Talk:Dorking

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OpenStreetMap held a mapping party in this area on 28-29 October 2006 to make a creative commons licensed map that may be used in Wikipedia articles.

Thanks to all those wikipedians that took part.

See http://www.openstreetmap.org for details of other planned mapping parties.


I removed the Directions - I don't recall any other article having road and rail directions?

Djnjwd 02:00, 23 Jan 2004 (UTC)

what happened to the information on dorking's communter town status? and the disaffected youth?

i have lived in dorking all my life, and have studied sociology in the area, so i dont see why someone has deleted my info, and i would like some kind of justification for this deletion.

The website stuff dorking, is non-notable and non-credible. On further investigation it is a small forum frequented by 5-10 people who posted their link here as a form of advertising. Now as this is not a credible dorking website I am going to remove it again.

  • Agreed, just looks like an advert and should be removed. --86.11.112.240 16:16, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
  • I surfed on in to this page as part of my musical duties on Wikipedia to add the Emma Holland link and I was amazed to see that the second most boring town in West Surrey has such an elaborately gushing page. A1octopus 23:35, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

I have to take issue with the statement:

'With its many shops Dorking is a booming town'. It clearly is not. The shop turnover is immense and there has not been a single time in its history that all the plots in St. Martins' Walk has been filled. This looks like a piece of advertising, not an encyclopaedic entry. If someone can find justification for this, maybe from the Dorking Chamber of Commerce, then it should be cited as a reference, otherwise it should be deleted. Robruss24 13:13, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

This document (about the status of Crawley as a retail destination) has a bit of info about Dorking as a retail destination. According to the "UK Shopping venue Rankings 2005", it is apparently in 445th place. Also, it is not considered to be either a Primary Regional Centre (such as Brighton or Crawley) or a Secondary Regional Centre (such as Haywards Heath or Horsham). So statistically, it is a relatively small player in the local retail market. Hassocks5489 14:00, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

I slightly altered the wording in the modern era section.Robruss24 15:20, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Possible rewrite?

This would benefit from a rewrite in a more neutral tone, preferably with citations for some of the comments. I'll try to do something in the next couple of days or so.

http://worldroots.com/brigitte/famous/j/johnhowarddesc5.htm indicates that it's the 10th Duke of Norfolk who is buried in Dorking; I have drawn a blank on which churchyard though ... can any locals help?

I'll do the Dorking Deepdene and Dorking West station entries as well - that was what I was originally concerned with ...!

--Hassocks5489 12:14, 11 August 2006 (UTC) (Occasional Dorking visitor)

[edit] Pappy uk

I reverted numerous edits by this user Pappy uk because I was not sure of the veracity of the edits. The image of the cockerel was not really suitable as it had people in it. It was not clear where it was. The music for people under 18 no longer occurs and there was no substantiation. SuzanneKn 17:56, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Not sure what was wrong with some of the edits. He/she separated Dorking Halls from the Swimming Centre (two separate buildings), and removed two unreferenced "famous people" who may or may not be Dorking people but I've never heard of them. I quite liked the Cockerel picture: it is a figure of ridicule in the town and the caption ("a typical night out") is quite accurate. The photograph was linked from Facebook, where there is a group for people who have climbed the statue. BeerMatt 06:21, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
Agreed, BeerMatt. I'm fairly sure the new Swimming Center is seperate from Dorking Halls. (You can't buy a ticket to a film in the Swimming Center, and you can't pay to go swimming in Dorking Halls...If yu get my drift.)
As for the picture of the people on the Dorking Cockerel, I thought that was very amusing, and completely correct. There's always drunk teenagers 'riding' it...
So even though it's not very appropriate, i think it's ideal to display some of our our youths actions. 86.3.124.119 (talk) 20:54, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Joshua Nicholas Cowls and Sir Edward Michael Blunt

Who are these people, and why do they not appear anywhere else but here? They've been deleted and reinstated plenty of times, but what's the truth here? Is there any evidence that these people even existed? BeerMatt (talk) 13:03, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

<-- Josh is headboy of ashcombe school -.-
(taken out of my post) So that explains it then. Can we leave them out once and for all now? BeerMatt (talk) 21:08, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
Reverted again. If there's any reason why these people should be included, please post some evidence. BeerMatt (talk) 12:51, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notable people

I've cleaned up this considerably as per the needs of the cleanup tag. I've checked, verified and amended data providing references. Box Hill, Coldharbour etc are not the town of Dorking so they have been removed. As for verifying Lord Nelson's visit I'm afraid I couldn't. Hope my work is OK. The old list is below if anyone has any other views. SuzanneKn 19:10, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

  • Laurence Olivier was born in the town — a blue plaque marking his birthplace can be found in Wathen Road.
  • Several other actors live here now including John Watson and Rick Partridge, both of whom have appeared in The Bill.
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1872–1958, spent most of his childhood in Leith Hill Place, near Coldharbour and, from 1929 to 1953, off the Westcott Road in Dorking.
  • Henry Hope and his nephew Thomas Hope spent summers at Deepdene in the beginning of the 19th century.
  • Thomas Cubitt was born and lived in the town, and later built up large areas of London from the early 19th Century. His Politician son George also had connections with the town, including building the St Barnabas church at Ranmore Common.
  • Daniel Defoe, 1661-1731, probably attended a boarding-school in Pixham Lane, and later mentioned Dorking in his Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain.
  • Benjamin Disraeli wrote his novel Coningsby while staying in Deepdene House (now demolished) on the outskirts of the town.
  • Marian Hemar, famous Polish poet is buried at the local cemetery.
  • Lord Nelson is reputed to have spent his last night before boarding ship for the Battle of Trafalgar at the Burford Bridge Hotel.
  • William Mullins, one of the passengers on the Mayflower came from Dorking. Mullins' house is still standing in West St, Dorking Discover Dorking.
  • Robert Kilroy Silk, famous politician and chat show host is rumoured to have a country retreat in the Abinger area.
  • Jane Austen set a significant passage from the novel Emma at Box Hill, northeast of the town.
  • George Meredith lived in Box Hill and died at his home there in 1909.
  • "The Battle of Dorking" a fictional short-story written by Lt. Col. Sir George Tomkyns Chesney in 1871 was set in the town. Describing a fictional invasion and conquest of Britain, it triggered an explosion of what came to be known as invasion literature.
  • Sir James Hopwood Jeans and his wife Lady Susi Jeans lived in the nearby village of Westhumble.
  • John Logie Baird lived in the Swiss Cottage on Dorking's Box Hill in the early 1930s.
  • Oliver Reed lived at Broome Hall, close to the nearby villages of Coldharbour and Ockley, and latterly at Pinkhurst Farm in Oakwoodhill, with his last wife Josephine Burge.The comedian Jim Davidson subsequently bought the property, and has had great difficulty in selling it since his move to Dubai in 2006.
  • Emma Holland was raised in the town, although went to some lengths in a bid to leave it.
  • Mollie Sugden lives in Ockley, 7 miles to the south of Dorking.
  • Peter André and Jordan live in Ockley, 7 miles to the south of Dorking.
  • Judge Dredd illustrator Arthur Ransom lives in Dorking.
  • Padre George Smith, a defender at Rorke's Drift in 1879, was born in Dorking.
  • Tony Allen, American football coach, was born in Dorking.
  • Marvin Allen, American football player, was born in Dorking.
  • Richard Haughton, Saracens and England Saxons Winger and Full Back was born in Dorking and played for them at mini level.


I'll find references for Tony Allen and Arthur Ransom. I "know" that TA was born here, and AR lives here, but I'll see what I can find. I've read conflicting information about Tony Allen's son Marvin (either Croydon, Dorking or London), and I'm happy to leave that out. Agree with your other edits - great stuff. BeerMatt 19:35, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Large Houses Just to clarify, Denbies House is not now a winery. Denbies House is on top of Ranmore, about 1 mile away frm teh newl-built winery. It is owned by the owner of the vinyard Robruss24 (talk) 15:38, 22 May 2008 (UTC)