- published: 17 Mar 2015
- views: 165
Coordinates: 51°14′02″N 0°19′54″W / 51.2340°N 0.3318°W / 51.2340; -0.3318
Dorking ( /ˈdɔrkɪŋ/) is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately 21 miles (34 km) south of London, in Surrey, England.
Dorking began life as a small staging on Stane Street, the Roman Road that linked London to Chichester on the English Channel.
Dorking appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as the Manor of Dorchinges. It was held by William the Conqueror. Its domesday assets were: one church, 3 mills worth 15s 4d, 16 ploughs, 3 acres (1.2 ha) of meadow, woodland and herbage worth 88 hogs. It rendered £18.
Subsequent Lords of the Manor were to include the Dukes of Norfolk, who lived in Dorking until they moved to Arundel. One of them is buried in Dorking churchyard. In the Medieval period, Dorking was a prosperous agricultural and market town, benefitting from its position on the junction of a number of important roads and tracks.
In 1750, the construction of a Turnpike Road made Dorking a staging post on the route to Brighton and the coast. The Bull's Head in South Street had a famous coachman, William Broad, whose portrait hangs in Dorking Museum in West Street. The inn that now dominates the centre of Dorking, the White Horse, was developed in the 18th century; previous buildings on this site having belonged to the Knights Templar and later the Knights of St John.
Actors: Ralph Morse (actor), Irene Handl (actress), Louise Frogley (costume designer), Daniel Peacock (actor), Derek Ford (producer), Derek Ford (writer), John Jympson (editor), Patricia Hodge (actress), Lynda Bellingham (actress), Alex Matcham (miscellaneous crew), Michael Klinger (producer), Tony Klinger (producer), Peter Whitman (actor), Paul Humpoletz (actor), Ken Kitson (actor),
Genres: Drama,