Godalming ( ) is a market town and civil parish in south-west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settlements of Farncombe, Binscombe and Aaron's Hill. Much of the area lies on the strata of the Lower Greensand Group and Bargate stone was quarried locally until the Second World War.
The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Paleolithic and land above the Wey floodplain at Charterhouse was first settled in the middle Iron Age. The modern town is believed to have its origins in the 6th or early 7th centuries and its name is thought to derive from that of a Saxon landowner. Kersey, a woollen cloth, dyed blue, was produced at Godalming for much of the Middle Ages, but the industry declined in the early modern period. In the 17th century, the town began to specialise in the production of knitted textiles and in the manufacture of hosiery in particular.
Throughout its history, Godalming has benefitted from its location on the main route from London to Portsmouth Dockyard. Local transport links were improved from the early 18th century with the opening of the turnpike road through the town in 1749 and the construction of the Godalming Navigation in 1764. Expansion of the settlement began in the mid-19th century, stimulated by the opening of the first railway station in 1849 and the relocation of Charterhouse School from London in 1872. The town has a claim to be the first place in the world to have a combined public and private electricity supply.
Several buildings in the town centre date from the 16th and 17th centuries. The distinctive Pepperpot was built in 1814 to replace the medieval market house and to house the council chamber. Among the notable former residents of the civil parish were Jack Phillips, the senior wireless operator on the , and the mountaineer George Mallory. James Oglethorpe, the founder of the Colony of Georgia, was born in Godalming in 1696 and the town maintains a friendship with the U.S. state and the cities of Savannah and Augusta in particular.
Toponymy
The oldest surviving record of Godalming is from a copy of the will of Alfred the Great, in which the settlement appears as Godelmingum. The name is written as Godelminge in the Domesday Book of 1086, and later as Godelminges (), Godhelming (), Godalminges () and Godalmyn (). The second part of the name is thought to derive from the Old English ingas and means "people of" or "family of" and the first part may refer to an Anglo-Saxon individual called Godhelm. Thomas William Shore (18401905) suggested that Godhelm may be of Gothic origin and Robert Eugen Zachrisson (18801937) proposed that it may have been an early name for the River Ock or another local stream.
The first records of Binscombe and Busbridge are from the 13th century, when they appear as Budenscombe and Bursbrige respectively. Their names are thought to derive from individuals called Byden and Beohrtsige, names both found in Old English. Catteshall may mean "hill of the wild cat" or "hill belonging to a person called Catt". Frith Hill may derive from the Middle English frith, meaning "woodland".
Geography
Location
Godalming is a town in the Borough of Waverley in south-west Surrey, around from central London and from Guildford. The town is in the valley of the River Wey, which flows northwards through Guildford to join the River Thames at Weybridge. Godalming High Street runs roughly east to west, linking an ancient crossing point of the Wey to the road leading south over Holloway Hill. The town is almost completely surrounded by the Metropolitan Green Belt and the Surrey Hills National Landscape is to the north and west.
Godalming Civil Parish has a total area of . It includes the settlements of Binscombe, Frith Hill and Charterhouse (north of the river) and Aaron's Hill, Ockford Ridge and Crownpits (to the south). The majority of the built-up area of Busbridge is also in Godalming Civil Parish. Farncombe, to the north of the town, has a strong village identity and incorporates a small cluster of local shops on Farncombe and St John's Streets. Godalming has good transport links to London and Portsmouth via the railway line and A3 road. The main urban areas of Godalming and Farncombe are separated from the Wey by the floodplain, which includes the water meadows known as the Lammas Lands.
Geology
Godalming lies on the north-western side of the Weald and primarily sits on the strata of the Lower Greensand Group, laid down in the early Cretaceous.
thumb|right|Former sand and [[Bargate stone quarry at the base of Holloway Hill]]
Frith Hill and Charterhouse are on the iron-rich Bargate Beds, a part of the more widespread lower Sandgate Formation that is only found in the Godalming area. This layer contains Bargate stone, a dark honey-coloured calcerous sandstone that was quarried until the Second World War at several sites in the civil parish. There are also small exposures of the sandy Folkestone Beds at Busbridge and to the north-west of Charterhouse. River gravels are found in the valleys of the Wey and Ock to the west and south of the town centre, and as a terrace at Farncombe. Alluvial deposits of sand and silt are found in the floodplain of the Wey, especially between Bridge Street and Catteshall.
History
Early history
The earliest evidence of human activity in the Godalming area is from the Stone Age. At least two Paleolithic hand axes as well as Mesolithic flint blades and flakes have been found in the civil parish. In 2017, a local schoolboy discovered a Bronze Age barbed and tanged arrowhead, which he subsequently donated to Godalming Museum. and human habitation is thought to have continued into the early Roman period. There is thought to have been a small farmstead on the site in the late first century C.E. and there was also a villa at Binscombe.