Finally placing some of our own caches to celebrate reaching 200 finds!
Cotmandene is a 12-acre area of common land to the east of Dorking town centre. It can easily be spotted from Box Hill and is thought to meant the heath of the poor cottages. There are fantastic views of Box Hill and Ranmore and Denbies Hillside.
The red brick walls you can see today are those of the kitchen gardens of Deepdene House, which was extended by Thomas Hope after he bought it in 1807, originally built in 1752. Sadly no longer standing but the area has been revived and is part of the Deepdene trail (see www.deepdenetrail.co.uk for more details).
Cricket matches were played on Cotmandene during the 18th century and are recorded in Edward Beavan's 1777 poem Box Hill. A painting entitled A Cricket Match on Cotmandene, Dorking by the artist James Canter, dating to around 1770, is now held by the Marylebone Cricket Club and is shown on the plaque nearby with some other images of the view in years gone by.
Take a seat on the bench up on the top.
We often cycle over Cotmandene and always enjoy the amazing views, we hope you do too!
This cannot be approached by car, please park sensibly and walk to GZ. Please remove the lid and then the log, to place back in put the log rolled up in the lid and then screw bottom part on. otherwise you will struggle to get the log back in!