Dorking

Caves Beneath a Medieval Plan

Beneath South Street, cut into the sandstone below the shops, is a network of 17th-century caves — wine vaults, chambers, galleries and one labelled the Mystery Chamber. They were dug for storing wine and for mining silver sand, and Dorking Museum runs guided tours down into them. When Sainsbury's built its car park, the diggers broke through into a large cavern painted with trompe-l'oeil pillars. It was filled with concrete.

Above ground, three streets — High Street, West Street and South Street — meet at Pump Corner in a rough Y, and that layout has not changed since medieval, possibly Anglo-Saxon, times. The town sits in a gap in the North Downs, with the Surrey Hills wrapping around three sides of it. The Pipp Brook runs through, the River Mole flows nearby, and the soil underfoot is free-draining Lower Greensand, which is the reason Dorking became known for chickens.

Five Claws and Vineyard Rows

The Dorking fowl is a breed named after the town, and it has five claws instead of the usual four. It is the town's emblem. The market that made its name was first recorded in 1240, and by 1278 the Earl of Surrey was claiming it had run twice-weekly since "time out of mind." The antiquary John Aubrey, writing in the late 1600s, called the Thursday market "the greatest ... for poultry in England."

For food and a day out, Denbies Wine Estate sits on the town's northwest edge, 268 acres of vines on south-facing land, planted from 1986 on what was Bradley Farm. It runs vineyard tours and a visitor centre. Two WWII Covenanter tanks were buried on the farm; one was dug up and restored in 1977, the other in 2017, when the estate displayed it for six months.

High Ground and a Landmark Spire

The walking is the main reason to base yourself here. Box Hill rises to about 224 metres a short trip away, its Stepping Stones crossing the Mole at the foot — Clement Attlee reopened them in 1946. The Zig Zag Road climbs 120 metres and carried the 2012 Olympic road race. Closer in, Glory Wood is the town's highest point at 137 metres and holds a Bronze Age bowl barrow; the Nower and Meadowbank give you open ground at the edge of the streets. Leith Hill and its tower lie to the south.

St Martin's Church has a 210-foot spire — a widely visible landmark — added between 1873 and 1877 as a memorial to Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. Henry Woodyer rebuilt it in Decorated Gothic. Since 1973 the Anglican and Methodist congregations have shared it.

Voyagers and Connections

Six Dorking residents sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, among them the cobbler William Mullins and his daughter Priscilla, later Priscilla Alden; a house linked to Mullins still stands on West Street. Daniel Defoe was schooled here as a boy.

Trains run from Dorking station to Waterloo and Victoria via Leatherhead, with two more stations, Deepdene and West, on the North Downs Line. London is about 21 miles northeast along the A24.

The Cockerel Endures

The Dorking cockerel, five claws and all, still stands as the town's emblem, tied to the poultry market that made it famous.