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Godalming was recorded as a settlement within the hundred of Godalming in the Domesday Survey of 1086.
Other nearby settlements in the hundred, that were listed separately, included Farncombe, Hurtmore and Pepper Harrow.
Ranulf Flambard was lord over the peasants after the Conquest.
- Today the town spreads up two hills separated by the River Wey, whose ancient flood plain is known as the Lammas Lands. Old maps mark
the Lammas Lands as "liable to flood" and after particularly heavy rains the Lands sometime transform into a huge lake; it
can look very picturesque, despite being a nuisance.
- The old Market House in the High Street was demolished and was replaced in 1814 by the unique building shown
in our photograph above. This was used as the Town Hall in the nineteenth century and is affectionately nick-named
the 'Pepperpot' or 'Pepperbox'.
See The Old Town Hall in 1905
- The ancient parish church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, pictured below, overlooks the Lammas Lands. It is now part of Godalming
Minster. Opposite the church, in Church Street, there are some of the town's oldest houses.
- Godalming was the
first place in the World to have a public and private electricity supply - which
was introduced to the town on 26 Sept 1881. The current was generated by an auxiliary
face water-wheel at Westbrook Mills.
- Several buildings in the High Street are very old. Tudor architecture can be seen at first floor level and two particularly lovely
buildings are to be found above a building society and a booksellers/newsagents. Godalming has around 230 listed buildings.
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Godalming was a major centre, alongside London and the
East Midlands, for the framework knitting industry. On
the left below is a photograph of the upper floors of a typical
framework knitter's home. The knitters would have worked
in the room on the top floor of the property, under the
eaves. The upstairs rooms provided them with the maximum
daylight. Two knitters' cottages remain in the town;
this beautifully kept early nineteenth century cottage
is in Mint Street and the second on is round the corner
at the top of Mill Lane, next to the Rose and Crown pub.
- The town's other past industries incuded tanneries (see View from Holloway Hill, Godalming,
1895 and Mill Lane, Fire at Rea and Fisher's Oak Bark Tannery, 7 March 1905),
timber merchants (Godalming Bridge & The Bridge), breweries and paper mills.
- A large water turbine, manufactured by Macadam Bros, Belfast,
was installed at the Catteshall paper mill in 1869. The paper
mill closed in 1928
and in 1981 the turbine was moved to Westbrook Mills for storage.
It had been hoped that this oldest example of a Fourneyron type
water turbine would be restored locally, but for several reasons
it was donated to the Ironbridge Museum in Shropshire at the
end of July 2004.
 Search
Ironbridge
Archaeology Blogspot for one small picture of it - in the snow.
Amongst the town's former residents and visitors were:
- Admiral Sir John Balchin was one of the longest serving officers
of the Royal Navy. He was born in Godalming on 4 Feb 1669/70.
According to the portrait of him in John Janaway's "The Story
of Godalming" (1983) he was "of very humble parentage".
He was to perish at sea on his last voyage in 1744 when his warship,
"Victory", was caught in a storm en route for home on 7th October that
year and went down near the Isle of Alderney with the loss of nearly 1200 lives.
John
Balchen's marble memorial in Westminster Abbey
Three
quarter length portrait of him at the Royal Museums, Greenwich
Loss
of HMS 'Victory', 4 October 1744 by Peter Monamy (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)
Godalming's
other maritime hero (article in Vantage Point, August 2022).
The Balchin Family History provides a different possible birth date and place (Brook).
Balchin
Family Society > Family History > Sir John Balchin
- General James Oglethorpe, founder of the State of Georgia, USA,
lived at Westbrook Place. The townspeople still have many friends in Georgia.
The town is also "twinned" with Joigny in France and Mayen in Germany.
Oglethorpe's former home was bought by the Countess of Meath in 1892 and
she converted the property to care for women and girls with epilepsy.
- Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, lodged
at the King's Arms Inn in 1698. Peter was an experienced
ship builder and founded the Russian Navy; he passed through
Godalming on his way back from viewing English naval vessels
at Portsmouth. He and his entourage had rather a lot to eat
and drink whilst they lodged at the King's Arms, according
to the records of the feast held in the Bodleian Library,
Oxford. The townsfolk must have breathed a huge sigh of relief
when the Russians left as they were renowned for bad behaviour,
to put it mildly.
The King's Arms
- Julius Caesar was born in Godalming in 1830; in 1841 the family were living in Ferncombe
[sic] and his father, Benjamin, was working as a Road Surveyor. Julius was a member of the highly successful, i.e. unbeaten,
English cricket team who toured Australia in the winter of 1863/4. A few years later, in 1871, Julius was still making his living
as "a professional cricketer" and lived on Ockford Road. He became the cricket professional for Charterhouse
School the following year. On 13 December 1878 "The York Herald" listed
the sportsmen who had died during the year amongst whom was Caesar, Julius, Godalming ; March 6.
There is a photo of his gravestone on Nightingale
Cemetery, Deanery Road.
- The mountaineer George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 Jun 1886-8 Jun 1924) was an assistant master at Charterhouse School for some years. He
lived on Hurtmore Road in 1911 and after his marriage in 1914 to Ruth, the daughter of Hugh Thackery Turner, resided at The Holt on Frith Hill Road.
Mallory served as 2nd Lieutentant, Royal Garrison Artillery, in WW1.
The Mount Everest expedition was his third try to conquer the mountain and he died in the attempt. His body was not found on Everest until 1999
and he was identified by name tags in his clothing; there was a rope tied around his middle which was thought to be significant. Although a
number of artefacts were discovered alongside his body the photograph of his wife, that he had vowed to place on the summit, was missing.
He was subsequently reburied on Everest following a commital ceremony. His discovery added to the speculation that both he and his fellow
climber Andrew (Sandy) Irvine has reached the top and were on their way down. Finally, in 2024, a boot and sock bearing Irvine's name tape
were discovered.
There is a stained glass window dedicated to George Mallory in the church at Mobberley, where he was born and his father had been the Clerk in Holy Orders.
- Aldous Huxley, author of "Brave New World", was born
on Peperharow
Road on 26 July 1894; the announcement of his birth
in "The Morning Chronicle" just says "Charterhouse".
His mother Julia founded Prior's
Field School and his father was a Classics Master at Charterhouse. Robert
Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout Movement, was educated at the school, presumably
moving with them when the school moved to the town from London in 1872.
- Sir Edwin Lutyens lived at Thursley as a child for six months every year from the age of seven.
Lutyens was one of the Principal Architects
who worked for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and he supervised the design of the Etaples
Military Cemetery, nr. Le Touquet, France, where both of Ann's grandfathers are buried (see our
genealogy pages and Picture Gallery). Gertrude Jekyll, the famous gardener
who collaborated with Lutyens and who also designed the garden for the Phillips Memorial, lived at Munstead.
Not everyone was reputable:
- "The Rabbit Woman of Godalming" was so named because she was alleged to have given birth to 18
rabbits in 1726. Poor Mary Tofts; she was immortalised in a Hogarth cartoon and was the talk of the entire country.
Mary endured a spell in prison, after which she bore a normal child as opposed to a mythical rabbit.
See: Mary Toft, the Rabbit Woman of Godalming
- The last public executions in Godalming was of Chalcraft and Chennell following their trials for murder at Guildford
Assizes. Thousands of people watched the event on the Lammas Lands in 1818. The men's names appear on lists of those
who were held at Newgate Prison in London.
There is an account of this story on the next page
Other local interesting facts:
- A footpath near our house dates from Saxon times. It goes down the hill to the site of a Roman brickfield on the borders of Compton and Binscombe.
- In the nearby village of Compton are two buildings dedicated
to the memory of George Frederick Watts, the eminent Victorian
artist and portrait painter. Watts' most famous portrait is
that of his actress first wife and was painted in 1864. Called
Ellen Terry (Choosing) the young woman, whom he married when
she was only sixteen, is shown with her flowing red hair, smelling
camellias. There are five camellias in her hair and a small bunch
of wild flowers in her left hand. Watts lived in the village
for many years and a great deal of his work is exhibited in the
Watts Gallery. His mausoleum, erected by his second wife, is
the Watts Memorial Chapel and is a fine example of the Arts and
Crafts movement. G.F.W. installed a corner stone on 23 Feb 1903
- his 86th birthday.
- The Arts and Crafts cloister memorial garden, between the church and the
river and close to Godalming Station, was built following the untimely death of Jack Phillips, the wireless operator
who stayed at his post on the ill-fated RMS. Titanic until the ship sank, on 15 April 1912. Phillips was born
in Farncombe. Money was raised by public donations from Godalming residents, from others in the U.K. and also people
from overseas and the memorial was opened in April 1914.
Phillips Memorial Cloister
The cloister, shown above and below, was designed by Hugh Thackery Turner of Westbrook whilst the garden was designed and planted by Gertrude Jekyll. Jack
Phillips is also named on a family grave in the local cemetery and a wild garden has also been created in his memory. The Museum web site
has more about Jack Phillips.
Although it was restored in 1993, the Council were subsequently granted Lottery funding for extensive restoration work, including
the repair of the bowl of the fountain.
Phillips Memorial Cloister taken from next to the War Memorial in SS. Peter and Paul Churchyard, Autumn 2024.
Also see:
 The Phillips
Memorial Cloister & RMS Titanic
 Family
grave and memorial to Jack Phillips at the Nightingale Cemetery.
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Godalming's War Memorial
A memorial of a different kind was constructed almost opposite on the Lammas Lands, next to the church boundary and near the bandstand
(although the bandstand did not, of course, exist at the time). The cross in the churchyard was erected in 1921 and the years 1914 and 1918
were inscribed at the base of the cross. They are also engraved on the side facing the parish church. The years 1939 and 1945 were added
after that war, also to both sides.
However, the names recorded on the black marble plaque on the wall below it were not added until the 1990s.
Since then new plaques, to record the WW1 and a Korean War casualties, have been added to the wall. The lowest plaque, in memory of
those who fell in the First War, was then replaced.
The photograph below was taken shortly before Remembrance Sunday in 2024.
The inscription on the black marble reads:
"In memory of the people of this town who gave their lives in the War 1939 - 1945".
There is more information about the War Memorial, from its beginnings to the more recent additions on the wall below it:
 See Godalming's War Memorial.
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The Pound.
Also next to the church boundary, and with another wall bounding Borough Road, is an animal pound where livestock would have been kept overnight,
or until their owner collected his or her animals.
An engraved stone in the wall announces that
"This stone marks the Godalming Rectory Manor Pound,
presented to the Borough by the Rev. M. J. Simmonds, Lord of the Manor, 1933".
The original pound was marked on several Ordnance Survey maps up to 1913. The Surrey map XXXI.15 (Revised: 1895, Published: 1897) shows it then occupying
almost the same area as it does today. It was then sited in the corner of a larger field, drawn on Surrey Sheet XXXI.SE. The Phillips Memorial was also built
on this field. The 1933 map clearly shows the pound and its stone as they are both marked. Mark John Simmonds was the owner of Church House
in addition to being Lord of the Manor of Godalming Rectory Manor.
This changed aound 2005 when the base was altered and substantially improved. Railings were the first things to be added. A very genenerous
donation made by former County Councillor Jill Hurst in memory of her husband Peter, coupled with a National Lottery grant, enabled the Town Council
to commission a roof to cover the bandstand. This work was completed in 2009. There are now free concerts throughout the summer ("Music in the
Park") as well as other events that have added substantially to the town's social calendar.
Two delightful images of Godalming's riverside walks.
Photographed by and © Peter Tietjen and are reproduced here with his very kind permission.
Only briefly referred to above is Charterhouse School, which came to Godalming from London in 1872. The school
and its history is, however, covered in the Godalming section of Our Picture Gallery.
Researched, written by and © Ann Andrews.
Intended for personal use only.
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