Box Hill, Surrey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Box Hill
View from the summit of Box Hill
Elevation	172 metres (564 ft)
Location	North Downs, England
Prominence	c. 0 m
Coordinates	51°15′18″N, 0°18′31″W
Topo map	OS Landranger 187
OS grid reference	TQ179511
Listing	(none)

Box Hill is a well known beauty spot in the North Downs of Surrey, England, close to the southern outskirts of London, overlooking Dorking to the south-west. There is a small village of the same name about 1.5 km to the east. Confusingly, Box Hill School is located in the village of Mickleham about 1.5 km to the north, and is between the towns of Dorking and Leatherhead.

The hill is named after the box trees which can be found on its steep southern and western flanks, notably around the "Whites", chalk cliffs cut by the River Mole.

1 Geography and environment
2 Public access
3 Notable sights
4 References in literature and music
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Geography and environment

The Box Hill site occupies approximately 490 hectares of wooded downland.^[1] It is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation, affording it a level of legislative protection against planning applications. The chalk downland environment supports a number of notable populations of bats, lepidoptera, orchids and its namesake the box tree.^[2]

[edit] Public access

Panorama made from multiple photos showing the viewpoint at Box Hill

A Sunray Travel bus passing the visitor centre. Inset left shows the special wooden National Trust bus stop, with logo engraved.

Box Hill was given to the nation by Leopold Salomons in 1914.

A country park, owned by the National Trust, now provides for public access to Box Hill, and the Pilgrims' Way long distance footpath runs about 1 km to the south.

At the "top" of the hill there is a car park and viewpoint, from where the entire town of Dorking can be viewed. However, this location is not actually the true summit of the hill. To the east, the ridge ascends, and most of the village of Box Hill is higher, at an altitude of around 200m. The Ordnance Survey mark a spot height of 224m at the radio mast at TQ20405175.

Box Hill is served by local and London bus routes^[3] providing access to both the visitor centre^[4] and the foot of the hill^[5] where there exists another car park (adjoining Rykers Cafe) that is frequented by motorcyclists.

The route to the top car park from the A24, known as the Zig Zag Road, is very narrow and is a popular test of fitness by road cyclists, and occasionally causes congestion if cars cannot pass. There is another small car park half way up this, with room for only around 10 cars.

[edit] Notable sights

The Stepping Stones at the foot of Box Hill

The trees on one side of Box Hill

A Major Peter Labellière is buried on the hill just west of the viewpoint at Burford slope. He was buried (on July 11, 1800) head downwards, and according to some sources he reasoned for this by saying "the world is topsy turvy, and I'll be the right way in the end"; other sources indicate that he merely wished to emulate the example of St. Peter, who was apocryphally (in the Acts of Peter) crucified upside down.^[6]

John Logie Baird, the inventor of the first working television system, conducted some of his experiments on Box Hill,^[7] including his Noctovisor,^[8] an infra-red viewing device.

[edit] References in literature and music

An important passage of Jane Austen's novel Emma is set at Box Hill.

In England: A Nation, (London: R. Brimley Johnson, 1904), edited by Lucian Oldershaw, and in a chapter entitled "The Patriotic Idea" written by G. K. Chesterton, the beauty of Box Hill violated by an invading army is used to express a healthy patriot's love for his nation is opposed to the jingoistic nationalism of tabloid newspapers: "But just as a man who has been in love will find it difficult to write a whole frantic epic about a flirtation, so all that kind of rhetoric about the Union Jack and the Anglo-Saxon blood, which has made amusing the journalism of this country for the last six years, will be merely impossible to the man who has for one moment called up before himself what would be the real sensation of hearing that a foreign army was encamped on Box Hill."

British biker rock band, Dumpy's Rusty Nuts, released a single called 'Boxhill or Bust' in the early 1980s. The song is something of a cult anthem for bikers, and reflects the popularity of Box Hill amongst the biking community.

Musician Ben Watt of Everything But The Girl wrote a song called "On Box Hill", released as B side of the single "Some Things Don't Matter" (Cherry Red Records) in 1983. This song about a sunny day on Box Hill also appears on his debut album North Marine Drive.

In Richard Thompson's song "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", Box Hill is the location to which James and Red Molly ride on James' motorcycle.