Dorking

Dorking, a market town in the Reigate parliamentary division of Surrey, England, 26 m. S.S.W. of London, on the London, Brighton & South Coast and the South-Eastern & Chatham railways. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7670. It is pleasantly situated on the river Mole, in a sheltered vale near the base of Box Hill. It is the centre of an extensive residential district. The parish church of St Martin’s is a handsome edifice rebuilt in 1873. Lime of exceptionally good quality is burnt to a large extent in the neighbourhood, and forms an important article of trade; it is derived from the Lower Chalk formation. Dorking has long been famous for a finely flavoured breed of fowl distinguished by its having five toes. Several fine mansions are in the vicinity of the town, notably that of Deepdene, containing part of a gallery of sculpture collected here by Thomas Hope, the author of Anastasius. A Roman road, which crossed from the Sussex coast to the Thames, passed near the present churchyard of St Martin.