Home to a little under 25,000 inhabitants, Godalming is located some 4 miles south west of Guildford, the county town of Surrey, and 30 miles from Central London.
Two tranchet axes, a thumbscraper and other flint implements and flakes dating back to the Mesolithic period have been found within the immediate area providing evidence of human activity stretching back almost 12,000 years and artefacts including a polished flint axe, various types of flint arrowheads and an antler pick are consistent with a Neolithic settlement, though no clues as to its location have ever been found. Bronze Age finds include an axe, pottery and a form of wood chisel known as a gouge. The earliest irrefutable evidence of a settlement is on a promontory in the north of the wider parish close to the world famous Charterhouse School where evidence of a late Iron Age and Romano-British settlement has been found. Among the coins, pottery, quern stones, bricks and tiles found were a set of urns containing the remains of human cremation.

The name Godalming derives from the Saxon Godhelms Ingus, which translates as ‘The Clan, or Family, of Godhelm’. It can be assumed that Godhlem was a Saxon chief who had control of the area, quite probably overseeing the manor from a 7th or 8th century Saxon settlement located at the eastern end of the modern High Street, a site which was discovered by archaeologists during a pre-development excavation in 1991. A church has existed on its present site, 400 metres to the north-west of the settlement, since the 9th century and it is probable that another small settlement was clustered around the church, though no evidence from this period has been found. It’s easy to draw the conclusion that the archaeology lies underneath the 15th-19th century buildings which now fill the space. Godalming is mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great in 880 and, just as he did with Steyning in West Sussex (see Tudor Life no.74, Oct 2020), Alfred bequeathed the manor to his nephew, Æthelwold. The Domesday Book of 1086, where the name is recorded as Godelminge, tells us that there were 98 households, including 2 of slaves, and that the manor was held by William the Conqueror himself. Ownership was retained by The Crown until 1221 when the Kings Manor was granted to the Bishop of Salisbury.

This page is an index of the historical buildings and curiosities that I have photographed and investigated within the modern boundaries of the town. This will be a work in progress so please bookmark and visit regularly for updates.