Marden Park, the estate at the heart of Woldingham, has medieval origins and has passed through the hands of several notable families over the centuries. The North Downs ridge above the village has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with Bronze Age barrows and Iron Age earthworks found on the chalk grassland. The thin soil on the downs supported sheep grazing rather than arable farming, and the area remained sparsely populated for most of its history.
The village developed in its current form after the railway arrived in the 1880s. Woldingham station, deep in the valley below the village, opened in 1885 on the line from Oxted to East Croydon. The steep climb from the station to the village, involving a sharp zigzag road up the scarp face of the Downs, became a defining feature of living here. It deterred casual development and helped preserve the village's secluded character. Large houses were built along the ridge road, taking advantage of the views northward across the Weald of Kent and the sense of being above and apart from the surrounding suburbia.
Woldingham School, a Catholic girls' boarding school, moved to the Marden Park estate in 1946. The school was originally founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton in 1842 and relocated to the spacious grounds of the estate after the Second World War. The school has educated notable alumni including Carey Mulligan and Emma Corrin. The surrounding downland is rich in chalk grassland wildflowers, including orchids and rare butterflies, and the North Downs Way national trail passes along the ridge. Despite being only 20 miles from central London, Woldingham retains a feeling of genuine rural isolation.
