Church Street is little more than a car's width's wide along most
of its length, although is slightly wider by the parish church.
There is a polite notice next to the hedge between the churchyard
entrance and what is today Barlow Robbins that reads "Please
do not park here". This seems a little superfluous as
there wasn't a car in sight!
The shop closest to the camera sold knitting wools, patterns
and, presumably, haberdashery as there is a dressmaker's dummy
in the far window. The blinds are down on the business premises
next door and although the name is written on the glass it
cannot be read. These shops have well kept exteriors today
and are regularly painted.
John Janaway, in "The Story of Godalming", points
out that Church Street has kept many of its old buildings and
much of it has changed very little since the early 1800s. However,
the living conditions then were cramped and without proper
sanitation[1]. A
quick look at the street's inhabitants at the time of the 1841
census shows a wide range of occupations for those then living
on Church Street. There were Ag Labs [Agricultural Labourers],
bakers, a blacksmith and a butcher, carpenters, a china man,
a cooper and a candlemaker, a coppersmith and a currier, cordwainers,
a grocer, a hosier, labourers, a miller, a parchment maker,
a plumber, several servants, a saddler, a schoolmistress, several
tailors, some of independent means and the Vicar and his family
at the Vicarage. The Mellersh family had a house on Church
Street and in their household alone were two attorneys, a farmer,
a banker and a surveyor. So households with large and modest
incomes lived side by side[2]. |
