Thames Tributary – River Mole - Pixham

Thames Tributary – River Mole
The Mole flows north west and is joined by the Pipp Brook


Post to the north Burford Bridge
Post to the east Betchworth Park

Deepdene Avenue
Part of the Dorking by pass road built 1931 through much of the Deepdene estate.
House building from 1924 on land owned by Apted for commuters and professionals.
Dorking (Deepdene) Station. Trains between Guildford and Reigate – on the line between Reading and Gatwick Airport. This was the second station opened in Dorking opened in 1851 as 'Box Hill and Leatherhead Road' and later renamed 'Box Hill' and then 'Deepdene' before being renamed again in 1987. There were never any goods facilities. The station was built of wood, as were its platforms and they were demolished in 1969 to be replaced by more flimsy structures and the station was again refurbished in the early 1990s - but there are no facilities.

Deepdene Avenue Road
House building from 1924 on land owned by Apted for commuters and professionals.

Deepdene Vale
Development 1926 under Maurice Chance for commuters and professionals with footpaths to the railway stations.

London Road
Giles Green slightly to the north of the junction with Pixham Lane. Site of the Cock Inn and the Dorking Tollgate and a milestone. There was also a gravel pit here.
Pippbrook Bridge reconstructed in 1786.

Pixham Lane
This was once called Strood Lane
Pixham stands at the confluence of the Pippbrook and the River Mole. There is a suggestion that a Romano-British fortified post stood here to serve Stane Street.
Reverend James Fisher's boarding school. Daniel Defoe was a pupil
Railway embankment. Spur from Mid-Sussex rail to the SER Reading line never used. Embankment seen at Pixham Lane.
Purbrook
Pixham Mill. The present plain three-storey brick building dates from 1837 replacing an earlier mill. The machinery was driven by a 13ft diameter overshot wheel. The mill was operated by the Attlee family (who also ran, and remain at, Parsonage Mill) from 1882 until milling ceased in 1910. The machinery was removed in 1937 for use in a Sussex mill. During World War II Moss Bros, the outfitters, used the building as a warehouse. It is now a private house, but the water channels remain.
Pixham Mill Cottage. Built in the first half of the 17th. L-shaped timber-framed cottage with painted brick infilling.
Pixham Mill house. Built 1839 by a Mr Clears, a local contractor in red brick. Service wing attached
St. Martin, Pixham church. Barrel-vaulted church designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1903. The land was donated by local resident Mary Mayo, 1901. Roughcast with brick and bell-cote on the roof. It has dual use as a club room.
St.Martin’s Church of England School annexe half timbered and very cute. The land was donated by local resident Mary Mayo.
Pixham End - Friends Provident and County Assurance offices. Built in 1957 designed by Leslie Preston and John Easton. 800 staff here and the largest employers in Dorking.
Pixholme Court
Pixham Firs
Pixham Sports GroundThames Water Dorking Treatment Works. Originally built for Dorking Rural Sanitary Authority and the Local Board in 1885 as an 11½ acre outfall works. Had to be rebuilt because of design faults in 1893.
Pixholme Grove
Triple-Arch Skew Bridge. To the east of Dorking (Deepdene) station the railway crosses a footpath on a triple-arch skew bridge. This expensive bridge is here because there was a proposal for the Direct London and Portsmouth Railway which would have gone below the South Eastern Railway Line.
Railway line connection between the South Eastern Railway and the London Brighton and South Coast Railway. A single track link between the two was put in place between Dorking (Deepdene) and a point south of Dorking station. It was, rarely used and was severed in 1900. It was restored in 1941 as an additional connection should the line be bombed. In 1946 it was again removed and the land sold for housing but it can still be seen on the ground.

Station Approach
Dorking Station. 1867. This station was simpler than others on the line but it had substantial buildings and a house for the station master. In 1982 a new office was built on the up side and in 1986 the island platform was also upgraded. In 1923 when the railway companies amalgamated this station was renamed 'Dorking North' but in 1968 it reverted to 'Dorking'.
Car park on the site of the goods yard and engine shed but carriage sidings remained as did the 1938 Southern Railway 'Odeon' style signal box.
Wartime telecommunications - A hut complex was constructed on the down side at Dorking North station for the finance audit section relocated from Waterloo. There was a bunker called "the control" and air raid shelters.

Swan Mill Gardens

Sources
Stidder. Watermills of Surrey
Jackson,. Dorking
Chelsea Speleological Society  8
Penguin Surrey,
Pevsner Surrey
Surrey Industrial Archaeology
Tarplee. IA of the Mole Valley
Haselfoot, The Batsford Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of South East England.

 

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