Pixham
| Pixham | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Part of Pixham from Box Hill | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ174504 |
| Location: | 51°14’27"N, 0°19’10"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 761 (2011) |
| Post town: | Dorking |
| Postcode: | RH4 |
| Dialling code: | 01306 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Mole Valley |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Mole Valley |
Pixham is a small village within the parish of Dorking in the midst of Surrey, close to the meeting of the Pipp Brook with the River Mole beside Dorking, the latter’s town centre being half a mile to the south-west. The village sits near the junction of the A24 and the A25 main roads.
The village is at the steep foot of the Box Hill stretch of the North Downs, on gently facing slopes leading up to the town of Dorking itself. To the east the Pipp Brook joins the River Mole,
Until 1910 watermills principally for corn grinding and for fulling at Pixham Mill operated, however its agricultural land has been converted to other use. The village is mainly residential. Small employers include a school, large inn and a waste water treatment works.
History
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No mention is made of Pixham in Domesday Book, but evidence of Roman settlement, including coins, tiles and pottery shards, was discovered on the site of the Friends Provident Sports Ground in 1980; the adjoining road is part of the original line of a Roman road, known as Stane Street.
The first reference to Pixham despite centuries of recorded Rolls at Westminster comes from a Manor Court Roll of 1417, as a farmed locality with mills but it never gained its own manor.[1]
Giles Green which is no longer visible, north of the Pixham End building by the A24 London Road had the Cock Inn and the Dorking Tollgate with a milestone. A gravel pit for a few years existed in the 20th century on the Friends Provident playing fields here.
At Reverend James Fisher's boarding school in Pixham Daniel Defoe was a pupil. In 1910 watermills for corn grinding at Pixham Mill came to an end.[2][3]
Church
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The village church, St Mary, is a chapel of ease to Dorking parish church. It has a barrel-vaulted ceiling; is in the centre and was designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1903.
Due purely to its architecture not its age is ranked above the other three listed buildings in the village in the mid-category rather than starting level category at Grade II*.[4]
About the village
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Pixham Mill is a plain, three-storey brick building which dates from 1837 replacing an earlier mill here. The machinery was driven by a 13-foot diameter overshot wheel. The mill was operated by an Attlee family (who also ran Parsonage Mill) from 1882 until milling ceased in 1910. The machinery was removed in 1937 for use in a Sussex mill. During Second World War Moss Bros. used the building as a warehouse. It is now a private house, but the water channels remain.[5] The house and the adjacent cottage were flooded three feet deep at Christmas 2013.
Pixham Mill Cottage is two centuries older than the adjacent listed house named after Pixham Mill here by having been built in the first half of the 17th century. It is a this timber-framed cottage with painted brick infill is Grade II listed and the oldest home in the settlement.[6]
Old Castle Mill is a four-storey, red brick, early 19th century mill has some of its machinery intact, however appears to have been defunct by 1912[3] and is a private house.[7]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Pixham) |
- The Pixham Post: Pixham Residents Association
References
- ↑ Bennett, Patricia (1994). Living Stream: Pixham and its People. Dorking: Dorking Local History Group. ISBN 1-870912-05-5.
- ↑ Harbison, Robert (1993). The Shell Guide to English Parish Churches. London: BCA. ISBN 978-0-233-98793-4.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 A History of the County of Surrey - Volume 3 pp 141-150: Parishes: Dorking (Victoria County History)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1279086: Lutyens – Church of St Mary (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1229433: Pixham Mill (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1228834: Pixham Mill Cottage (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1279088: Old Castle Mill (Grade II listing)
