A HISTORY OF SURREY 



road in 1755.' Up to that time it 

 was not available for wheeled traffic 

 in bad weather,* and to judge from 

 the traces of the old road it needed 

 courage to drive along it at all. Till 

 the bridge at Burford Bridge, together 

 with the approach to it, was raised 

 some twenty years ago, it was fre- 

 quently overflowed by the Mole in 

 time of flood. 



The old west and east line of com- 

 munication across the country by the 

 chalk downs passed south of the vil- 

 lage, past Bagden Farm and Chapel 

 Farm, to a ford on the river south of 

 Burford Lodge, at the foot of Box Hill. 



The London, Brighton, and South 

 Coast Railway line from London to 

 Portsmouth also passes through the 

 Mickleham valley. The line was com- 

 pleted in 1867. There is a station at 

 West Humble in Mickleham, now called 

 Box Hill and Burford Bridge, to dis- 

 tinguish it from Box Hill on the South 

 Eastern line, more than a mile distant. 



Mickleham is fairly rich in anti- 

 quities. In 1788 William Bray, the 

 historian of Surrey, became possessed 

 of some brass Roman coins of the later 

 Empire, which had recently been 

 ploughed up on Bagden Farm, 4 and 

 neolithic flakes are not uncommon 

 both about this place, near Norbury, 

 and on Box Hill. The ancient road 

 which, as the Roman Stone Street, 

 runs from Sussex past Ockley to Dorking 

 (q.v.) headed for the Mole valley 

 through a gap in the chalk, though 

 it does not appear that it has been 

 actually traced between Dorking and 

 Burford Bridge. A ford over the Mole 

 is still visible at the place where Bur- 

 ford Bridge stands, and a little further 

 north, at Juniper Hall, a lane leaves 

 the present road on the right and 

 ascends the downs. It is called Pebble 

 Lane. At the point where it emerges 

 upon the high ground it becomes a 

 well-marked track carried on a cause- 

 way over declivities. Flints with ce- 

 ment clinging to them occur upon it, 

 as farther south on the same road in 

 Capel (q.v.). It is still a bridle road, 

 and leads in nearly a straight line to 

 Epsom race-course. After this point 

 it is supposed to have led to the right, 

 in a curve following the top of the 

 downs, past Ban stead to Woodcote. 

 It probably represents a British track- 

 way utilized by the Romans as the 

 line of a small road, though the Ro- 

 man way probably continued straight 

 on at Epsom towards Ewell, and so 

 to London. In 1780, when Juni- 

 per Hall was being built, two skeletons 



' Act 28 Geo. II, cap. 45. 



8 Manning and Bray, Surr. iii, App. p. Hi. 



4 Ibid. p. xlvii. 



PONO-LIKC OffftlSSIOH* 

 IN THC nC 

 FILLING WITH 



FLOOO nfic ey 



I ft FILTH A TlOfl 



fees*, "*"^ 



COURSE OF THE RIVER MOLE, 



SHOWING THE LARGER 



" SWALLOWS." 



302 



