Godalming, Surrey

The Licenced Victualler

My great-grandfather Walter Alfred BEARMAN was the 'pub manager' in 1908. He was married to Helen Mary Bearman and had been resident in Godalming for some time, the earliest I am aware of was 1899 when my grandfather's sister was born. Walter was originally the blacksmith in Godalming. There is a picture in the Frith gallery of two children standing on... [more]

Last Public Hanging

I think it took place in 1818 opposite the church and what is now the Phillips Memorial, on the other side of the river . ( Llamas Lands?) The depression made in a horse shoe shape was where the crowd stood to watch the event! Each year, the Horseshoe, as we called it, flooded and froze and we all gathered to... [more]

My Grandfather lived at Ivy Cottage

My Grandfather, Hubert Blackwell, lived in Ivy Cottage with his mother and father, Mr Henry Alfted Blackwell, he was born in 1897. I have just looked up his First World War war records and he states his address as Ivy Cottage, Peperharrow Road. I knew he lived in Godalming, but that was it. It is lovely to see a picture of... [more]

Great-grandfather

My great-grandfather was a swimming instructor at Charterhouse. He lived in the last (?) house on the right, just before the lane leading to Charterhouse. The swimming pool was directly behind the back garden. Before this was built they used to swim in the River Wey which was accessed by a path opposite the lane. The remains of the wooden platform... [more]

My Grandmother

My grandmother lived in Godalming at 20 Pound Lane, her name Annie Winter. She used to work in the Milk Bar in the High Street with a lady named Mrs Margaret Barnes. She did not die until 1977 and is buried alongside her husband Thomas Winter in Eashing Lane cemetery. She was a member of the deaf club. She had friends... [more]

Boyhood memories of Peperharrow road.

It was the summer of 1946 and we used to go swimming in the river at a spot called "The Ginny" which was up the road a little (towards the camera) on the opposite side of the road to these houses. This part of the river was used as a swimming pool by Charterhouse school. We, that is children from... [more]

Doodlebug 1944 ish.

Hidden by or almost visible in the trees beyond the large house on the left is a small cottage or lodge, opposite the beginning of Busbridge Lane just visible behind and to the right of the people in the road. One morning during the war (WW2) a stray
Doodlebug (Flying bomb) landed and exploded opposite this cottage and destroyed it. Minutes... [more]

My Godalming

I lived my early years in Godalming, in a small house opposite the Salvation Army Hall in Mint Street. In the 1930s we moved to Peperharow Road. My father Ernest Covey was the Steward of Brookhall, Charterhouse for a number of years. I went into the Royal Engineers in 1937, as a Boy Soldier. I learned to swim in the Ginny... [more]

Godalming Town and City Memories

In its early years the main entrance to Charterhouse was along Peperharow Road, seen here from the water tower on Frith Hill. Development with houses for staff was rapid. Now there is not a single vacant plot.

Godalming Town and City Memories

The churchyard at Busbridge is full of memorials, including one to Gertrude Jekyll, the great gardener, who lived nearby at Munstead. But the church is itself a memorial, paid for by Emma Ramsden of Busbridge Hall to commemorate her first husband. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott RA, it was built in 1866 in bargate stone lined with chalk.

Godalming Town and City Memories

The Churches Like the Congregationalists before them, the Methodists set up their new church by the river (see 49196). They felt a need to fill 'The Surrey wilderness', an area of under-representation for Methodism, and significant funding came from a fund set up by Hugh Price Hughes: unfortunately, he died before it was finished, and the church was named after him as a memorial. The gardens were... [more]