Guildford, just five miles north, was not at the time the facilities centre for Range-Roverfulls of Home County families; but Godhelm and his people seemed happy enough without cinemas and supermarkets, and busied themselves transforming their newly acquired field into a settlement. Apparently, good progress was made, with Alfred scribing Godalming into his will (c. AD880), and Domesday recording a wealthy rural community. The village saw through the Middle Ages as a bustling market centre, having gaining its trading license and an annual fair in 1300.
The town's economic mainstay was wool and textiles, but when the opening of the Portsmouth turnpike put it on a direct Capital to Coast route in 1749, Godalming adapted itself quickly into an important staging post, with coaching inns lining the High Street. The growing prosperity of the place was showboated in 1881 when Godalming became a town of tomorrow, rigging up the world's first public electricity supply.
With its narrow streets and interesting bricolage of buildings, modern-day Godalming whispers its history through the architecture around town. The distinctive clock tower at the end of the High Street is known as the Pepperpot. Its colonnades once sheltered the town hall, and it has been sitting squatly amidst the drift of traffic since 1814. Opposite is a 16th Century timber framed building set up as a Coaching Inn. Further quirky snapshots of the past are dotted around. The Little Fort was built by a couple of Jacobite sisters fearing a siege, whilst The Lion pub once housed the town's original grammar school.
Lutyens' dabble with timbered rural architecture can be found to the south of town, whilst the pretty Phillips Memorial Cloisters commemorate the wireless operator on the Titanic, born locally in Farncombe. The part Norman parish church of St Peter and Paul was built of locally hewn Bargate sandstone, the same dark material that moulds the impressive and intimidating gothic towers of the Charterhouse school sitting, with fairytale precision, up on the hill above town.
Godalming often wears its history in unusual fashion, and glimpses of the past can be found in the most unlikely places. Have a close look at the entrance to the Crown Court car park; in an unusual recycling of history, it's formed from the derelict 16th Century clothworkers' cottages cleared for its construction.
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