Flanking the strip of the North Downs that curves to the north and south sits the market town of Dorking, Surrey. Situated in the banks of the Mole Valley, Dorking’s combination of idyllic landscapes and high commutability owing to its three rail stations has long made it an enticing locale for domestic and infrastructural development. With evidence of an ancient settlement to the medieval market charter - Dorking’s urban fabric is dominated by 3 bedroom detached properties bounded by grand country manor homes, diverse and characterful in their construction.

Dorking - although first recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Dorchinges - is an ancient settlement. Archaeological excavations in the local Dorking area has revealed small clusters of human occupation during the Mesolithic period (6,500-4,000 BC) over 8,000 years ago! This developed further during the Bronze Age, highlighted by the excavation of funerary monuments dating to this period. The earliest true development of the area came with the advent of the Roman occupation of Britain (43 - 410 AD). Exploiting the Mole Gap as a means of transportation with the road, Dorking became a vital site of travelling between the southeast and London. Several Roman villas have been discovered in and around Dorking - highlighting the extent of the Roman settlement! After the collapse of the empire in the 5th century, Dorking’s roads and routes likely fell into disrepair until the spread of the Anglo-Saxon peoples - up until the Norman Conquest of 1066.

Whilst Dorking is - in comparison to other urban areas - a relatively small settlement, it has brushes with great literary and political history. The 17th century author, pamphleteer and spy Daniel Defoe was educated and lived Dorking throughout his youth! Known for his nonconformist religious beliefs, popular within Dorking at the time, Defoe is regarded as one of the most influential and famous novelists from English history. Most famously Defoe published ‘Robinson Crusoe’ in 1719 - a book which heralded the origins of the novel as a genre and is second only to the bible in its amount of languages it has been translated to!

Under the jurisdiction of the Mole Valley District Council, it is hard to say what the future of development in Dorking will look like, as the council has not yet published their adopted local plan for the period up to 2037. Also, Dorking is surrounded by a substantial weight of Green Belt land that also prohibits large-scale infrastructural development. However, the previous adopted local plan for Dorking highlighted the need to ensure Dorking’s unique local character by focusing provisions on its centre and re-developed swathes of Dorking for residential purposes. The draft local plan for the next period highlights over 30 Green Belt sites for potential development, although this has not yet been passed!