Dorking: A Town Underground by Sam Dawson

For centuries Dorking’s growth above ground has been mirrored by excavations below it, leaving a unique legacy of historical sites that live on in the darkness below. In a new book,

Journalist and Dorking Museum cave guide Sam Dawson shines a torch on the subterranean heritage of cellars, caves, bunkers and mysterious spaces that lie below the town’s streets.

In his lavishly illustrated book, “Dorking: A Town Underground”, Sam explores Dorking’s wartime civil defences, crypts, vaults, icehouses, wine and beer cellars and the rambling caves beneath our feet. Sam has been a guide in the highly popular South Street Caves in Dorking’s West Street since soon after their reopening to the public by Dorking Museum in 2015. He has spent the past three years in intense research into the other caves and underground spaces beneath the town.