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Image:Godalming Pepperpot.JPG The Pepperpot, Godalming's former town hall. Godalming is a town in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, seven kilometres south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous stockbroker belt commuter town for London. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with Joigny, France and Mayen, Germany. Friendship links are also in place between the state of Georgia, USA, and Moscow, Russia.
Historypre-1300
The town of Godalming first came to be due to the fact that it is directly between Portsmouth and London, so traders would set up stalls and inns for travellers to buy from and rest in. By the time of the 1086 Domesday survey, Godalming had three watermills and a population of 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. 1300-1800In 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.
In 1764, trade received an additional boost when 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 Tofts 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. from 1800So 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. BuildingsThe long history of Godalming is still evident in its architecture, from its parish church, with its Saxon chancel and Norman tower, to its 19th century town hall, nicknamed the Pepperpot. The town has around 230 listed buildings, featuring everything from Tudor timbers to 17th century brickwork. Other significant buildings 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. Public Electricity SupplyGodalming came to world attention in September 1881, when it became the first town in the United Kingdom 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 was 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 back 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. TransportGodalming is on the mainline railway between London (Waterloo) and Portsmouth, and is served by South West Trains.[1] The station has been recognised for its floral decorations including 10 hanging baskets.[2] 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. The town is also served by a bus network connecting the town centre with the main residential areas. A community transport service is provided by "Hoppa". Chaired through its difficult early days by Brian Richards,[3] 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 simpy getting from where they are to where they want to be is a problem.[4] ResidentialPeople 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. SchoolsSchools in the immediate Godalming area are: Private schools
State 6th form colleges
State secondary schoolsNumbers in brackets indicate the % of pupils achieving 5 A-C GCSEs in total and then including the key subjects of maths and English.[17]
State primary schools (includes grant aided)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).[19]
MiscellaniaThe comic novel The Fall and Rise 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 Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. The town has often been used as a backdrop for the shooting of various films and television programmes. In February 2006, Church Street, which runs from the Pepperpot to the parish church, was used in the production of The Holiday, written and directed by Nancy Meyers. The character Arthur Holmwood in Bram Stoker's Dracula has the title 'Lord Godalming'. Notable people
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