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'Box Hill' is a well known beauty spot in the North Downs of Surrey, England, close to the southern outskirts of London, overlooking Dorking to the south-west. There is a small village of the same name about 1.5 km to the east. Confusingly, Box Hill School is located in the village of Mickleham about 1.5 km to the north, and is between the towns of Dorking and Leatherhead. Just outside of the M25.
The hill is named after the box trees which can be found on its steep southern and western flanks, especially around the "Whites", chalk cliffs cut by the River Mole.

Contents

Public access

Notable sights

References in literature and music

External links

References

Public access

Box Hill was given to the nation by Leopold Salomons in 1914.
A country park, owned by the National Trust, now provides for public access to Box Hill, and the Pilgrims' Way long distance footpath runs about 1 km to the south.

At the "top" of the hill there is a car park and viewpoint, from where the entire town of Dorking can be viewed. However, this location is not actually the true summit of the hill. To the east, the ridge ascends, and most of the village of Box Hill is higher, at an altitude of around 200m. The Ordnance Survey mark a spot height of 224m at the radio mast at .
At the bottom of the hill is another car park, adjoining Rykers Cafe which is frequented by motorcyclists all year round.
The route to the top car park from the A24, known as the Zig Zag Road, is a very popular test of fitness by road cyclists.

Notable sights

A Major Peter Labellière is buried on the hill just west of the viewpoint at Burfoot slope. He was buried (on July 11 1800) head downwards, and according to some sources he reasoned for this by saying "the world is topsy turvy, and I'll be the right way in the end"; other sources indicate that he merely wished to emulate the example of St. Peter, who was apocryphally (in the Acts of Peter) crucified upside down.^[1]
John Logie Baird, the inventor of the first working television system, conducted some of his experiments on Box Hill,^[2] including his Noctovisor,^[3] an infra-red viewing device.

References in literature and music

An important passage of Jane Austen's novel ''Emma'' is set at Box Hill.

In ''England: A Nation'', (London: R. Brimley Johnson, 1904), edited by Lucian Oldershaw, and in a chapter entitled "The Patriotic Idea" written by G. K. Chesterton, the beauty of Box Hill violated by an invading army is used to express a healthy patriot's love for his nation is opposed to the jingoistic nationalism of tabloid newspapers: "But just as a man who has been in love will find it difficult to write a whole frantic epic about a flirtation, so all that kind of rhetoric about the Union Jack and the Anglo-Saxon blood, which has made amusing the journalism of this country for the last six years, will be merely impossible to the man who has for one moment called up before himself what would be the real sensation of hearing that a foreign army was encamped on Box Hill."
Musician Ben Watt of Everything But The Girl wrote a song called "On Box Hill", released as B side of the single "Some Things Don't Matter" (Cherry Red Records) in 1983. This song about a sunny day on Box Hill also appears on his debut album ''North Marine Drive''.
In Richard Thompson's song '1952 Vincent Black Lightning' it is the location to which James and Red Molly ride on James' motorcycle.

External links

★ Box Hill information at the National Trust

★ Photograph showing the upside down burial on Box Hill

★ Article by Robert Greenham about George Meredith and his home on Box Hill, with reference to his friendship with J. M. Barrie

References

1. http://flickr.com/photos/doilum/387839851/
2. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-localtoyou/w-south_east/w-south_east-countryside/w-south_east-places-north_downs/w-south_east-places-north_downs-box_hill_headley_heath.htm
3. http://www.geocities.com/neveyaakov/electro_science/baird.html