Godalming, High Street 1906

Flying Bomb

It was a warm sunny morning and I was lying in bed in Minster Road. I heard a 'doodlebug' putter overhead, I heard the motor stop, silence... and then the explosion. I swear the blast lifted me off the bed - half a mile away! What I did not know was that my father, walking to work, had just reached the area where the trees are in the picture when the bomb exploded. A tree fell on him and he was trapped under it until some Canadian soldiers came and lifted it off him. They took him in their jeep to St Thomas's Hospital at Hyde Style. He had blast injury of the lungs and split eardrums. After a long slow recovery he was finally able to resume work but he suffered from high blood pressure for the rest of his life.

Peperharrow Rd

I was born in Peperharrow Road in 1935 and still have two sisters living in the house where I was born. I went to Meadrow Central School. I swam in the Ginny, 'played' and grew up in the Charterhouse grounds and Milton's woods. I was a Junior member of Godalming Angling Society and spent many happy hours, fishing the Wey and Broadwater lake. I met my wife at Puttenham, we were married for 47 years. I have a 'soft spot' for Godalming. Boyhood names that I remember are: Peter Morton, Sheila Milligan, Benny Scavolo, June Dix, Mariane Brockwell, Valerie Jackson (I am still in contact with). Norman & Ivan Marshall, Brian Dunce, Ann Hook, Jean McCue, Dawn Elliot and others. I am philip.123456@tiscali.co.uk

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 the road as he would have certainly seen it as it is shown in 1907. Did anyone know him?

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 on the river bank still remain. His son took over the job when he retired due to having a stroke after saving someone from the river. If you remember him, I would love to hear from you: john@broadwaycars.com

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 the streetside under the blacksmith sign. The two children are my grandfather Cyril Wallace George Bearman, and his elder sister Irene May.  When Walter took a change of career I am not sure, sometime between 1903 and 1908. My great-grandmother divorced him in 1908, virtually unheard-of for a woman to do, and she cited violence, drunken ways, and the fact that he committed adultery 'frequently' with a local woman called Annie Simmonds, who bore him a child on 22 September 1908!