The Dorking History Section
This is a new section on the Dorking Blog of which the idea started when I put the photo of the historic shopfront that was Peirsons Ironmongers. We had an interesting post from David Newman who left Dorking in the 1950's but has shared some vivid and interesting memories.David told us that he also had many other interesting historic facts to share so this section has been created as a post so people can add them under a sub section of the Dorking Blog.
Even though this post will move down the list you can still quickly access it by using the newly created 'Special Links' on the right hand side of the page (see illustration).
As always new ideas for the blog are always considered so let me know if any other sections should be added.
The original post which includes David's can be viewed here>>
posted by The Cockerel @ 8:19 PM
5 Comments:
Extracts from:
ST MARTIN'S SCHOOL PUNISHMENT BOOK
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5/1930. John D.(13) "Repeated interruption of lesson by talking -1 stroke. Threatened to tell his father about the first stroke so given 2 more strokes for impudence"
5/1939. Malcolm G. "Caught throwing stones at Westminster Bank window and giving another boy's name as his own - 3 strokes"
Imagine the headmaster's mood as he had to conduct the manager from class to class to identify the real culprit!
6/1938. "Deliberately spoiling Brownies' games at Meadowbank yesterday evening. 3 boys 10,10,9 given 2 strokes each on the bottom"
Obviously, Brown Owl had no hesitation in expecting the headmaster to deal with this out of school misbehaviour...
17/10/1916. Arthur A. "Truant since 23/9 - 4 strokes on hand and 3 strokes on the bottom"
02/1917. Frederick D. "Throwing inked paper at another boy during teacher's temporary absence from class - 4 strokes on the bottom"
Watch this space.....
David N
Found a few interesting bits of historical information from the the Yesteryear clumn in this week's Dorking Advertiser:-
60 Years Ago: Extracts from the Advertiser 1947
The pictureesque 15th Century Little Dudley House in South Street, Dorking, which has been for many years a charming tea house and restaurant has been acquired by Miss Winifred Blaker.
The house is now being re-decorated and Miss Blaker hopes to re-open it shortly.
*Fast forward to 2007 - Little Dudley House is the building which Pizza Piazza used to occupy, next to The Cricketers pub on South Street. This building has fallen into disrepair since the pizza restaurant, left almost two years ago. Finally, work is going to commence this Monday October 29, to return this building to its former glory. Apparently, a tenant is close to agreeing terms for these premises and it seems, that there might be another restaurant opening here in the very near future. Watch this space!
40 Years Ago: Extract from the Advertiser 1967
Two moves to improve the lot of Dorking shoppers came at a meeting on Monday.
One is a probe into how to fill up the gaps in the town's shopping parades and the other is to produce a "where to shop" service for housewives.
It was suggested Dorking Chamber of Commerce should survey shopping centres like Guildford and Reigate to find why they were successful.
Another suggestion was that Dorking Market should be turned into a shopping precinct.
*Fast forward to 2007 - and does nothing change??? Dorking stills struggles to Reigate in terms of good quality shops and the vacancy rate in Dorking posed a problem for the Chamber of Commerce back than as well. Found it very interesting that the Chamber of Commerce suggested that the Dorking Market should be turned into a shopping precinct.
In the early 80's, the main Dorking Market made way for a Tesco. This was when Tesco were seen as cheap and nasty. It struggled in Dorking and this made way, for the infamous St. Martin's Walk Shopping Centre in the early 1990's. Yes, this is the wonderful precinct that really has flattered to deliver. Its empty shops outweigh the shops still trading and, it is a real blot in the centre of Dorking.
Finally, the front page of the Advertiser mentions that The Malthouse pub could make way for 38 new homes courtesy of Thornfield Properties.
Whilst, I have never been a fan of The Malthouse pub - yes, it is full of chavs, underage drinkers and thugs. It will be missed, as it kept all the problems down there in Mill Lane. If the pub was to be demolished, the kids' will end up creating a bloody nuisance elsewhere in the town. I know, quite a few of them have ventured to The Surrey Yeoman at the weekends, in anticipation of the probable closure. And yes, 38 new homes sounds like a really huge amount!! Will Church Gardens, be able to cope with that traffic? Will it have any impact on the park? Will Thornfield resurrect the Sainsburys superstore proposal?
What do the other bloggers think about the plans above??
Dorking Dan
The once sucessful Malthouse is now an absolute flop. It was sold to Thornfield for 1.8mil or so and the company who sold it leases it back at around 60k pa. Needless to say it doesn´t make enough profit to cover that.
The constant barrage of complaints from the minority regards its application for a late license caused it to lose its ability to provide for the young and their boystrous activities (ie music), hence perhaps the plague on the rest of the town.
Truth beknown, the drink trade that once thrived in the town, is in decline, like with shopping the revellers are going to neighbouring towns for a thrill. So it won´t be long before you can enjoy a quiet drink in any pub in town.
38 homes is just what Dorking needs, not! Having paid 1.8mil for the land, can hardly see the housing being "affordable" at 45k per plot arguably, before construction.
Its just phase 1 of the grand plan...
I found this on Google Books the other day: "A Picturesque Promenade Around Dorking"; written in the early 1800s, it has some fascinating detailed descriptions of Dorking and the local area at that time.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PAEWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=dorking#PPR5,M1
Dan van Dan
This is most interesting, thank you for the post I will be putting new post on the Dorking Blog highlighting this.
Many thanks again.
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