Although this view was taken over forty years after the previous image much of Bridge Street remained the same,
even if the residents had changed. This picture was taken in 1951.
On the far left is a sign for A. E. Moore's fruiterers and greengrocery shop at 41 Bridge Street. Annie Elizabeth
Moore's husband, George, was in business here after the First World War, but he passed away in 1952. The sign has Annie name on it, though.
She was still in Bridge Street when she passed away in 1964[1].
The shop later sold knitting wool and sewing materials but a few years ago a new grocery business opened here.
Next to it is the narrow entrance to Wiggins Yard, on the far side of which is the timber framed building of 39
and 40, Bridge Street, also shown in the photograph below. This had once been the Baverstock Brewery, but the building
was severely damaged in a fire in 1895. It was bought by Godalming builder David Fry and refurbished as David Fry & Son
Steam Joinery Works[2]. The Frys owned two buildings on Bridge Street itself and
Fry's Yard, which gave works access to the back of the Brewery building, is further down on the same side was named after
Mr. Fry.
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The Bridge Street frontage of the former
brewery with Nos.37 and 38 beyond.
The sets of double doors are consistent with it being
where the grain for brewing was
taken into the building. All these buildings
are Grade II listed.
Further along is the Borough Hall and the modern
structure we can see is an office block
called Bridge House. It was built on the site of The
Bridge (see below).
A smaller version of this photo can be found on Godalming,
Surrey (about). |
To return to the top image. It is hard to see what the first
two shops on the right were selling although they were both
part of Galen? Hub----? and there were skeins of wool displayed
in one of their windows. The third shop along, where the
two women were browsing, had paintings and prints in its
window.
Next were two shops in one building. The first
floor of both premises is painted white and there are five
windows on this floor. In the 1950s the right hand unit had
become S. J. Maisey's shop; today there is a hairdressers
and an Indian Restaurant here. However, until the mid 1930s
this was the Brewer's Arms, a public house that had quite
a chequered history. James Ede was landlord in 1855[3],
followed by Henry Seavers in the 1860s[4] and
by 1881 it was described as a Common Lodging House that was
run by Ditmar Fredenstein[5].
Thomas Wiggins was charged with selling intoxicating liquor at prohibited
hours here in 1892, when the policeman involved in bringing
the case told the bench that "he did not consider
the house was conducted satisfactorily at the present time".
The policemen had seen a boy leaving the premises
with a basket containing a pint bottle of beer which was
being taken to the landlord's brother. The landlord was fined
and cautioned as to the way the house was being conducted[6].
By 1901 the Brewer's Arms was being run by the Italian Michele
Mattia and his wife Emma Louisa (nee
Scarrott) . As well as Michele's sister and
her husband there were 19 other Italians visiting or boarding.
Ten years later his beerhouse was said to have 16 rooms,
though none of his lodgers were Italian. Angelo Michele Mattia
died on 2 Nov 1911, aged 43. Emma was
the beer retailer here in 1913; the same year she temporarily
transferred the licence to her son John Mattia of the Wheatsheaf
public-house in Guildford. She married John W Sanders in
1916[7].
Frederick Charles Mansell was at the Brewers
Arms for some years[8].
The final licensee was Frederick William Mann[9].
The 1939 Register shows that Brian B Green, confectioner
and cake maker was at no.6.
Enlargement of part of the top postcard
The Bridge, with a large London plane tree in front of it was the home of several generations of the Marshall family.
The last member of the family who died there was Miss Octavia Marshall, who passed away on 27 Nov 1951 and the old house
was demolished in 1959.
The London plane survived a little longer and was drawn in the middle of a roundabout on the 1967 and 1968 O. S.
maps but it was taken down in 1969.
 More about The Bridge can be found on Godalming Bridge & The Bridge
On Bridge Street itself we can see two shop awnings behind
the cyclist; the three storey buildings where these shops
were and those beyond, down to and including the building
with another awning, were demolished in the 1980s when
what was known as the Co-op site was developed by Waitrose.
This has already been mentoned on the previous page.
In the 1950s the building with the large bay windows, 19
Bridge Street, was still home to members of the High family.
Charles J High, a master watchmaker, passed away on and 22
Apr 1952. His nephew Arthur A High lived in another part
of the building at 19a Bridge St with his wife and son. Arthur
was a cabinet maker and upholsterer; he died on 9 Sep 1969[10].
A photograph of the flooding that affected Godalming and
other parts of Surrey in September 1968 shows
that both shop units in the building had become John Hancock
Antiques. Unfortunately, the houses at the bottom of Bridge
Street has also been flooded twelve years earlier[11].
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