I Stayed in a 700-Year-Old Coaching Inn Where Dickens (Maybe) Wrote Pickwick

About this episode

This summer I travelled around the south of England staying in historic inns, and stop number three was the White Horse in Dorking, Surrey. There's been a building on this spot since at least 1278, when it belonged to the Knights Hospitaller, and it later became one of the big coaching inns on the road from London to Horsham. We got there way too early to check in, so we played board games at Game N Play (a board game café AND a ukulele shop). Then I fell in love with St Martin's Church, spent far too long in Waterstones, and went for an evening walk toward Box Hill (Jane Austen's Emma picnic, Keats, and a major who was buried upside down on purpose). Along the way I found out about Dorking's five-toed chickens, its sandstone caves, and the Mayflower passenger who came from this very town. I also did a little Dickens myth-busting and had a very meta Lucy Worsley moment. Next up: the Royal Forest in Epping Forest, right next to Elizabeth I's hunting lodge, and the best room of the whole trip. Book your rooms with the White Horse here: https://whitehorsedorking.com/ 🎟 TudorCon 2026, October 23 to 25, Richmond VA (plus TudorCon From Home): https://tudorcon.englandcast.com 📬 News