I’ve written over 40 town, destination or travel guides in the last year or so. Here are some sample pages from a guide to Dorking.
Sample copy from travel guides (Dorking overview)
The old medieval market town of Dorking lies in the baeutiful Surrey Hills where the Rover Mole has cut a gap through the North Downs at the meeting point of two valleys and the Pipp Brook tributary.
With a wider-area population of about thirty thousand, about eleven thousand in the centre, this charming town is ideally located a mere twenty miles south of London. The town of Guildford is only around ten miles away.
Attracting an eclectic and sophisticated population, possibly due to its proximity to London, pretty Dorking is renowned for its selection of independent shops, lively artisan scene and easy access to the stunning countryside much loved by ramblers and cyclists.
There are some delightful residential areas, with a wide range of good schools to choose from. People like to live in Dorking for the easy access to its lovely, typically English surrounding countryside. It’s also far enough from London to have a true sense of itself, encompassing its ancient and Roman heritage and, proudly, its own legendary breed of five-toed Dorking chickens and wild cherry wine.
Sample copy (Dorking history)
Dorking’s been around a fair while, with a known history dating back to the Bronze Age. There are some ancient bowl barrows in Glory Wood, Milton Heath and Box Hill.
Later, in Emperor Hadrian’s time, a Roman road ran through the town linking London to Chichester. About nine hundred years on, William the Conqueror owned it for a bit, then his son, William II, gave it to the Battle of Hastings veteran William de Warenne, the first Earl of Surrey.
From then on, its expansion came in stages marked by the development of transport links that encouraged trade and further settlement. A turnpike road to London put Dorking on a busy coach route in the eighteenth century. About a hundred years later the first railway line came to the town and Dorking station opened in 1849. The nineteenth century brought more affluent residents, paved streets and gas lighting. Dorking has flourished since then, and regular improvements to its two main roads, the A24 London–Worthing and the A25 Guildford–Sevenoaks, has propelled it into easy reach of the capital and other towns.
Celebrated people with links to Dorking include author Daniel Defoe, actor Sir Laurence Olivier and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
If you’d like to have a chat about travel guides that I could write for you, please give me a ring on 07747 636 938 (UK). Or drop me an email at guy@guynicholls.ink
I don’t just write travel guides. I write other types of guide, too. See user guides.