Pilgrims Antiques Centre West Street Dorking. Walk along The High Street

Welcome again to the Pilgrim's Antiques Centre blog - my web diary about the shop, its people and its stock.

This week I have something completely different.
I am taking you for a walk along the High Street.
It is a busy, bustling street and has been so for centuries - though motor cars and lorries have taken the place of horse and carts.

My walk was from the Post office back to the shop. It was a glorious Spring morning.
I enjoyed detours up other streets and alleyways and these will feature on the blog at some point too.

The first major building I passed was the White Horse - but I don't just seek out major buildings. There are all sorts of features which can catch my eye when out with a camera.

The White Horse was built in the 18th century as a coaching inn. It seems to have taken over from The Bull, where a famous coachman, William Broad, was employed.

The Dorking Heritage Trail is well worth exploring.

I would imagine that the museum and the library would have leaflets about this.

Close by The White Horse is an iron water pump on the pavement.

Keep the image in your head a moment.

Here is an early 20th century view of The High Street. The White Horse is on the right, beyond the horse and cart.

A bike is leaning on the fence just by the water pump.

The White Horse features in this photograph, which I presume dates from the late 1950s or early 1960s. Mac Fisheries was a well known chain at that time.

And now for a quirky detail that makes me feel so happy to have noticed - I had not spotted it until this walk with my camera.

I was looking up at the buildings and this is the view at the very top of the Boots the Chemist frontage.

I must do a little research and discover what the building originally was - maybe a chapel of some sort.

I love the stone owl up there, where nobody looks.

My eyes took me to a feature which I had not studied before - a metal archway over an alleyway.

It led me to read about this past Dorking resident.

There were lots of Dorking people who achieved some fame in their various fields.

Each side of the arch has been decorated with metal features.

How many people walk by this small metal statue of the man?

The left hand side of the archway is simply quite beautiful.

There have been many inns and ale houses in Dorking - there still are plenty.

The facade of The Upper Chequers still exists, thanks to symapthetic restoration by Robert Dyas the hardware people.

The view from Pump Corner, looking east. Many original buildings remain.

This 1899 photograph is from a very similar spot - just a little further along the road. The raised pavement and steps remain.

This postcard dates I should think from the 1930s.

Pump Corner.

The old water pump remains with the signs pointing the routes to Horsham and Guildford.

Now this part of Dorking has become a one way street - every vehicle turns toward Horsham to start with.

And here we have an artist's water colour of the same view. I can just make out the name of the artist as Peter Rushden (I think).

Many thanks to one of the followers of this blog who has pointed out that the artist's name is Peter Rushton and she passed me a web site showing more examples of his work.

http://www.artrush.co.uk/artRushPages/artRushFiles/artRushSearch.asp...

If you are a Dorking resident or an interested visitor, you might like to learn much more.

There is one second hand copy of the book, photographed below, in Pilgrim's Antiques.

I am sure the library and the museum have much more that they could offer.

I hope you have enjoyed a brief stroll along part of the High Street.

I hope, too, that once you reach Pump Corner, you will continue on a few yards into West Street to find Pilgrim's Antiques Centre.

I look forward to sharing other views of Dorking with you - maybe next time.

But I am sure there will be wonderful new stock in the shop when we are next there which I will want to feature in my web diary - so maybe I shall surprise you next week.