Description
Godalming, a town, a parish, a municipal borough, and a hundred in Surrey. The town stands on the river Wey, with a station on the L. & S.W.R., 34 miles from London, and 4 SSW of Guildford, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Its site is a fine valley, or tract of meadow, of the kind the Saxons called Ing, nearly surrounded by steep high ground. Its name is supposed to have been derived from an ancient Saxon proprietor named Godhelm, and to have been originally Godhelm's Ing. It includes one principal street and several smaller ones, and may be said to include also as suburbs the villages of Farncombe and Crownpits. The town is ancient, and was in the 17th century an occasional resort of king and courtiers for hunting. There are two banks, three chief inns, a town-hall, masonic hall, Liberal and Conservative clubs, a convalescent home, and almshouses. The public hall was built in 1861 after designs by Peak. The church is variously Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular-chiefly the last; has an Early English central tower, was restored and enlarged in 1840, and again in 1879; it contains monuments of the Eliots of Busbridge, the Wyatts of Shackleford, the Rev. A. Warton, vicar of Godalming and grandfather of the historian of English poetry, and the Rev. O. Manning, also vicar of Godalming and historian of Surrey. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester; value, £200 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Winchester. The rectories of Farncombe and Shaekleford and the vicarage of Busbridge are separate benefices. Markets are held on Wednesdays. The Wey is navigable by means of cuts made in 1768 to Guildford, and gives communication thence to London. A manufacture of cloth formerly flourished, and paper-making, tanning, and the manufacture of fleecy hosiery are still carried on. The town was chartered by Elizabeth; was considerably extended in 1892; is now governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors; and is a seat of county courts. Population of the borough, 2797.
The parish includes also the tithings of Binscomb, Catteshall, Deanshold, High Fashing, Low Fashing, Farncombe, Hurtmore, Labourn, Shackleford, and Tuesley. Acreage, 9049; population of the civil parish, 10,500; of the ecclesiastical, 5942. The manor is mentioned as Godelming in Alfred's will, was given by that king to his nephew, by King Henry II. to the Bishops of Salisbury, and passed to the Fastens and the Mores. Some remains of the old manor-house, with its chapel, are near Catteshall. Westbrook, adjoining the town on the W, was long the property of the Oglethorpes, and is traditionally said to have once given concealment to Charles Edward Stuart. Busbridge Hall, 1 1/2 mile from the town, contains some good pictures, and stands amid fine park scenery. The picturesque features of the town and its neighbourhood figured much in the paintings of Inskipp and CKeswick. A famous deception, which caused much sensation at the time, was practised at Godalming in 1726 by Mrs. Mary Tofts, who pretended to have brought into the world some hundreds of rabbits; and is celebrated by Hogarth in his " Cunicularii."
Near Godalming is the large and handsome building erected for the Charter-House School in 1870, having accommodation for 500 boys. It consists of several groups of buildings in the Gothic style by P. Hardwick, among them a handsome hall, library, and chapel. Inserted in the buildings are the arches from the old school, inscribed with hundreds of names of former pupils.
