One of our volunteers, Peter Sturge, has been researching the Dorking Chalk pits and lime works for a number of years – and wanted some help identifying this location. Peter took advantage of our jigsaw puzzle project to create a “double puzzle” He wrote “Despite it being described as “The Old Limekiln at Dorking, Surrey” by Edward Wesson, painted in the 1960s, we have been unable to determine whether the kiln was situated in the chalkpits here or was over at Brockham (the two businesses being often confused).”
So we first of all made it into a jigsaw. (Obviously!)
The Old Limekiln at Dorking by Edward Wesson
Then we put the image into the Memories of Dorking facebook group to see if anyone there had any knowledge of the building. Sam Dawson, who is one of the Museum cave guides recognised the building immediately.
“It’s one of the surviving kilns at Betchworth Chalk Pits (the owners, the Dorking Greystone Lime Company, deliberately used ‘Dorking’ due to its associations with high quality lime). The two chimneys and some of the subterranean, ground and first floor structures of this one remain, but all the housing and the machinery that it contained has gone. Much of it was still there as late as the 1980s”.
Sam sent over a couple of images of the building.
He also told us that the building had been used in the 1970 horror film “Scream and Scream Again”
The trailer features other locations in Betchworth including Pebble Hill Road.
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