Forest Green

Even into the third decade of the 20th century, the blacksmith's role in rural life remained important. This smithy in this Wealden hamlet snuggled beneath the woods below Leith Hill was still busily occupied in the repair of farm machinery and the shoeing of horses. The smoke emerging from the chimney indicates that the furnace is alight, and the stooped figure of the blacksmith is visible in the open doorway.
An extract from from"Surrey Revisited Photographic Memories".

The area is rather romantically referred to as smugglers’ country; it is said to have been a kind of halfway house between the Sussex coast and London, where contraband could be safely hidden. As a folk song goes: ‘It`s Champagne fine for communion wine and the parson drinks it too, With a sly wink prays ‘forgive these men, for they know not what they do’.’
An extract from from"Villages of Surrey Photographic Memories".

Moving east towards Leith Hill, but still south of the woodland that covers the greensand hills, the tour reaches Forest Green, a hamlet scattered around an extensive green. This view east of the 1897 church shows the cottages and the post office, now closed; the telephone box has been removed and the post office converted to a house, called unsurprisingly The Old Post House East. The cricket pitch beyond the last house was laid out in the 1920s on part of the common.
An extract from from"Surrey Living Memories".

Other local churches, claimed to be ‘old and steady’, are Shere, Leigh, Mickleham, Abinger, Wotten and Betchworth: they have stood for centuries. St Barnabas’s on Ranmore sits 700 feet above Dorking on Ranmore Common. Sir Gilbert Scott designed it in 1859 as the estate church for George Cubitt, the first Lord Ashcombe. In the churchyard lie the founder of Denbies Estate, and his three grandsons, Henry, Alick and William, who lost their lives in the First World War. St Joseph’s Catholic Church, designed by Frederick Arthur Walters, was erected in 1895 in Falkland Grove, off Coldharbour Lane.
An extract from from"Dorking Town and City Memories".

he downs are mostly of chalk, and otherwise of sandstone, and each has its own special flora. The sandstone hills have their highest point in Leith Hill, 965ft above sea level, about five miles south-west of Dorking. From there they fall away in a picturesque series of steps, rising again to the same level as Leith Hill at Hindhead and Black Down. Leith Hill and its tower is a beauty spot not to be missed. With a good eye and on a clear day all the surrounding counties are visible. ‘With the assistance of a telescope Windsor Castle, Frant Church, St Paul’s Cathedral, Dunstable Downs, Ditchling Beacon and the spires and towers of forty-one churches can be seen.’ (J S Bright, 1876). It has been said that a reflection of the sun on the sea has been noted. Richard Hull of Leith Hill Place built the tower in 1766 for his own delight, but also for that of his neighbours and everybody else. Richard was laid to rest beneath the tower, buried upside-down: he believed that the world would have turned on its axis before Judgement Day, and he ‘wished to stand before his Maker right way up’. This area is part of the National Trust’s holdings; the estate now boasts over 900 acres owned by the Trust, and another 300 are under protection. Box Hill has been called the most popular hill in the world, and Leith Hill most likely comes second. On each hill grow beeches, junipers, wild clematis and box, which delight the eye. The short, sweet, flower-starred turf is restful to the traveller. But there is a wilder, rugged air about Leith Hill and its approaches, which are clad in larch and fir and carpeted with scarlet and green whortleberry and purple heather. It has always been known as a rambler’s paradise, for there are innumerable paths and bridle- ways that wind through the plantations and the heath. The area covering Box Hill, the Holmwoods, Ranmore, Leith Hill and Coldharbour contain some of the finest woodland and natural habitats in Surrey. Generous donations of land and money by many public-spirited contributors over the years have helped to ensure the upkeep of this fine and beautiful area.
An extract from from"Dorking Town and City Memories".