Just north of Dorking, in the Mole Valley locale of Surrey, lies the civil parish of Mickleham - which stretches southward to the village of Westhumble. Small and ruralised, characterised by swathes of woodland and greenland, both Mickleham and Westhumble retain their quaint pastoral qualities well into the 21st century. With the rail station, Box Hill & Westhumble servicing direct links to London and Horsham - these villages benefit from the combination of urban proximity and rural life. With a housing market dotted with grand detached residences and villa properties, averaging at £800,000, the market is geared towards individual developers looking to re-develop a single property!

Although both small villages flanked by greenery, both locales have ancient history. During an archaeological excavation in the 1950s, archaeologists discovered a Neolithic axe - suggesting the area of the North Downs has been potentially occupied since the Late Stone Age, up to 2,000 years ago! Mickleham was also recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book survey as ‘Micleham’, when it was partly under the control of the Bishop Odo of Bayeux. Westhumble was not formally recorded until 1248, a few hundred years later, where it was written as ‘Wysthumble’ in an Assize roll. Westhumble’s name has many interpretations, but the most popular is that it contemporarily translates to ‘wych-elm stump’. Remnants of this medieval settlement are still felt today, notably with the Chapel Ruins to the west of the village. Dated from the 12th century, the ruins are still standing today, and are now protected by the National Trust!

Small, humble, and rural the villages may be - they both have unusual connections to British literary history - particularly women’s British history. Frances Burney, 18th century novelist and pre-cursor to Jane Austen, built and lived in a cottage named Camilla in 1797! In an even stranger coincidence, Mickleham is actually mentioned by name in Austen’s 1815 ‘Emma’!

Both Mickleham and Westhumble are small rural parishes with ancient history. Owing to this, development in these areas are often slow or stagnant, facing serious hurdles for development approval. Even in the Mole Valley District Council initial local plan for the next period of the area, there seems to be no suggestion of future developments to take hold in Mickleham and Westhumble, in a push to retain their rural statuses. Development, therefore, is highly unlikely in these areas - and the most probable locale for development would be the nearby town of Dorking!