Norbury Park

Norbury Park is an area of mixed wooded and agricultural land surrounding a privately owned Georgian manor house near Leatherhead and Dorking, Surrey.

[3] A small Bronze Age hoard consisting of two palstave axes and a scabbard chape dating from around 1150-1000 BC was discovered in 2003 in woodland on the western side of the park.

[7] The estate was one of several local manors comprising the Honour of Clare that had been created for Richard fitz Gilbert by William I as a reward for his support during the Norman Conquest.

Sir Francis' son Richard, who was created a baronet by Charles II subsequently inherited the estate and on his death it passed to his daughter, who married Thomas Tryon of Leatherhead.

[5] Locke also invited J. M. W. Turner to the estate to paint; a watercolour entitled Beech Trees at Norbury Park (1797) is held by the National Gallery of Ireland.

[5] Ebenezer Fuller Maitland, the former MP for Wallingford, purchased the house in around 1822, and later exchanged it for Park Place, Remenham, Berkshire, with Henry Piper Sperling.

Sperling remained at Norbury Park for 24 years and was responsible for developing the gardens around the House, including the building of Weir Bridge over the River Mole, which still stands today and is Grade II* listed.

The station was designed by Charles Henry Driver in the Châteauesque style and included steeply pitched roofs with patterned tiles and an ornamental turret topped with a decorative grille and weather vane.

[15] At the urging of James Chuter Ede,[16] Surrey County Council bought 1,340 acres (5.4 km2) of Norbury Park in July 1930, for which the estate's total purchase price was £97,000 (equivalent to £7,746,129 in 2023), to protect the land from development.

[20] Norbury Park House was designed in the Palladian style by Thomas Sandby for William Locke in 1774[5][6] and was extended by the architect, Peter Frederick Robinson, in 1820.