Dorking Museum walks team plans new insights into Dorking’s past

20th June 2019

With the advent of the better weather, the Dorking Museum walks team has had a very busy start to 2019.  Last year, nearly 500 went on the team’s popular guided walks of Dorking town and the Deepdene Trail, and, with new walks being developed, this year promises even more.

The walks, led by knowledgeable guides, give many a fresh insight into aspects of Dorking’s past.  Even those relatively familiar with the town are often surprised by features they have never noticed or stories they have never heard before, gaining a new understanding and appreciation of its rich heritage. 

On the main programme, the hidden historic Dorking walk reveals the forces, events and personalities that have shaped the town and its architecture and the secrets that lie behind the streets of modern Dorking.  Walkers can hear about the medieval town, the markets, the churches, the inns, the great estates and the ancient cottages, and discover the people who have built the town’s reputation.   

Special themed town walks developed by the team include a literary walk which focuses on the writers and the people and places that have provided their inspiration, from Dickens to Longfellow, Jane Austen to Sir George Chesney, Defoe to Disraeli.  The very popular pubs walk provides a stroll through Dorking’s past as told around its many hostelries, pubs and inns, both past and present, seeing some of their ‘hidden’ features and hearing about how the local residents behaved – and misbehaved – through the words of a heroic policeman of Victorian times.  A re-run of previously popular women suffrage and ghost walks are planned for later in the year.

A Dorking family walk encourages children to be history detectives, finding out about Dorking’s past as they look for clues by finding features that match the photos on a quiz sheet provided. 

On the edge of the town, the Deepdene Trail guided walk gives insight into the growth, fame and decline of an historic local estate and the recent revitalisation that has restored some of its former glory.  It takes in the grotto, woodland walks, parterre and temples, spectacular views across the Weald and exclusive access to the grade II* listed Hope family mausoleum. 

Now the team is adding two more themed walks to its repertoire, both to be launched at Heritage Open Days in September.  

In readiness for the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower in September 1620, on which sailed a Dorking family, their manservant and another single Dorking man, the team will be offering tours of Dorking during the time of the Mayflower travellers.  This will enable the team to showcase buildings that were in existence during that time and which survive into the 21st century.  Walkers will be able to see 16^th/17^th century cottages, the site of the market hall and the communal washing place, the site of compulsory Sunday morning archery practice and the inns that our travellers would have known, some with their 16^th/17^th century landlords’ initials inscribed in the fabric of the buildings.  It is a chance to look at Dorking from another angle, looking beyond facades and down little visited alleyways.  

Also coming on stream very soon will be guided tours of Betchworth Castle.  The team has spent many hours delving into the history of the site, bought some years ago from Mole Valley by Martin Higgins with the intention of enabling public access.  Martin has been working with the team to develop the tours, which offer stunning views across to Box Hill and towards Brockham.  The castle is not generally open to the public and joining a tour will enable visitors to enter into what was the castle's great hall, and walk down into the cellars.  

The walks in the Museum’s programme last an hour and a half.  There are regular open days for individual bookings or group bookings can be arranged by appointment.  Details, dates and conditions can be found on the Museum’s website  www.dorkingmuseum.org.uk.  Open day bookings and group booking requests should be made in advance through the website.