| Godalming | |
The Pepperpot, Godalming's former town hall |
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Godalming
Godalming shown within Surrey |
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| Population | 21,103 |
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| OS grid reference | SU968437 |
| Parish | Godalming |
| District | Waverley |
| Shire county | Surrey |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | GODALMING |
| Postcode district | GU7 |
| Dialling code | 01483 |
| Police | Surrey |
| Fire | Surrey |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | South West Surrey |
| List of places: UK • England • Surrey | |
Godalming ( /ˈɡɒdəlmɪŋ/) is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, 7 kilometres (4 mi) south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France and Mayen in Germany. Friendship links are in place with the state of Georgia in the United States and the city of Moscow in Russia. James Oglethorpe of Godalming was the founder of the colony of Georgia.
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The town has existed since Saxon times (see also Godalming (hundred)), and probably earlier. It is mentioned in the will of King Alfred the Great, and the name itself has Saxon origins, 'Godhelms Ingus' roughly translated as “the family of Godhelm”, and probably referring to one of the first lords of the manor.
Godalming grew in size because its location is roughly half-way between Portsmouth and London, which encouraged traders to set up stalls and inns for travellers to buy from and rest in.
Godalming appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Godelminge. It was held by William the Conqueror. Its domesday assets were: 2 churches (both held by Ranulf Flambard) worth 12s, 3 mills worth £2 1s 8d, 25 ploughs, 40 acres (16 ha) of meadow, woodland worth 103 hogs. It rendered £34.[1] Its population was roughly 400 people. At the time, its manor belonged to the King, but a few hundred years later, ownership transferred to the Bishop of Salisbury, under a charter granted by King Edward I of England.
In the year 1300, the town was granted the right to hold a weekly market and an annual fair. Its major industry at the time was woollen cloth, which contributed to Godalming’s prosperity over the next few centuries, until a sudden decline in the 17th century. Instead, its people applied their skills to the latest knitting and weaving technology and began producing stockings in a variety of materials, and later to leatherwork.
A willingness to adapt, and move from one industry to another meant that Godalming continued to thrive. For example, papermaking was adopted in the 17th century, and paper was still manufactured there in the 20th century. The quarrying of Bargate stone also provided an important source of income, as did passing trade - Godalming was a popular stopping point for stagecoaches and the Mail coach between Portsmouth and London. In 1764, trade received an additional boost when early canalisation of the river took place, linking the town to Guildford, and from there to the River Thames and London on the Wey and Godalming Navigations.
In 1726 a Godalming maidservant called Mary Toft hoaxed the town into believing that she had given birth to rabbits. The foremost doctors of the day came to witness the freak event and for a brief time the story caused a national sensation. Eventually Mary was found out after a porter was caught smuggling a dead rabbit into her chamber, she confessed to inserting at least 16 rabbits into herself and faking their birth.
So successful was Godalming, that in the early 19th century it was considerably larger than today’s county town of Guildford, and by 1851 the population had passed 6,500. Already, it was becoming a popular residence for commuters, for it was connected to London by railway two years earlier, in 1849, and to Portsmouth in 1859. Today the town is served by Godalming railway station on the Portsmouth Direct Line. The first mayor of Godalming was Henry Marshall who also founded the firm of Marshalls Solicitors in 1831.
The town has around 230 listed buildings, including Tudor timber framing and 17th century brickwork. Godalming Parish Church has an early Saxon chancel and Norman tower. The 19th century town hall, nicknamed 'the Pepperpot' due to its cupola, is a distinctive octagonal building situated on the High Street. Due to its unique design, it has become the defacto 'logo' of the town today.
The current building dates back to 1814 and replaced the medieval "Old Market House" that had occupied the site since the early Middle Ages. It was in this Market House (and its predecessors) that the local Hundred Court met and discussed matters of local importance for more than a thousand years. The upstairs rooms continued to be used for civic gatherings until 1908. The Pepperpot later housed the town museum, and continues to be used as a public function room. The arched area beneath the building, at street level, has been used as a marketplace.[2]
Other significant buildings in the town include Edwin Lutyens's Red House, and a significant English public school, Charterhouse stands about a mile from the town, on the top of Charterhouse Hill. Charterhouse won the FA Cup as the Old Carthusians in 1880 and 1881.
Winkworth Arboretum, with its collection of rare trees and shrubs, is situated a few miles to the south.
Godalming came to world attention in September 1881, when it became the first town in the world to have installed a public electricity supply, which made electricity available to consumers. It was Calder & Barnet who installed a Siemens AC Alternator and dynamo which were powered by a waterwheel, located at Westbrook Mill, on the river Wey. There were a number of supply cables that fed seven arc lights and 34 Swan incandescent lights, some of which were laid in the gutters. Floods in late 1881 caused problems and in the end Calder & Barnet withdrew from the contract. It was taken over by Siemens. Under Siemens the supply system grew and a number of technical problems were solved. But later on in 1884 the whole town reverted to gas lighting as Siemens failed to tender for a contract to light the town. This was due to a survey he undertook in the town that failed to provide adequate support to make the business viable, and Siemens had lost money on the scheme in the early years, but was prepared to stay on to gain experience. Electricity returned to the town in 1904.
Godalming railway station is on the Portsmouth Direct Line between London (Waterloo) and Portsmouth, and is served by South West Trains.[3] The station has been recognised for its floral decorations including 10 hanging baskets.[4] The next stations up and down the line are at Farncombe and Milford which in many respects (for example transport and education) are effectively suburbs of Godalming.
Roads running through, or close to, Godalming are:[5][6]
The town is served by a bus network connecting the town centre with the main residential areas. These are provided by Arriva and Stagecoach. A community transport service is provided by "Hoppa". Chaired through its difficult early days by Brian Richards,[7] Waverley Hoppa has burgeoned into a low priced provider of minibus and MPV personalised transport for the elderly, the disabled, the young and others for whom simply getting from where they are to where they want to be is a problem.
Godalming lies approximately equidistant (50 kilometres) from Heathrow and Gatwick, the two major commercial international airports in South East England.
The Wey and Godalming Navigations terminates at the United Church.[8]
People live in the town centre and various suburbs; to the east there is Catteshall; to the west there is Aaron's Hill and Ockford Ridge; to the north there is Farncombe, Charterhouse and Frith Hill; and to the south there is Holloway Hill, Busbridge and Crownpits. Sometimes Milford is classed as a suburb of Godalming.
Educational establishments in or near Godalming area include:
The University of Surrey is just outside Godalming (in Guildford).
Numbers in brackets indicate the % of pupils achieving 5 A-C GCSEs in total and then including the key subjects of maths and English.[15]
All primary schools in Godalming are coeducational. Infant schools cover the age range 4–7, junior schools cover 8–11.
The figures shown in brackets are VA value added a measure of how pupils' performance has improved, and AGG aggregate score the sum of the percentages of pupils achieving the expected levels in English, maths and science (thus the maximum possible is 300).[16]
Godalming is also home to the The National Autistic Society resource centre for the south east. And also NAS horizons day centre.
The Godalming Town Lottery "GOLO" was launched in Godalming on the 1st November 2008, by the Go-Godalming Association, a member of the Lotteries Council. Tickets, sold at local shops and pubs, cost £1 and the draw takes place on the last Saturday of every month. The first one was on Godalming Town Day, 29 November 2008, at the Pepperpot. It is considered to be the first town lottery of its kind. There are 17 prizes, ranging from £500 to £10. Profits are donated to local causes, beginning with the Bandstand roof fund. GOLO is a community lottery for the Godalming Community. The first independent town lottery in the country has now turned three years old. GOLO has given away more than £18,000 to local causes and more than £30,000 in cash prizes. To celebrate, GOLO launched another easy way to buy your GOLOs each month—Standing Orders! [31]
In a charter dated 7 June 1300, King Edward I granted the Bishop of Salisbury the right to hold a weekly market and an annual fair in the town. Godalming remains a typical English market town, with a market every Friday and a selection of independent and national retailers selling clothing for all ages, shoes, watches, jewellery, fine art, books, gifts, stationery, music, guitars, computers, photography, pine furniture, antiques, flowers, hardware, food of all sorts, and household goods. In addition there are the ubiquitous banks, building societies, estate agents, travel agents, solicitors, accountants, employment agencies and charity shops. There are several pubs, restaurants and cafes, occasional visiting French and Italian markets, and an annual Godalming Food Festival.
The comic novel The Return of Reginald Perrin, by David Nobbs, contains the following footnote: "Note: It is believed that this book mentions Godalming more than any other book ever written, including A Social, Artistic and Economic History of Godalming by E. Phipps-Blythburgh." The novel was the second in a trilogy, adapted to become a hit TV series: The Return of Reginald Perrin.
Owing to its typically English appearance, attractive shop fronts and cobbled streets, the town has often been used as a backdrop for the shooting of various films and television programmes. In February 2006, High Street and Church Street, which runs from the Pepperpot to the parish church, was used in the production of The Holiday.
Numerous notable people were born in the town including: James Oglethorpe (born 1696) founder of the colony of Georgia; Julius Caesar (born 1830), cricketer; Aldous Huxley (born 1894), writer; Nick Clarke (born 1948), radio journalist and presenter; and Mick Mills (born 1949), footballer.
The radio operator of RMS Titanic, Jack Phillips, was born and lived in Godalming. He is famed for remaining at his post, sending a distress call, until the ship sank completely.[32] There are several articles of remembrance around the town, including a section of Godalming Museum, a memorial fountain, cloister and garden walk near the church (the largest Titanic memorial in the world), and a Wetherspoons pub named in his honour.
The architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, began work in 1896 on a house at Munstead Wood, Godalming for the garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll. She died in 1932 and is buried in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist, Busbridge, Godalming next to her brother.
In the 1800s judge James Wilde, 1st Baron Penzance lived at Eashing Park, Godalming.
In the 1900s, George Mallory, who later made a fatal attempt to scale Mount Everest, taught at Charterhouse School, and then lived in the town after marrying Ruth Turner. He died during the 1924 attempt, but Ruth and his three children remained in the area.
In the late twentieth century, actor Terry-Thomas, comedic actor Terry Scott, actor Christopher Timothy, comedian Billy Dainty and the singer Alvin Stardust resided in the town. Dainty died at his house, "Cobblers", in the village on 19 November 1986.
The band Genesis was formed in 1967 by Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks while students at Charterhouse School.
Actor Sam Worthington was born in Godalming in 1976, before moving to Australia at a young age.
Significant people currently living in the town include the actress Rachel Hurd-Wood, Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole and former wife Cheryl Cole and football pundit Alan Hansen. Paul Merrett, a famous chef who has appeared several times on British TV, was a pupil at Rodborough.[33]
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