The road we recognise today was developed in a number of stages
towards the end of the nineteenth and early into the twentieth
centuries. Before 1871 the eastern end,
where it joined Brighton Road, was part of the very narrow
Butts Lane[1].
Between 1891 and 1901 Croft Terrace, as it was then called,
became Croft Road[2].
The 1897 Ordnance Survey Map shows Croft Terrace joining
the recently developed South Street but the western end
of the terrace was a dead end. It was subsequently extended
to form a junction with the newly built Holloway Hill
and the 1916 OS map shows Holloway Hill with the houses
and the church at that end of Croft Road having been built.
However, the eastern end, from close to the bottom of
Town End Street to the junction with Brighton Road, remained
a footpath for many years[1].
The Roman Catholic St. Edmund King & Martyr Church,
which we can see on the above postcard, was erected on a
sloping site above the road in 1905-6 and cost about £6,000
to build. It was constructed from Bargate rubblestone and
designed to seat 300 people[3].
As the image shows, there are a large number of steps
for the worshippers to climb to access the church.
Dr. Hyland (4 July 1875 - 1950) was the church's first priest and lived
at the adjacent Presbytery. His obituary said that
he had been appointed in 1904, so he must have supervised
the construction, and he remained rector for 45 years[4].
In 1920, by which time he had been the priest here for 16
years, he was appointed rector of St. John's Seminary at
Wonersh by the Bishop and Chapter of Southwark[5].
By the time he passed away it was acknowledged
that great progress had been made under his direction, with
the creation of the parish of Haslemere and Mass centres
created at both Bowlhead Green and Elstead[4].
The 1913 edition of Kelly's[2] does
not list many Croft Road residents. James Herbert Norris,
the borough surveyor and water engineer, had moved into one
of the houses with his family. Mrs. Strudwick let out apartments.
The registrar of births, marriages and deaths, Annie Norris,
was another resident as was Walter James Pilcher who was
a retired commercial traveller and listed under gentry[6].
In October 1914, not long after the outbreak of war, Godalming's
Belgian Refugees Committee had been set up under the presidency
of the Mayor and welcomed refugees to the town. The committee
had rented and furnished "Brumfield" in Croft Road
and the first batch of 19 refugees were housed there. The
group included a Belgian doctor and his extended family who
had formerly lived either in or near Brussels. Another "haven" for
the refugees was The Mount on Holloway Hill[7].
In addition to the refugees a large
number of Canadian soldiers were welcomed at the station
with cups of tea and then camped on Witley Common. A canteen
was set up for them on Croft Road[8].
Some soldiers were also billeted in the town and, when they
left, a number of the items they had been issued with had
either not been handed back or had been discarded. They caused
problems for their hosts. A warning was issued to householders
about retaining the military blankets left in their houses.
Three people in Croft Road, who claimed they had forgotten
all about the items, found themselves in a difficult position.
They were charged with being in possession of eleven blankets
between them and were fined by the Godalming Borough Bench[9].
Read the comment about soldiers made by the postcard's sender,
who was living on Croft Road in WW1.
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