A HISTORY OF SURREY 



sive caverns were formerly excavated for this purpose 

 under parts of the present town. 



The road from London to Horsham passes through 

 Dorking, and continues over the Holmwood Common. 

 This is the turnpike which was made in 1755 * in 

 response to the astounding statement of the people of 

 Horsham that if they wanted to drive to London 

 they were compelled to go round to Canterbury. 

 Arthur Young justly described it as the worst instance 

 of the want of communication which he had heard 

 of in England. 4 The Act was for the making of a 

 road from Epsom, through Letherhead, Dorking, and 

 Capel, with a branch to Ockley. The old road from 

 Dorking into Sussex went up Boar Hill to Cold- 

 harbour, and down to Ockley. 6 This road was 

 impassable for wheeled traffic as late as the earlier part 

 of the I gth century, when it was such a narrow 

 ravine that bearers carrying a coffin had to walk in 

 single file with the coffin slung on a pole. It was 

 repaired about 1830, chiefly at the instance of 

 Mr. Serjeant Heath of Kitlands, Capel, who threat- 

 ened to prosecute the parish. The road from Reigate 

 to Guildford passes through Dorking from east to west. 



The South Eastern Railway, Redhill and Reading 

 branch, has two stations in Dorking, Box Hill and 

 Dorking, opened in 1849. In 1867 the London 

 Brighton and South Coast Railway, Portsmouth 

 branch, was brought through Dorking, where there is 

 a station near the Box Hill station of the South 

 Eastern Railway. 



The ancient road called Stone Street (see in Ockley 

 on the name) ran through Dorking. It is to be 

 traced in much of its course by flint pavement which 

 is found in draining and field work. It is laid down 

 fairly correctly upon the Ordnance Map. It enters 

 Dorking parish close to Anstie Grange Home Farm 

 (not to be confounded with Anstie Farm), and runs 

 along the side of the hill under the Redlands Woods, 

 and above the Holmwood Common. Folly Farm 

 lies just west of it. Near Dorking it has not been 

 accurately observed, but it has no relation to the 

 direction of the streets. Drainage operations show 

 that it left South Street to the east, and crossed West 

 Street just opposite the yard occupied by Messrs. Stone 

 & Turner ; a foot passage opposite their premises is 

 just on the line. It continued in a straight line for 

 Pebble Lane, where there is little doubt that it 

 mounted to the chalk hills, and is represented still by 

 the old bridle way over Mickleham Downs to Epsom 

 race-course ; it must have left Dorking Church to the 

 south-east. Manning and Bray 7 say that the flints 

 were found north-east of the church in a nursery 

 garden, and sold to the road surveyor. But the 

 description is vague and not incompatible with its 

 having passed the church as described. It has not been 

 traced in the north part of Dorking parish. 



The prehistoric fortified hill of Anstiebury, formerly 

 in Dorking parish, was included in Capel by the 

 Local Government Act of 1894, and has been de- 

 scribed under Capel. 



There is a barrow, unopened apparently, on Milton 

 Heath, north of the road. Camden says that Roman 

 coins were found in Dorking churchyard, and others 



4 Act 28 Geo. II, cap. 45. 



5 In 1622 Sir Robert More wrote to 

 his father, Sir George, that he could not 

 drive from beyond Horsham to Loseley as 

 he had intended, because it had rained, 

 but that he hoped to find a way round by 



East Grinstead, Godttone, and Reigate 

 (Loseley MSS. vol. i, p. 14.9). It would 

 seem that the clay roads had become worse 

 by 1750. 



6 Ogilvy, Bk. of Roads ; Burton, Iter 

 Surriense, &c. 



142 



have been mentioned. In 1817 a find of 700 

 Anglo-Saxon coins was made in Winterfold Hanger, 

 on Lower Merriden Farm, west of Redlands Wood. 9 



The town of Dorking used to consist of many 

 houses of respectable antiquity, but has been much 

 modernized of late. The ' Old King's Head ' is a 

 fine brick Jacobean building, standing at the west end 

 of the High Street, on the north side. It used to be 

 called the ' Chequers,' and received its later name in 

 1660. The licence was withdrawn about 1800, 

 renewed about 1850, and is now again withdrawn. 

 It is usually said to be the original of Dickens' ' Mar- 

 quis of Granby,' but at the time when the Pickwick 

 Papers were written it was not an inn at all. Oppo- 

 site the ' Old King's Head,' just before High Street 

 divides into West Street and South Street, was the 

 old ' Bull Ring.' 



A few old houses are to be found in the High 

 Street and side streets, but most of them have been 

 re-fronted or otherwise modernized, and a comparison 

 with the sister towns of Letherhead, Guildford, and 

 Godalming, is in this respect very disappointing. In 

 the town itself perhaps the most interesting old houses 

 are the White Horse Inn anciently the ' Cross 

 House,' from its sign, the cross of the Knights of St. 

 John,' a quaint, low structure largely of timber and 

 plaster, with three gables, and a large courtyard open- 

 ing from the High Street, probably on a very ancient 

 site, and as it stands perhaps 400 years old. The 

 town abounds in ancient hostelries of lesser size, such 

 as the ' Red Lion ' (originally ' The Cardinal's Cap ') 

 and the ' Black Horse,' and in the side streets are 

 one or two small half-timber houses with overhanging 

 upper stories. 



The gallows used to stand on a hill called Gallows 

 Hill on the left-hand side of the road going towards 

 Coldharbour by way of Boar Hill. A house now 

 occupies the spot. It is marked in the map of 

 Ogilvy's Book of Roads. The parish registers of 1625 

 to 1669 record at intervals the burial of persons 

 hanged there when the Assizes were held in the town. 



The old market-house stood in the street opposite 

 the ' Red Lion.' Pictures show a gabled, probably 

 16th-century building, of the same type as the 

 Farnham market-house, but the original wooden 

 supports had been changed for brick arches at the 

 west end ; they remained under the east end. It was 

 demolished in 1813. 



The market on Thursdays, claimed by John de 

 Warenne in 1 278, is still held on the spot in the street. 

 There is a fair, also existing in 1278, on Ascension 

 Day. Down to ten years ago the practice of Shrove 

 Tuesday football continued in the streets of Dorking. 

 Shop windows were barricaded, all business suspended, 

 and the town given over to a very tumultuous game. 

 When the practice became known through the 

 papers as a curiosity surviving here, idle people came 

 from a distance to assist. The nuisance, always great, 

 was intolerable, and it was suppressed with some 

 difficulty by the police. But the year 1907 is said 

 to have been the first in which no attempt was made 

 to continue it. In 1830 there was a very serious 

 riot in Dorking during the Swing Riots. 10 



' Hist, of Surr. iii, App. jclvi. 



8 V.C.H. Surr. i, 272. 



9 It was held of the manor of St. John 

 of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell. 



10 y.C.H. Surr. i, 429. 



