Thames Tributary River Mole - Mickleham

Thames Tributary River Mole
The Mole continues to flow north and west in a convoluted rout
e.

Post to the north Mickleham
Post to the south West Humble


Camilla Drive
An area created at the breakup of the neighbouring estate of Camilla Lacey and gardens have some of the original trees

Crabtree Lane
Foxbury
Foxbury Shaw
Nicols Field

Cowslip Lane
Cowslip Cottage. 18c with later additions. Listed Grade II

Fredley Park
Fredley Manor. Timber-framed house with plastered front. Modern porch but dated 1597. This was the home of Richard Sharp (1759-1835), known as 'Conversation' Sharp, the friend of many famous literary figures - Wordsworth, Coleridge, Sarah Siddons. Said to be a tree in the garden in which Wordsworth carved ”WW”.
River Mole. In the grounds of Fredley are hollows some way from the stream, in which the water rises when the river is full.

Fredley Meadows
Swallow Holes - One of the largest of these latter is in the river some 200 yards up-stream from the railway bridge, close to which once stood wooden 'Praybridge.'
Ham Bank - a collapse in the bed of the river at the foot of the steep cliff at Ham Bank in August 1948, which swallowed the entire flow. The river was flowing right through to Leatherhead and the swallow was on the slightly depressed surface of the bed, but in the early morning of
the 20th an area around it had caved in to a depth of 6ft. This happens because the slightly acid river water is continually dissolving away the chalk below the swallets until large cavities develop, and sooner or later subsidence occurs. the crater was still more than half full by morning and being fed by the greatly reduced flow of the river and by a small stream flowing backwards from a downstream pool. By the evening there was only a puddle in the crater, crammed with jumping fish; while the sides were strewn with dead and dying fish......"

Mickleham Bypass
The Mickleham Bypass attempted to deal with a difficult section of main road - A24 - with a carriageway through the Mole Valley and a new road avoiding the village but constrained by the Mole to the west. It was opened in November 1937 and June 1938 and remains essentially unmodified with a narrow southbound carriageway and tight bends, although the northbound carriageway was dualled. There were plans for a tunnel but pending that the speed limit is reduced to 50 mph and one lane of the southbound carriageway is closed. The central reservation is wooded with the southbound cycle path in the middle of the road. It is a very typical thirties dual carriageway.

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