Dorking

We visited Dorking to take a quilt into The Quilt Room for quilting and then spent some time smooching round the many excellent antique shops down West Street. We kept noticing some interesting plaques on the walls, so A and I returned, found out about the Heritage Trail by visiting the none-existent Tourist Information Centre in the Dorking Halls (Council cuts have closed it down, but the ladies at the booking office still have some leaflets to give out).
Being thirsty, we began with coffee in a lovely hostelry, Fothergill's, known for cherry and marzipan cake if they have it, which isn't that often.






 Then to our first plaque commemorating the visit of  the Queen and Prince Philip in 2004. This is the most recent event immortalised on the plaques, and as we were working our way backwards along walk 1, it was all downhill from here. So now we were looking for Plaque 7, the route taking us down the High Street to the estate Agents on the corner of  Wather Rd. We turned to look at the Oddfellows Hall, across the road that was built in 1894 by William Shearburn, a local architect. Apparently this was when the retail centre of the town was extended. Down Wather Rd. is a house with a blue plaque that was a great surprise to us as it is the birthplace of Sir Laurence Olivier; and further on we crossed the T-junction and found ourselves on a delightful riverside walk along Pippbrook mill pond.

This led us to Pippbrook Mill, a pre-16th century corn mill, now being redeveloped, although it looks a bit quiet just now.

 We crossed the road and entered the grounds of the Council Offices where we found the old Pippbrook House that houses the library and on up the hill to the imaginatively designed Council Offices - all split levels and gardens on the roof. From here it was a short hop to the Deepdene roundabout which has the Dorking cockerel sculpture in its centre. This was a special breed of chicken that dates from Roman times, but became a favourite of Queen Victoria. It was known for its good meat and tasty eggs. Its distinctive feature is the fact that it has five claws.


Back on the route, we walked towards the town to look at the statue of Thomas Cubitt, a local builder who built large parts of fashionable Victorian London. Crossing the road we also looked at the statue of Ralph Vaughan Williams outside the Dorking Halls. He founded the Leith Hill Music Festival in 1905, which he continued to support until 1953. Although not born in Dorking, he came to live in Leith Hill Place at the age of three when his father died. It was the family home of his mother, a Wedgwood.

Our walk took us up Moores Road and on to Cotmandene, common land with a view right over the town to Box Hill, The story goes that there is an 18th century painting of two stump cricket being played on Cotmandene hanging in the Long Room at Lord's Cricket Ground. There are lovely alms houses running down one side of the common and then we walked down Heath Hill to the High Street.

  We came past the old wooden 16th century part of Cafe Rouge and turned left on to the High Street  arriving quickly at the White Horse Hotel. This hostelry was developed in the 18th century as the town's markets expanded. Before that the Knights Templar and knights of St John had buildings on the site. Today, it is a 'posh' hotel owned by the Mercure Group. Crossing the High Street, we made our way along to Barclays Bank that has a plaque commemorating the Millennium - almost hidden behind some stalls and parked bikes, today! Now we took the footpath down to St Martin's church, built in the Victorian Gothic style with its high spire is 210 feet high and was built by Henry Woodyer in 1877.It has a Dorking Cockerel weathervane.

 Behind is a row of 19th century cottages and North Street that brought us to Pump Corner where several streets meet and the old town pump can still be seen. We turned into West street, site of many antique shops, as well as Dorking Museum (closed just now), the home of Pilgrim Father, William Mullins (a blue plaque shows us where it is). Another blue plaque denotes the site of the first Methodist Chapel in Dorking which was opened by John Wesley himself.

















 Up Junction St and out on to South St, we came to the War Memorial and the site of the old bandstand that had to be moved in the 1930s as the traffic became too noisy to hear the band. Now they have placed some interesting musical themed benches in the space. Just between the two is a tiny door that leads to the Dorking Caves that can be visited, apparently. We passed Rose Hill and the Bulls Head pub, which has been around for several hundred years, before turning on to the High Street again.

 Our next destination was Robert Dyas, which occupies what was once another inn, Upper Chequers, in the 16th and 17th centuries. When the renovation took place, they kept some of the old wall murals dating from the time of James I, and we went inside to see them on display at the back of the shop on the first floor.

 Just across the road is Kings Head Court. The Old King's Head also dating from the time of James I and now houses a courtyard of special shops, a gallery and a tea shop, with plenty of outside seating. And this was the end of our walk as we didn't need to get back down the footpath to the church, from where it all began.

 Dorking
Fothergills
The Quilt Room
Dorking Halls
Leith Hill Music Festival
The White Horse
Dorking Museum
The Gilliangladrag Fluff-o-torium
Dorking Caves
The Bulls Head