Also weird for me to see the name here (I’m in the next village over), not one you see popping up often. I occasionally wonder how many other HNers there are scattered about in my local area (I suspect not many).

I grew up in Dorking, but this is the first time (that I can remember...) that I actually read its wikipedia article.

TIL: No one knows why 'Dorking' is called 'Dorking', but there's a English Place Names Society which since the 1920's has researched the origins of town names in England, and is considered [0] to be "the established national body on the subject".

[0] https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/

The -ing part of a place name is Saxon, from memory, something like "ingas" meaning "people of". So, People of Dork, literally, and whatever became Dork (a person/place/event) is probably lost to historical memory. We have an awful lot of places with "ing" in them around here, probably due to a lot of C7 Saxon settlement.

Didn’t it feature in “War of the Worlds”?

My Dad worked for Mullard, which was renamed to Philips Electronics and relocated to Dorking.

Roots in the UK rocket industry that never was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullard_Space_Science_Laborato...

Another local here; 20 years in Horsham now Haywards Heath

Almost due south of Dorking, down the road in Horsham. The small town was the first thing I thought of on seeing this title. I'd imagine this area actually has a fair few HNers, as it's in the tech catchment area for London, Reading, etc.

I live just a few miles to the North. Nice to see a few other ~Dorking locals here :)

Also in the immediate vicinity. Who knew there were so many of us! (And only those who have seen this on a Sunday & bothered to comment.)

Perhaps a mini meet-up is in order? :)