the Cross House belonging to the Knights Hospitallers. Earlier timber framed parts behind. Coaching inn taking coaches between London and Brighton. Mentioned in Jane Austin’s ‘Emma’ and by Dickens.
Carriage entrance to the yard between two sides of the building. One part is a timber-framed building with 18th front but some is early 19th. There are Iron-stone setts and cobbles in the entrance pathway.
150 – 156 Early 19th with modern shop front.
155-161 late 18th or early 19th houses in red brick, some parts stucco. Under 157 is an underground chamber beneath the cellar, from which it is accessed. Any steps are covered by rubble. The main chamber is sandstone with some brick lining.
164 and 166 Whittals in late 18th - early 19th house.
175 Post Office which originally also housed the telephone exchange.
179-193 18th houses
196 - 218 early 19th terrace of 6 houses.
220 – 222 Surrey Yeoman Pub. Timber-framed L-shaped building. This was the Royal Oak but was renamed for Col Leslie of the Surrey Yeomanry.
227 house with iron railings and gate
266 Gascoigne Pees . Single storey building with arcade type front
270 Odd Fellows Hall. By local architect William Shearburn, main double door with notice boards and plaques and bow windows above over adjoining shop premises.
290-294 site of Shrub Hill House originally built 17th. A bay window from the house still exists on the Paper Mews frontage. It was home of the Leslie family after which some local properties are named.
Old Court House now a dentist. Police station, police house and court built 1894 and closed as such 1938. It was demolished expect for the police superintendents house.
235 Pizza Express on the site of what was Walker's coach building works in the late 19th. In 1898 the weather-boarded workshop was demolished and replaced by a brick building with a terracotta frontage – with the pizza shop at the original entrance to the showroom. By 1882 the business was taken over by Ventham and Sons of Leatherhead, and from about 1920 it became a motor engineer's works, first occupied by Warne & Williams and then by Williams Motor Engineers. By the 1930s it had been converted into retail shops.
Howard Road
Street laid out as part of a grid pattern in 1870
Arundel Arms. Stuccoed pub now closed and demolished
Junction Road
Road built in the 19th to relieve traffic congestion
Crossways Community Baptist Church. Built in 1876 and extended in 1902.
Mulberry Youth Centre Sports Hall
Wall with plaque and ‘AD 1750’
London Road
Telephone exchange
Pippbrook Gardens built up on a bank with an old retaining wall
Pippbrook Mill. There was an earlier mill on this site from 11th, called East Mill, defunct by 1570. The current mill was also called Dorking or Patching Mill and originally built in 1792 but the building there now was constructed in 1979 because the earlier mill had burnt down, but being a listed building it was rebuilt exactly as before. It is on the site of an 11th mill. The mill actually stopped working in 1932 and its mill pond is now part of Meadowbank Recreation Ground. The mill was in the ownership of the Denbies Estate for many years. It was a particularly powerful mill with the spillway going through the centre of the mill driving the southern part and the northern part powered by an overshot wheel. There were two separate systems but a wheel made by Booth of Congleton went for scrap in 1940. In the Second World War it was an AFS Station, and later an upholstery firm.
Rest Harrow. House 1800
Rose Cottage. House at right angles to the road mid 19th.
Meadowbank Recreation Ground
This was the area of Meadowbank House which the UDC bought in 1928 for a park and local authority housing. It was landscaped as a park in the 1930s.
Mill pond given to the town by Maurice Chance because it stank.
Meadowbrook Road
Football ground – site of the millpond for the long defunct Town Mill. The team is known as ‘The Chicks’.
Mill Lane
This went to the long defunct Town Mill. Had stopped running by 1570.
Pottery in the 19th on the east side.
Tannery in the 19th on the west side. This was replaced by Boxall’s Brewery in the 1840s.
Malthouse Pub
North Street
Pump Corner. This was the original centre of the town at the the junction of north street, west street, south street and high street. This was the areas where the market was held. There was a gabled market house here, demolished in the 19th.
Queens Arms. Which was on the North Street corner- there is a surviving Elizabethan window behind the HSBC bank. This was a large establishment going from North Street right down to 48 West Street. Opened in the 1590s by Edward Goodwin his initials remains on a rear window bracket. On part of the site was a 19th iron foundry
1-2 16th timber framed jettied house with moulded beams. This was once the Gun Public House. It has gables carved with sunflowers and brackets decorated with a carved lion's head.
10 Corn Store built 1854. Built in red brick with a carriage entrance
Leslie House Gothic stone house
Maltings old malt house now used for the antiques trade. Bricks by the door at the south end engraved W Attlee, July 1854
Structure at the junction with Church Street on the west side. This forms part of the area of the 17th Vicarage. The cottages at right angles to the road are part of the stable block and the archway on North Street was the entrance. Ceased to be the Vicarage in 1800.
Paper Mews
Pit area along the back of the High Street – there were three cave systems but now partly destroyed. Car park area,
Strict Baptist Chapel built 1910.. There are underground chambers in the cliff face behind. A short tunnel leads under the scree at the cliff foot. There is a single chamber with two off-shoots, two windows and socket holes apparently for cross beams. This may be the remains of an older tunnel
Parkway
Built in 1934 by Davis on the site of Meadowbank House.
Portland Road
This road is unique in that the houses are identified by letters rather than numbers. The letters are a permanent feature as they are set in the brickwork on the front of each house.
Ranmore road
Venhill Engineering
Ranmore House
St Martins Church of England Primary School
Rose Hill
Houses built in the grounds of Rose Hill House. Villas arranged around the paddock. At the top of the hill north facing villas by the Dorking Villa Building Co.1846-1946.
1 Holly House Tall early 19th house.
3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, 19 and 20 mid 19th semi-detached villas in Tudor-Gothic style,
11 alongside it is the bricked-up access doorway to an underground chamber.
15 Rose Hill Lodge. 19th house with 19th conservatory.
18 The Cottage mid 19th Stuccoed house
21 Stone House. Mid 19th house in firestone.
22 Early 19th house.
25 Butter Hill House. Large house with 18th stuccoed front. Garden Wall and gate piers are listed. Rose Hill House next door was once part of it. The attached archway is Victorian and originally went to Back Field behind, and was private. The house was divided into 1831.
26 Rose Hill House. 18th front on a 17th building
99 Rosehill Cottage 19th house
Sewer vent pipe, sometimes known as 'Wimbledon Columns'. The columns also supported gas street lamps. Lighting fittings have disappeared
South Street
4-6 these were once marked ‘established 1757’
7 mid 19th front to a timber-framed building. Keystone over the shop front and fascia board with date 1906.
8 and 10 17th timber-framed building. Faced with roughcast. Modern shop fronts
Junction road corner – site of first local authority offices built 1895 and designed by William Shearburn. This also housed the post office.
9 19th front to timber-framed building. 19th shop front below with butcher's hooks hanging from above the shop window and a board saying: "Established 1800".
11 Bull's Head. Wood-panelled, town-centre pub with a single L-shaped bar with areas used for devotees of horse racing. Timber-framed building. A former inn for coaches travelling from
London to the coast
15-19 The Rotunda. Dorking Domestic Appliances
12 -14 Early 19th house. Modern shop front.
16-18 Early 19th house
20-26 2 early 19th houses now joined
38–40 16th timber-framed building. Shop fronts on ground floor.
39 small cottage late 18th with a paved fore-court. A concealed trapdoor by the stairs leads to a steps to a rock-hewn chamber under the front room. Daylight enters from a shaft in the forecourt.
42-46 Spotted Dog Pub. Timber-framed building
Cheesman’s Brewery south of the pub in the early 19th
66-70 Stoneroof. 18th house.
77 Little Dudley House. 18th front on an older building in red brick. Modern shop front. Wall of sandstone and rubble around the garden. Converted to offices and garden sold separately
80 and 82 18th house. The front has an advertisement painted
on it. Dorking Advertiser.
Dorking Business centre corner of Vincent’s Road. Site of Methodist Church built 1901 and closed and demolished 1974.
81 The Cricketers. Fuller’s pub. Traditional drinking pub with an L-shaped bar of bare brick with photographs and mirrors. Large flags represent the home rugby teams. The cellars are ancient sandstone caves, with a walled Georgian garden behind.
86 18th house with 19th shop front.
94 and 96 early 19th Painted brick mid 19th shop front. Beams exposed inside.
Spicer Marsh Ltd. Plaque high up Dorking tool hire
97 Rosedene with separate treatment room Early 19th house with iron trellis porch
98 Mount House. 18th fronted house
113 and 115 Southleigh Terrace Early 19th buildings
122-130 site of the first almshouses built in 1613 by Richard Browne. The workhouse was built adjacent to these in 1728. Some parts of this survive in the South Street cottages. .
142 The Old House. Early 19th.
House built 1720 on older foundations. There are extensive cellars and from one steps lead to a cave used as a wine cellar. In the Second World War it was used as an air-raid shelter and a ventilation pipe was laid to the surface.
156 Old Printers Yard behind art nouveauy Bartholomew press front
K6 traditional red telephone kiosk designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Listed, Grade II.
Pavilion Cinema opened in 1925 and showed only 'talkies'. It closed in 1963 and was used as a theatrical props store and then as a DIY shop. A recording studio operated at the rear. Since demolished.
Royal Electric Cinema opened in South Street in the garden of Stapleton House in 1913. It later became the New Electric and then the Regent and closed in 1939. I was then used as a furniture warehouse and auction room and eventually demolished.
South Street Caves. It is generally assumed that these were a gentleman's folly. They are accessed by a door near the war memorial and there are a few hundred feet of passages, stairways and chambers. The caves have been used by local brewers and wine merchants for storage and in 1912 they were bought by Dorking Urban District Council.
Town Pump in the shape of a 19th cast iron pillar. In the 19th a well was reopened and the pump installed. At one time a paving slab here was marked ‘WELL’. This is in front of Nos 2 – 6
Dorking War Memorial. Erected in 1921 and designed by Thomas Braddock MP in Portland stone. Braddock was also a designer of Odeon Cinemas. It is inscribed “IN MEMORY OF DORKING MEN WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR". There are also panels of those who died in the Second World War. There are two flagpoles on either side and spotlights. At one time it also incorporated a bandstand and seating.
Hole in the Wall – this was a house built behind the others in the 18th, now gone. It was the home of Major Peter Labelliere who is buried upside down on Box Hill.
Spring Gardens
1 Footcare Centre. East Surrey House. Small building beside the road
Late 18th row of 2-storey cottages
7 late 18th with a bread oven.
9 cottage built 1750 with ground floor of brick and with upper floor of oak timber-frames with brick infilling. Ground floor ceiling beams exposed, ground floor brick fireplace, stone slab floor at ground level
Station Road
Dorking West Station. Originally called ‘Dorking’, then ‘Dorking Town’, this was Dorking's first railway station, opened in 1849 between Redhill Junction and Guildford by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway Company. It now has two staggered platforms with bus-stop type shelters and a subway, but before 1969 it had a two-storey building on the down side. There were once considerable goods sidings serving, but with no rail connection to, an adjacent timber yard and the gas works. Sidings on the up side had been paid for by Thomas Cubitt for the construction of 'Denbies' in 1850-51. The goods shed still exists, with no connection to the railway.
Canterbury Court sheltered housing built 1989
Dorking Brewery in The Engine Shed, Station Yard.
The Pilgrim was the South Eastern Railway Hotel
Railway men’s houses.
Power Station. In 1903 Dorking Urban District Council financed a power station here built by Edmundson's Electricity Corporation who leased it to them. The original plant consisted of two 90kW steam-driven DC generators later supplemented by diesel generators in 1928. AT first the supply was only to the town centre but from 1913 it was extended to surrounding area. In 1931 it was taken over by the London and Home Counties Joint Electricity Authority (JEA) who established a bulk supply point here allowing alternating current to be available. The power station building remains as does the engineer’s house. An early electric street lamp is mounted at the corner of the building.
Dorking Gas works was built in 1834 by the Dorking Gas Light Company to provide street lighting and in 1871 they became the Dorking Gas Company. The works was extended in 1882, 1896 and again in 1902 when a large gasholder was erected and another holder was built here in 1951. The company merged with the Redhill Company in 1928 to become the East Surrey Gas Company. In 1937 the gas company bought the adjacent timber yard of Taylor and Brooker to be used for coke storage. It had no rail connection to the sidings at Dorking Town station and the coal was transported by horse and cart and later by lorry. Gas production ceased in October 1956. The buildings were demolished and the site became a business park
Dorking Water Company. The pumping station was set up here in 1902 with steam-driven equipment by Warners Ltd to pump from three artesian wells alongside the station. It was closed in 1965 and the building is in other use. Bros
1 Station Road, Double fronted building
Mole Valley Environmental Services Dept.
Parsonage House. From 1908 this housed the St Martin (Church of England) Girls School but provided inadequate facilities.
Parsonage Court office developments
Grocery warehouse of H.G.Kingham. Red brick building three storey with double doors for cranes in each floor. Now part of the business centre.
Old Char wharf
Havenbury trading estate
Refuse destructor built here by the local authority in 1910.
Swimming pool built on the south bank of the Pippbrook on the west side of the road in 1893 and taken over by the local authority but it leaked and had to be closed in 1939.
Vaughan Way
Ralph Vaughan Williams lived at The White Gates on this site.
Vincent's Lane
The area is part of a worked out sandpit
Lengths of railway line are used to support handrails
The Highland. 1830 building.
Road Plant Company had been W L Bodman Ltd. who made agricultural, road making and road sweeping equipment. Moved to this site from West Street they were taken over by Johnston Engineering Ltd.
Glebeland centre
Wathen Road
Named for Captain Augustus Wathen who was court martialled and won.
17 Blue plaque on the birthplace of Laurence Olivier
West Street
1 early 19th building of painted brick with 19th shop front with pointed arches to windows
2 18th front on a timber-framed building now Roughcast
3 and 4 17th timber-framed building with 18th front and Early 19th shop fronts
5 and 6 Early 19th house
8a this stands back in a small courtyard. It is a timber-framed building rebuilt in red brick and the ground floor of the north-west corner is corbelled to allow carriages to pass through into the yard of the Rose and Crown Inn
9 and 10 Timber-framed building with plastered front.
11 18th Painted brick and a bay cut away for a 19th shop front.
12-15 18th house timber-framed with 19th shop fronts.
16 West Street House. 18th house, weather boarded with bays.
19 with balcony
22 and 23 early 19th.house with 19th shop fronts
32-33 18th houses
45 and 46 The King's Arms. 16c timber framed building. Restored 1950
50 -52 mid 19th front to an 18th building. 20th shop windows
54 18th - early 19th front to an early 18th building. 20th shop front below
55 and 56 Early 19th. Modern shop fronts on ground floor.
57 The Bell Hotel 18th Timber-framed building. Carriage arch.
58-61 17th range. Red moulded brickwork, once painted. Home of William Mullins, one of the Pilgrim Fathers – only known surviving home.
62 The Dorking Foundry. Dorking Museum. This is believed to have been the site of a blacksmith's shop from c. 1550, and the site of some of the oldest casting of iron in Surrey. James Bartlett operated a forge and foundry in the mid 19th. By 1871 it was a brass and iron foundry was operated by Fletcher & Puttock and was operated by various companies until 1939 when Harold Carter carried out general iron casting and the manufacture of machinery for Redhill Tile Company there. Carter became director of what was to become Redland. During World War II the machine shop was rebuilt to produce munitions. Throughout Dorking area is much street furniture made at the Dorking Foundry and they continued to make machine tools. They left this site in 1976. Two of the former foundry buildings were leased by the Council for a museum.
7 18th house
Maltings old malt house now in use for the antiques.
Congregational church. Handsome Italianate front in brick of 1834 designed by local architect William Shearburn. This is on the site of the oldest non-conformist church in Surrey established in 1719 and which remained in use until 1834. Now United Reform with garden in the front of it and the organ is said to come from Brighton Pavilion. Memorial to Mary Alexander who was influential in setting up schools in Dorking.
Public Hall. Built in 1871 by a private company designed by Charles Driver and Charles Rew. It was in use as a cinema, the Playhouse, 1919 -1930. It has also been used as a theatre, for petty sessions, county courts and a boys' high school. Between 1890-1920s part was occupied by T H Sherlock & Son for their coach building business. In 1881 it housed the HQ of the volunteer fire brigade in 1881 and the fire appliances and ambulances remained housed here until 1971. In 1994 it was the HQ of the county library service. In the 18th there had been a clay pipe maker on the site.
36 The Star pub
Dorking Nursery School
24 The Old House at Home
Westcott Road
32 West Lodge & 33 One 18th house subdivided. Trelliswork porch with tent-shaped canopy.
Clarendon House. House with 18th front added by Resta Patching, father of the water works builder, on an older 17th core timber-framed and refaced with cement. In use as an NHS facility having been saved from demolition in the 1980s.
Sondes Place. 17th house with plaque saying ‘Dorking Vicarage’ Established 1837 as the Vicarage. In 1986 the Vicar moved into the stable block and the rest converted to flats.
Sources
Tarplee. Industrial archaeology of the Mole Valley’
Jackson. Dorking, a Surrey Market Town
Stidder. Surrey Watermills
Pevsner. Surrey
Penguin Book of Surrey
Chelsea Speleological Society 7
Haselfoot, Batsford Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of South East England.
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