Dorking Hotels

Dorking began life as a small staging post on Stane Street, the Roman Road which 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 acresof meadow, woodland and herbage worth 88 hogs. It rendered .Subsequent Lords of the Manor were to include the Dukes of Zorfolk, 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.Dorking held a big wheat and cattle market in the High Street. The poultry market was held in the corner of South Street and round Butter Hill. Here the famous Dorking fowl were sold. This breed which has 5 claws instead of the normal four, was a favourite for 19th century tables, including Queen Victoria's.