Editing Coulsdon (section)

===Smitham Bottom or Valley===
At the heart of the geographical feature '''Smitham Bottom''' (where three [[dry valley]]s merge into one)<ref name=malden/> is this downtown part of the district. Most commerce and industry is here, set beside the Brighton Road, which is since 2006 a town centre arc of the [[A23 road]] and on Chipstead Valley Road which terminates halfway along the arc, leading directly to [[Woodmansterne]].  The various local feeder roads reach this street, including the combined one from the south-east, Marlpit Lane, under the A23 without needing a junction with that trunk (long-distance) route (which later becomes the [[M23 motorway|M23]]).

The soil is dry, and water was obtained even in 1912 by deep wells here in the chalk. This dry valley in the chalk, Smitham Bottom, has a watercourse below, the water of which in until the 16th century occasionally in times of flood ran here but after this, inexplicably, waits to break out as far as at the foot of the chalk in Croydon and Beddington, running through it.<ref name=malden/>