__NOTOC__ Pixham is a chapelry ( small village) within the parish of Dorking, Surrey on the near side of the confluence of the

River Mole The River Mole is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises in West Sussex near Gatwick Airport and flows northwest through Surrey for to the Thames at Hampton Court Palace. The river gives its name to the Surrey distri ...

and the

Pipp Brook The Pipp Brook is a left-bank tributary of the River Mole, Surrey, England. It rises at two main springs north of Leith Hill on the Greensand Ridge, then descends steeply in a northward direction, before flowing eastwards along the Vale of Holm ...

to its town, Dorking, which is centred 1 km (0.6 mi) southwest. The town as a whole, uniquely in Surrey, has three railway stations; Pixham adjoins or is the location of two of the three; and is near the junction of the

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

and A25 main roads. Until 1910

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

s principally for corn grinding and for

fulling Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...

at Pixham Mill operated, however its agricultural land has been converted to other use. At the 2011 Census the main land use was residential land; its main business being the head office of

Friends Provident Friends’ Provident Insurance was a banking institution founded in 1832 to serve the needs of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Based in Bradford, it concentrated on sickness and annuity policies until its life fund acquired Century Insurance ...

(which has since been taken over by Aviva), small employers include a school, large

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

and a waste water treatment works. Pixham covers .

Geography

The village is at the steep foot of the Box Hill stretch of the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills a ...

, on gently facing slopes leading up to the town of Dorking itself. To the east is the confluence of the

and the

, to the west is the Mole Valley railway line. Elevations on the south border of the village reach 60m above sea level (15m higher than the average river level, which descends three metres through the village).Grid square map

Ordnance survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

website

History

Pixham Mill in action about 1890 (cropped)

No mention is made of Pixham in

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

, but evidence of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

occupation, including coins, tiles and pottery shards, was discovered on the site of the

Sports Ground in 1980; the adjoining road is part of the original line of one of the (Roman) Stane Streets in England. 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. 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

s for corn grinding at Pixham Mill came to an end.

Economy

Friends Provident at ''Pixham End'', built in 1957, is the largest employer in Dorking with its insurance, pensions and financial planning UK Head Office in this buffered locality of Dorking. The main land use is residential, the other large businesses being

Betchworth Betchworth is a village and civil parish in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England. The village centre is on the north bank of the River Mole and south of the A25 road, almost east of Dorking and west of Reigate. London is north of the ...

Park Golf Course and ''The Watermill Inn'' directly to the south and a waste water treatment works on the eastern boundary.Thames Tributary – River Mole – Pixham
Edith Streets history. Retrieved 7 November 2013

Demography

The

United Kingdom Census 2011 A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...

considered the village as three output areas, at which time overwhelmingly with gardens, 361 homes formed the village. The proportion of households in the three divisions of Pixham who owned their home outright was in two of these 15% and 22% above the national average respectively, and slightly greater than the district average. The proportion who owned their home with a loan was in each output area within 2% of the borough and national average. This provides in each area for a lower proportion than average of rented residential property and of

social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...

relative to the Surrey and national averages.

Landmarks

St Marys Church, Pixham (geograph 2986929)

;Church The church of St Mary, a chapel of ease to Dorking parish church has a barrel-vaulted ceiling; is in the centre and was designed by the architect

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...

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*. Non-eucharist services for the whole community take place on the majority of Sundays at this church. ;Pixham Mill The present plain three-storey brick building dates from 1837 replacing an earlier one. The machinery was driven by a 13 ft 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 World War II Moss Bros. used the building as a warehouse. It is now a private house, but the water channels remain. The house and the adjacent cottage were flooded three feet deep at Christmas 2013. ;Pixham Mill Cottage 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, this

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...

cottage with painted brick infill is Grade II

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

and the oldest home in the settlement. ;Old Castle Mill This four-storey red brick, early 19th century mill has some of its machinery intact, however appears to have been defunct by 1912 and is a private house. ;Primary School This is the main amenity in the village. It is supported by the mother church to St Mary's Chapel in the village, St Martin's, Dorking and is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

primary school with playing fields.

Transport

;Roads The only through road in the village is Pixham Lane, which has a traffic-light controlled tunnel near the middle of the village. The village is bounded to the west by the

, a dual carriageway after Junction 9 of the M25 ( north) as far as Horsham, West Sussex where there is then an interchange for Crawley or Brighton, which are linked by the M23. The narrower A25 road passes through the far south of the locality. In east–west routes the south of the village adjoins the A25 which makes Dorking itself and the Reigate-Redhill conurbation accessible, and features in the London-Surrey cycle classic routes. ;Railways Dorking Deepdene station in Pixham has trains between

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

and

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

, see the

North Downs Line The North Downs Line is a passenger-train line connecting Reading, on the Great Western Main Line, to Redhill and , along the Brighton Main Line, linking many centres of population in that part of the North Downs which it traverses en route. ...

. This was the second station opened in the town however not under its current name but as 'Box Hill and Leatherhead Road'.

Dorking railway station Dorking railway station is a railway station in Dorking, Surrey, England. Located on the Mole Valley line, it is down the line from (via ). The station is one of three that serve the town of Dorking, alongside and stations (both on the North ...

is 0.5 km west of Pixham and has trains between Horsham and

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...

stations, see the

Sutton and Mole Valley Lines The Sutton and Mole Valley lines were constructed between 1847 and 1868 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, the London and South Western Railway and the LBSCR-sponsored Horsham, Dorking and Leatherhead Railway. Services Services ...

; the line marks the western boundary in general use.

Local government

Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council administering certain services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1965 the Conservative Party has ...

, one of the 81 representatives represents the area within the ''Dorking Hills'' division.Electoral Divisions
Surrey County Council. Retrieved 7 November 2013 At

Mole Valley Mole Valley is a local government district in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Dorking. The other town in the district is Leatherhead. The largest villages are Ashtead, Fetcham and Great Bookham, in the northern third of the district. ...

District Council. Pixham is in the portion of wards considered more rural than suburban so smaller and represented under the constitution by one councillor.

. Retrieved 7 November 2013

Notes and references

;Notes ;References

External links

The Pixham Post
website of the Pixham Residents Association {{authority control Villages in Surrey Mole Valley Dorking