Godalming
Town and civil parish in Surrey, England From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Town and civil parish in Surrey, England From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Godalming (/ˈɡɒdəlmɪŋ/ GOD-əl-ming) is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around 30 miles (49 km) southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers 3.74 sq mi (9.7 km2) and includes the settlements of Farncombe, Binscombe and Aaron's Hill. Much of the area lies on the strata of the Lower Greensand Group and Bargate stone was quarried locally until the Second World War.
Godalming | |
---|---|
Market town and civil parish | |
The Pepperpot, High Street | |
Location within Surrey | |
Area | 9.68 km2 (3.74 sq mi) |
Population | 21,804 (civil parish 2011)[1] or 22,689 (built-up area)[2] |
• Density | 2,252/km2 (5,830/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | SU968437 |
• London | 30 mi (49 km) NE |
Civil parish |
|
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Godalming |
Postcode district | GU7 |
Dialling code | 01483 |
Police | Surrey |
Fire | Surrey |
Ambulance | South East Coast |
UK Parliament | |
The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Paleolithic and land above the Wey floodplain at Charterhouse was first settled in the middle Iron Age. The modern town is believed to have its origins in the 6th or early 7th centuries and its name is thought to derive from that of a Saxon landowner. Kersey, a woollen cloth, dyed blue, was produced at Godalming for much of the Middle Ages, but the industry declined in the early modern period. In the 17th century, the town began to specialise in the production of knitted textiles and in the manufacture of hosiery in particular.
Throughout its history, Godalming has benefitted from its location on the main route from London to Portsmouth Dockyard. Local transport links were improved from the early 18th century with the opening of the turnpike road through the town in 1749 and the construction of the Godalming Navigation in 1764. Expansion of the settlement began in the mid-19th century, stimulated by the opening of the first railway station in 1849 and the relocation of Charterhouse School from London in 1872. The town has a claim to be the first place in the world to have a combined public and private electricity supply.
Several buildings in the town centre date from the 16th and 17th centuries. The distinctive Pepperpot was built in 1814 to replace the medieval market house and to house the council chamber. Among the notable former residents of the civil parish were Jack Phillips, the senior wireless operator on the RMS Titanic, and the mountaineer George Mallory. James Oglethorpe, the founder of the Colony of Georgia, was born in Godalming in 1696 and the town maintains a friendship with the U.S. state and the cities of Savannah and Augusta in particular.
The oldest surviving record of Godalming is from a c. 1000 copy of the c. 880 – c. 885 will of Alfred the Great, in which the settlement appears as Godelmingum. The name is written as Godelminge in the Domesday Book of 1086, and later as Godelminges (c. 1150 – c. 1200), Godhelming (c. 1170 – c. 1230), Godalminges (c. 1220 – c. 1265) and Godalmyn (c. 1485 – c. 1625). The second part of the name is thought to derive from the Old English —ingas and means "people of" or "family of" and the first part may refer to an Anglo-Saxon individual called Godhelm.[3][note 1] Thomas William Shore (1840–1905) suggested that Godhelm may be of Gothic origin[5] and Robert Eugen Zachrisson (1880–1937) proposed that it may have been an early name for the River Ock or another local stream.[3] Residents of Godalming are sometimes called "Godhelmians".[6][7]
The first records of Binscombe and Busbridge are from the 13th century, when they appear as Budenscombe and Bursbrige respectively. Their names are thought to derive from individuals called Byden and Beohrtsige, names both found in Old English. Catteshall may mean "hill of the wild cat" or "hill belonging to a person called Catt".[3] Farncombe appears in Domesday Book as Fearnecombe and is thought to mean "valley of the ferns".[8] Frith Hill may derive from the Middle English frith, meaning "woodland".[9]
Godalming is a town in the Borough of Waverley in southwest Surrey, around 30 mi (49 km) from central London and 4 mi (6.4 km) from Guildford.[10] The town is in the valley of the River Wey, which flows northwards through Guildford to join the River Thames at Weybridge.[10][11] Godalming High Street runs roughly east to west, linking an ancient crossing point of the Wey to the road leading south over Holloway Hill. The town is almost completely surrounded by the Metropolitan Green Belt and the Surrey Hills National Landscape is to the north and west.[10][12]
Godalming Civil Parish has a total area of 3.74 sq mi (9.7 km2).[13] It includes the settlements of Binscombe, Frith Hill and Charterhouse (north of the river) and Aaron's Hill, Ockford Ridge and Crownpits (to the south). The majority of the built-up area of Busbridge is also in Godalming Civil Parish. Farncombe, to the north of the town, has a strong village identity and incorporates a small cluster of local shops on Farncombe and St John's Streets. Godalming has good transport links to London and Portsmouth via the railway line and A3 road.[10]
At the west end of the town, the River Wey is joined by the River Ock, which rises at Witley, to the south.[14] The main urban areas of Godalming and Farncombe are separated from the Wey by the floodplain, which includes the water meadows known as the Lammas Lands.[10][12] Serious flooding events occurred in the local area in 1968, 1990, 2000, 2013 and 2020; new defences, including the construction of a 525 m (1,722 ft) flood wall and two pumping stations, were installed in the winter of 2018-19.[15][16]
Godalming lies on the northwestern side of the Weald and primarily sits on the strata of the Lower Greensand Group, laid down in the early Cretaceous.[14] Atherfield Clay is found in the extreme north of the civil parish at Binscombe, where there was a former brickworks. Holloway Hill and much of the town centre are on the Hythe Beds, a loamy, fine-grained sandy layer that also includes some sandstone and chert. Although rare elsewhere in these strata, fossils of mollusc species occur in these beds in the Godalming area, including the bivalves Ostrea macroptera and Exogyra sinuata, and the brachiopods Rhynchonella parvirostris and Waldheimia tamarindus.[14][17]
Frith Hill and Charterhouse are on the iron-rich Bargate Beds, a part of the more widespread lower Sandgate Formation that is only found in the Godalming area. This layer contains Bargate stone, a dark honey-coloured calcerous sandstone that was quarried until the Second World War at several sites in the civil parish.[18][19][20] There are also small exposures of the sandy Folkestone Beds at Busbridge and to the northwest of Charterhouse.[21] River gravels are found in the valleys of the Wey and Ock to the west and south of the town centre, and as a terrace at Farncombe.[14][22] Alluvial deposits of sand and silt are found in the floodplain of the Wey, especially between Bridge Street and Catteshall.[14][23]
The earliest evidence of human activity in the Godalming area is from the Stone Age. At least two Paleolithic hand axes[25] as well as Mesolithic flint blades[26] and flakes[27][28] have been found in the civil parish. In 2017, a local schoolboy discovered a Bronze Age barbed and tanged arrowhead, which he subsequently donated to Godalming Museum.[24] The higher ground above the River Wey floodplain at Charterhouse was occupied during the middle Iron Age[29] and human habitation is thought to have continued into the early Roman period.[30] There is thought to have been a small farmstead on the site in the late first century C.E.[31] and there was also a villa at Binscombe.[32][note 2]
The Anglo-Saxon settlement at Godalming is thought to have been founded in the 6th or early 7th centuries, in the area surrounding the parish church.[12][34][note 3] The oldest stonework in the church dates from c. 820 – c. 840 and the base of the west wall of the tower is of Anglo-Saxon origin.[36] The earliest documentary evidence for Godalming, is from the will of Alfred the Great in 880, in which the settlement and surrounding land is left to his nephew, Æthelwold ætheling.[37][38] By the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, the town was the administrative centre of the Godalming Hundred, which stretched from Puttenham in the northwest to Chiddingfold in the southeast.[37]
The town appears as Godelminge in Domesday Book; in 1086 it was held by Ranulf Flambard,[39] who also held Tuesley and parts of Guildford.[40][41][note 4] The manor had sufficient land for 25 plough teams. It included 40 acres of meadow, woodland for 103 swine, three mills, two churches, and generated an annual income of £34.[39] Farncombe appears in Domesday Book as Fernecome and was held by Odo of Bayeux.[42]
At some point in the late 11th century, the Manor of Godalming was divided into two parts. The King's Manor was held by the Crown through the 12th century. There is evidence to suggest that it was held by Stephen de Turnham in 1206, but in 1221 it was granted to the Bishop of Salisbury by Henry III. It was held by the Bishop until 1541, when it was conveyed to Thomas Paston, who returned it to the Crown the following year. It was held by the monarch through the Tudor period until 1601, when Elizabeth I sold it to George More of Loseley Park.[43][44]
The second part of the Manor of Godalming, known as the Rectory Manor or Deanshold, was granted to Salisbury Cathedral by Henry I in the early 12th century. It remained in the custodianship of the dean and chapter until the mid-19th century. For much of its history, the manor was leased to the Castillion family, but was held by the Ogelthorpe family in the 18th century. In 1846, the Rectory Manor was transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who began to break up and sell off the estate in the early 1860s.[43]
The first charter to be granted to Godalming was issued by Edward I on 7 June 1300. In it, he authorised a weekly market and a three-day annual fair on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul in late June.[46] The right to hold a market was confirmed by Elizabeth I in 1563[44] and, in January 1575, she issued a Charter of Incorporation, enabling Godalming to become a self-governing borough. The charter specified that a "warden" (effectively a mayor) should be elected by the town each year at Michaelmas.[47] In 1620, Francis Bacon, the Lord Chancellor under James I, issued a document entitled "Ordinances and constitutions made and established for the better and government of the Town of Godalming in the County of Surry", which specified that the administration of the town should be the responsibility of the warden and eight assistants. It also provided for the appointment of a bailiff and restricted the amount of time that townspeople could spend in local inns and hostelries.[48]
The modern system of local government began to emerge in the first half of the 19th century. Under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, the town became a borough corporation under the control of a mayor and elected councillors.[49] The following year, the Guildford Poor Law Union was formed, with responsibility for a total area of 12 sq mi (31 km2) stretching from Godalming to Woking.[50] As a result of the Local Government Act 1888, several responsibilities were transferred from the borough to the newly formed Surrey County Council. Farncombe was originally a separate civil parish, but became part of Godalming borough in 1892.[51] The most recent change in local government took place in 1974, when the municipal boroughs of Godalming and Haslemere were merged with the Farnham Urban District and Hambledon Rural District to form Waverley District. At the same time, Godalming Town Council was constituted as the lowest tier of local government in the civil parish.[52][53] The district became a borough on 21 February 1984, following the grant of a royal charter by Elizabeth II.[54][55]
The right to hold a market was granted to Godalming in 1300 by Edward I. It probably took place each week at the junction of Church Street and the High Street.[46] The right was confirmed in the 1563 charter of Elizabeth I, which stipulated that the market should be held every Wednesday.[44] In 1674, the day was changed to Friday, but had reverted to Wednesday by the start of the 19th century. The market ceased in around 1879.[47] The right to hold a fair each July was also granted in the charter of 1300 and continued to be held until 1870. A second annual fair, which originally took place over three days around Candlemas each February, was granted by Elizabeth I. By the start of the 19th century, the fair had been reduced to a single day and is last recorded in 1910.[47]
Three watermills are recorded in the entry for Godalming in Domesday Book.[38][39] Although their identities are uncertain, the present day Catteshall, Hatch and Westbrook Mills on the River Wey are thought to be the likely locations.[19][57] Hatch Mill, close to the parish church, may be the oldest mill site in Godalming.[19] Catteshall Mill, to the northeast of the town centre, is first recorded in 1300 and was used for milling corn from c. 1660 until 1836. The two Westbrook Mills, also on the Wey, are around 100 m (110 yd) apart and are not clearly distinguished in historical records until the mid-19th century, when the upper mill became known as Salgasson Mill.