GODALMING HUNDRED 



GODALMING 



to the public in times of flood, when the ford was 

 dangerous. This is the bridge at the east end of 

 the town ; it was first improved when the Ports- 

 mouth road was made, or improved, in I749- 9 It 

 was taken over by the county 5 April 1782, and the 

 first stone of the new bridge was laid by Lord 

 Grantley 23 July 1782.' The bridgenear the church 

 was made where a ford existed, about 1870. Bolden 

 Bridge, just above it, was formerly repaired by the 

 lord of the manor." 



Broadwater, in the Portsmouth road, is the seat of 

 Mr. E. G. Price. Munstead Hall, picturesquely 

 situated in the woods on what used to be called 

 Munstead Heath, on the hills north-east of the town, 

 is the seat of Sir Henry Jekyll, K.C.M.G. Apple- 

 garth, on Charterhouse Hill, is the seat of Sir John 

 Jardine, K.C.S.I., M.P. 



The situation of the town is very pleasant, as it 

 lies in a great valley of green meadows, with the Wey 

 winding in and out, and with wooded hills rising all 

 around, on the spurs of which the outlying parts of 

 the town are scattered. There is a modern Godalming, 

 consisting of red-brick streets and trim villas, well 

 surrounded with trees, lying to the north of the old 

 town and around the railway station : but the old 

 town follows the Portsmouth 

 road, with streets right and 

 left. At the junction of the 

 principal of these Church 

 Street with the High Street 

 is placed the town hall or 

 market-house, the successor of 

 an older one, dating from 1814. 

 With its small tower and cupola, 

 polygonal end on open arches, 

 and general irregularity, it 

 groups well with its surround- 

 ings. For use it is superseded 

 by new municipal buildings in 

 Bridge Street, completed in 

 1908. 



Both the High Street and 

 the cross streets abound with 

 old houses, some of timber and 

 plaster, some tile-hung, and 

 others with 1 8th and igth- 

 century brick fronts. In the 

 outskirts of the town, on the 

 south-west side, the houses are 

 built on high banks above the 

 road, with raised footways. 

 Other specially picturesque 

 parts are in Wharf Street, by 

 the water-mill, and in Church 

 Street, where are some ancient 

 timber houses with projecting 

 upper stories. Owton or Hart 

 Lane, now called Mint Street, 

 has some ancient half-timber 

 work. The White Hart Inn, 

 in the High Street, near the 

 Market house, is another good 

 example of a timber house 

 with two overhanging stories 

 having nicely carved brackets ; 

 and the adjoining shop has a 



projecting gable-end quite in keeping. The Angel 

 Hotel, on the other side of the High Street, though its 

 front has been modernized, has some interesting old 

 timber work in the rear ; and the ' King's Arms,' where 

 Peter the Great and his suite of twenty-one lodged 

 on the way from Portsmouth to London in 1698, is 

 another hostelry. Among other ancient timber houses 

 in the High Street is one which has the Westbrook 

 arms on a pane of glass ; but it was not their home. 

 They lived at Westbrook, where the last of them 

 died, 1537. It is now cut up into a bank and 

 a shop, but retains its projecting gables, with richly 

 carved barge-boards, and a hint of timber framing, 

 concealed by stucco. Its date appears to be about 

 the middle of the i6th century. But more interest- 

 ing architecturally than any of these is a house with 

 an overhanging upper story at the corner of Church 

 Street and High Street. It is probably a house 

 called ' at Pleystow,' belonging to the Croftes 

 family in the 1 6th century. The upper story, like 

 many of its neighbours, had been coated with plaster, 

 but in the course of repairs a piece of this fell 

 off, and disclosed some timber framing of unusual 

 character. The whole front was then stripped, with 

 the result that a very rich design of timber pargeting, 



GODALMING : OLD TIMBER-FRAMED HOUSE 



21 Geo. II, cap. 36. 

 3 



10 MS. at Loseley ; 22 Geo. Ill, cap. 17. 

 25 



LoKlejr MSS. 



4 



