Guildford ()
is a town in west
Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000
[ and is the seat of the wider ]Borough of Guildford
The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. With around half of the borough's population, Guildford is its largest settlement and only town, and is the location of the council.
The distr ...
, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildford" is thought to derive from a crossing of the River Wey
The River Wey is a main tributary of the River Thames in south east England. Its two branches, one of which rises near Alton in Hampshire and the other in West Sussex to the south of Haslemere, join at Tilford in Surrey. Once combined the ...
, a tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...
of the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
that flows through the town centre.
The earliest evidence of human activity in the area is from the Mesolithic and Guildford is mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great from . The exact location of the main Anglo-Saxon settlement is unclear and the current site of the modern town centre may not have been occupied until the early 11th century. Following the Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...
, a motte-and-bailey castle
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy t ...
was constructed, which was developed into a royal residence by Henry III. During the late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...
, Guildford prospered as a result of the wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
trade and the town was granted a charter of incorporation by Henry VII in 1488.
The River Wey Navigation between Guildford and the Thames was opened in 1653, facilitating the transport of produce, building materials and manufactured items to new markets in London. The arrival of the railways in the 1840s attracted further investment and the town began to grow with the construction of its first new suburb at Charlotteville in the 1860s. The town became the centre of a new Anglican diocese in 1927 and the foundation stone of the cathedral was laid in 1936. Guildford became a university town in September 1966, when the University of Surrey was established by Royal Charter.
Guildford is surrounded on three sides by the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which severely limits its potential for expansion to the east, west and south. Recent development has been focused to the north of the town in the direction of Woking. Guildford now officially forms the southwestern tip of the Greater London Built-up Area
The Greater London Built-up Area, or Greater London Urban Area, is a conurbation in south-east England that constitutes the continuous urban sprawl of London, and includes surrounding adjacent urban towns as defined by the Office for National Sta ...
, as defined by the Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible for t ...
.
Toponymy
The oldest surviving record of Guildford is from a copy of the will of Alfred the Great, in which the settlement appears as ''Gyldeforda''. The name is written as ''Gildeford'' in Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
and later as ''Gyldeford'' (), ''Guldeford'' () and ''Guildeford'' (1226). The first part of the name is thought to derive from the Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
''gylde'', meaning gold, possibly referring to the colour of the sand to the south of the town, or to a local concentration of yellow flowers such as the common or marsh marigold
''Caltha palustris'', known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It flower ...
.[ The second part of the name (''ford'') refers to a crossing of the ]River Wey
The River Wey is a main tributary of the River Thames in south east England. Its two branches, one of which rises near Alton in Hampshire and the other in West Sussex to the south of Haslemere, join at Tilford in Surrey. Once combined the ...
.[
]
History
Early history
The earliest evidence of human activity in the Guildford area is from St Catherine's Hill, where Mesolithic flint tools have been found. There may also have been Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
and Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
settlements on the hill.[ The areas now occupied by Christ's College and Manor Farm were farmed in the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman period. Traces of a 2nd-century ]villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
were discovered at Broadstreet Common during an excavation in 1998.
Anglo-Saxon period
There is thought to have been an Anglo-Saxon settlement in the Guildford area by the early 6th century, although its precise location is unclear. Excavations in the 1930s revealed a Saxon cemetery at Guildown at the east end of the Hog's Back. Burials took place at the site up to the mid-11th century, but the oldest skeletons were buried in the late 6th century.
The first written record of Guildford is from the will of Alfred the Great, dated to around 880, in which the settlement was left to his nephew, Aethelwold. Although it does not appear in the Burghal Hidage, compiled , by the end of the 10th century the town was sufficiently important to be the location of a Royal Mint. Coins were struck at Guildford from 978 until at least 1099.[
Around 220 of the skeletons excavated at Guildown are thought to be the remains of soldiers massacred during the arrest of ]Alfred Aetheling
Ælfred Æþeling (English: ''Alfred the Noble'') ( 1012–1036), was one of the eight sons of the English king Æthelred the Unready. He and his brother Edward the Confessor were sons of Æthelred's second wife Emma of Normandy. King Canute ...
in 1035 or 1036. Contemporary accounts are somewhat contradictory, but the modern consensus is that Aetheling, a pretender to the throne
A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...
and the brother of Edward the Confessor, was travelling through Guildford with a large bodyguard when the incident occurred. Aetheling was arrested by Godwin, Earl of Wessex
Godwin of Wessex ( ang, Godwine; – 15 April 1053) was an English nobleman who became one of the most powerful earls in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great (King of England from 1016 to 1035) and his successors. Cnut made Godwin the ...
and his men were killed. Many of the skeletons showed evidence of a violent death and the skulls of two were between their legs, suggesting that they had been executed by decapitation.[ Aetheling was taken to Ely, where he was blinded, and he is thought to have died there in February 1036.][
The oldest extant building in Guildford is St Mary's Church, the tower of which was built .] Its location, on Quarry Street, may indicate that, at the time of its construction, the High Street had either not been laid out or was not the principal road. There is no significant archaeological evidence of human activity in the modern town centre before the 11th century and it is possible that, for the majority of the Saxon period, Stoke next Guildford, to the north, was the primary area of settlement.
Governance
In Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086, Guildford appears as ''Gildeford'' and is divided into seven parts, all of which were the property of William I
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
. Two of the areas were held by reeves
Reeves may refer to:
People
* Reeves (surname)
* B. Reeves Eason (1886–1956), American director, actor and screenwriter
* Reeves Nelson (born 1991), American basketball player
Places
;Ireland
* Reeves, County Kildare, townland in County K ...
and four were held by lesser tenants, one of whom was Ranulf Flambard
Ranulf Flambard ( c. 1060 – 5 September 1128) was a medieval Norman Bishop of Durham and an influential government minister of King William Rufus of England. Ranulf was the son of a priest of Bayeux, Normandy, and his nickname Flambard ...
. The land directly controlled by the king included 175 homagers (heads of household), who lived in 75 ''hagae''. Flambard’s holding included three ''hagae'' that accommodated six homagers and, in total, the town provided an annual income of £30 for the king.[ William I is also listed as holding Stoke-by-Guildford, which had a population of 24 villagers, ten smallholders and five slaves. The manor had sufficient land for 22 plough teams, 16 acres of meadow, woodland for 40 swine and two mills.
Guildford remained a property of the Crown throughout the Middle Ages and several kings, including Henry II and ]John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
are known to have visited regularly. Henry III granted the town its first borough charter in January 1257, which permitted it to send two representatives to parliament. In August of the same year, he designated Guildford as the location of the Surrey County Court and Assizes
The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...
. In 1366, Edward III
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...
issued a fee farm grant
In English and Irish law, a fee farm grant is a hybrid type of land ownership typical in cities and towns. The word ''fee'' is derived from fief or fiefdom, meaning a feudal landholding, and a fee farm grant is similar to a fee simple in the se ...
, enabling the town to become partially self-governing in exchange for a yearly rent of £10. Henry VII was responsible for granting Guildford its coat of arms in 1485 and, three years later, he awarded the charter of incorporation, which placed the administration of the borough in the hands of a mayor and burgesses, appointed from the merchants' guild.
The modern system of local government began to emerge in the 1830s. Under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 (5 & 6 Will 4 c 76), sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales. The legisl ...
, a democratically elected council replaced the mayor and burgesses, and the borough expanded beyond the medieval town boundaries. A year later, the Guildford Poor Law Union was formed, with responsibility for a total area of stretching from Godalming
Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest 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 settleme ...
to Woking. As a result of the Local Government Act 1888
Local may refer to:
Geography and transportation
* Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand
* Local, Missouri, a community in the United States
* Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...
, several responsibilities were transferred from the borough to the newly formed Surrey County Council
Surrey County Council is the county council administering certain services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1965 the Conservative Party has ...
. The borough boundaries were extended again in both 1904 and 1933. The final enlargement took place in March 1974, when the present local authority was created from the merger of the borough with the Guildford Rural District.
Guildford Castle
Guildford Castle is to the south of the modern town centre. Although it is not explicitly mentioned in Domesday Book, it is possible that it was included in one of the areas of land held by Ranulf Flambard.[ The date of its original construction is uncertain, but the consensus among historians is that it was built as a ]motte-and-bailey castle
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy t ...
soon after the Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...
. A polygonal stone shell keep
A shell keep is a style of medieval fortification, best described as a stone structure circling the top of a motte.
In English castle morphology, shell keeps are perceived as the successors to motte-and-bailey castles, with the wooden fence arou ...
was built in chalk and flint rubblestone around the top of the motte in the early 12th Century, the remains of which are still visible.
The square keep
A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...
, known as the Great Tower, was constructed in the mid-12th century from Bargate stone
__NOTOC__
Bargate stone is a highly durable form of sandstone. It owes its yellow, butter or honey colouring to a high iron content. In some contexts it may be considered to be a form of ironstone. However, in the context of stone buildings loca ...
. Originally built with only two floors, it was a "solar keep" and functioned primarily as a private residence, rather than as an administrative centre. At an unknown later date, a third storey was built directly on top of the crenelations, to bring the structure to its present height.[ Part of the keep was in use as a prison by the end of the 12th century and new, royal apartments were constructed in the 13th century in the southwestern corner. Henry III commissioned the rebuilding of the castle following a fire in the mid-13th century, converting it into one of the most luxurious palaces in England.][ In 1245, he bought land to extend the castle grounds and Castle Arch was constructed on his orders in 1256.
The castle ceased to be a royal residence in the ]Tudor period
The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in Englan ...
and it was leased from the Crown by Francis Carter in the reign of James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
. A Parliamentary survey in 1650 noted that the keep was still habitable, although the associated outbuildings are thought to have been ruinous by this time. In 1885, the borough purchased the castle grounds and opened them to the public three years later.
Guildford Friary
The Guildford Black Friary was a community of Dominicans, founded by Eleanor of Provence
Eleanor of Provence (c. 1223 – 24/25 June 1291) was a French noblewoman who became Queen of England as the wife of King Henry III from 1236 until his death in 1272. She served as regent of England during the absence of her spouse in 1253.
...
, wife of Henry III, around 1275. It occupied a site of around beside the River Wey, to the north of the Town Ditch (now North Street). Excavations in the 1970s revealed that the original buildings were arranged around three sides of a central cloister, with a church to the south, chapter house
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...
to the east and kitchen to the north.[ The community was never large; in 1336 there were only 20 friars and by the time of its ]dissolution
Dissolution may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Books
* ''Dissolution'' (''Forgotten Realms'' novel), a 2002 fantasy novel by Richard Lee Byers
* ''Dissolution'' (Sansom novel), a 2003 historical novel by C. J. Sansom Music
* Dissolution, in mu ...
in 1537, there were only seven.[ In the late Tudor period, the building was occasionally used as a royal residence until 1606, when it was demolished and the materials used for construction projects elsewhere in the town.]
In 1630, John Annandale purchased the friary grounds and built a house there. The property passed through a series of private owners until 1794, when it was bought by the War Office. It was used as a barracks until the end of the Napoleonic Wars and then demolished in 1818. The grounds are indicated on an 1841 map of Guildford as the “Barrack Field” and shortly afterwards the area was divided into plots and sold for housebuilding.[ In 1858, the Chennel family set up a steam-powered flour mill on the site of the friary church and cloisters, which was subsequently purchased and converted to a brewery by Thomas Taunton in the 1870s.] In 1956, the brewery merged with the Meux Brewery
The Horse Shoe Brewery was an English brewery in the City of Westminster that was established in 1764 and became a major producer of porter, from 1809 as Henry Meux & Co. It was the site of the London Beer Flood in 1814, which killed eight peo ...
of Nine Elms
Nine Elms is an area of south-west London, England, within the London Borough of Wandsworth. It lies on the River Thames, with Battersea to the west, South Lambeth to the south and Vauxhall to the east.
The area was formerly mainly industrial bu ...
to form Friary Meux.[ The combined company was taken over by ]Allied Breweries
Allied Breweries was the result of a 1961 merger between Ind Coope (of Burton), Ansells (of Birmingham), and Tetley Walker (of Leeds).
In 1978, Allied Breweries merged with the food and catering group J. Lyons and Co to form Allied Lyons. The bre ...
in 1963 Brewing ceased in December 1968 and the site was sold to the developer, MEPC plc
MEPC is a British-based property investment and development business. It is headquartered in Milton Park, Oxfordshire. It used to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It is however now owned by ...
. The brewery was demolished in 1974 and, after archaeological investigations had been concluded, construction of the Friary Centre began in 1978.[
]
Transport and communications
The eastwest route along the North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills and ...
has been in use since ancient times. In the late 19th century it was dubbed the Pilgrims Way
The Pilgrims' Way (also Pilgrim's Way or Pilgrims Way) is the historical route supposedly taken by pilgrims from Winchester in Hampshire, England, to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent. This name, of comparatively recent coinag ...
, but there is no convincing evidence of its use by pilgrims. The route consists of multiple parallel tracks and hollow ways running along the top of and beneath the North Downs escarpment and is typical of other ridgeway routes in the UK and Europe. Similarly, the path alongside the River Wey, running broadly northsouth, is also likely to have been used since antiquity. By the Tudor period, this route had become an important military supply line, linking London and Chatham
Chatham may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Chatham Islands (British Columbia)
* Chatham Sound, British Columbia
* Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi
* Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
to Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
. A turnpike road through Guildford, between London and Portsmouth, was created in 1749 and nine years later the roads across the Hog’s Back and towards Leatherhead were also turnpiked. The present Farnham Road was built . The most recent major change to the local road network was the opening of the A3 Guildford Bypass in 1934.
The River Wey has been used for navigation since ancient times and during the Medieval period, there is thought to have been a wharf at Millmead.[ The ]River Wey Navigation
The River Wey Navigation and Godalming Navigation together provide a continuous navigable route from the River Thames near Weybridge via Guildford to Godalming (commonly called the Wey Navigation). Both waterways are in Surrey and are owne ...
was authorised by Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
in 1651. Twelve locks
Lock(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
*Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance
*Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal
Arts and entertainment
* ''Lock ...
(including two flood locks), and of new cuts were constructed between the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
and Guildford, and the waterway opened in 1653. The navigation had a positive impact on the economy of west Surrey. By the end of the 17th century, timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
was being transported via the river from the county boundary with West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...
and in 1724, Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...
wrote that corn from Farnham was being sent by barge to London. The Act also allowed passengers to be transported via the Wey and the maximum one-way fare was capped at 1s, which was raised in 1671 to 1s 4d.[
The Godalming Navigation was authorised in 1760 and was completed four years later.] Four locks were built as part of the works and the Town Bridge was altered to allow barges to pass beneath it. The period of the American War of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
(17751783) was particularly profitable for the two waterways, and a total of 17,000 tonnes of cargo was transported in 1776.[ Traffic on the Wey and Godalming Navigations declined following the opening of the railway lines in the late 1840s.][ The ]National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
acquired the two waterways in the 1960s and have owned them ever since.
The first railway to be constructed in Surrey was the London to Southampton line, which opened in stages from May 1838. Woking railway station
Woking railway station is a major stop in Woking, England, on the South West Main Line used by many commuters. It is down the line from . The station is managed by South Western Railway, who operate all trains serving it.
History
The London ...
, was built on the south side of the tracks for the convenience of those travelling by stagecoach from Guildford and quickly became the railhead
In the UK, railheading refers to the practice of travelling further than necessary to reach a rail service, typically by car. The phenomenon is common among commuters seeking a more convenient journey. Reasons for railheading include, but are ...
for the western half of the county. Guildford railway station
Guildford railway station is at one of three main railway junctions on the Portsmouth Direct Line and serves the town of Guildford in Surrey, England. It is down the line from via Woking.
It provides an interchange station for two other rai ...
opened in 1845 as the terminus of a branch from Woking. Four years later, the line was extended to and the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway
The South Eastern Railway (SER) was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1836 until 1922. The company was formed to construct a route from London to Dover. Branch lines were later opened to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Canterbury ...
opened at the same time. The final railway line, the line from Surbiton via Effingham Junction was opened in February 1888, with a new station to the northeast of the town centre, which was later named .
Commerce and industry
It is unclear when the first market took place at Guildford, but by 1276 one was being held in the High Street every Saturday. In the 1530s, there were three markets each week, for corn (the most profitable), for cattle, and for general produce and household items. In 1561, a market house was built "beneath the Gild Hall", but by 1626 it was no longer suitable to store the "graine accustimablie sold there" and the corn market was moved to the Tun Inn on the south side of the High Street. In 1865, the market was relocated to North Street and in 1895, it moved to Woodbridge Road.
Guildford's early prosperity was founded on the wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
trade. The North Downs provided good grazing
In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...
land for sheep, there were local deposits of Fuller's earth
Fuller's earth is any clay material that has the capability to decolorize oil or other liquids without the use of harsh chemical treatment. Fuller's earth typically consists of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite.
Modern uses of fuller's ea ...
in Surrey and the Wey provided a source of both water and power for fulling mills
Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking (Scots language, Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woolen, woollen Textile manufacturing, clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven o ...
. The town specialised in the manufacture of kersey, a coarse cloth, dye
A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...
d and sold as "Guildford Blue". The Italian merchant, Francesco di Marco Datini
Francesco di Marco Datini (c. 1335 – 16 August 1410) was an Italian merchant born in Prato. Datini is notable for having implemented the first partnership system in business in 1383.
Biography
Datini was one of four children of Marco di Datin ...
, is known to have purchased cloth from Guildford in the late 14th century and by the end of the 16th century, there were at least six dye works in the town.[ The trade began to decline at the end of the Tudor period, possibly as a result of fraudulent activity on the part of the wool merchants, who were accused of stretching the cloth. Attempts to revive the struggling industry in the early 17th century were unsuccessful][ and the last remaining fulling mill was converted to grind corn in 1714.]
After the death of their father in 1882, brothers Charles Arthur and Leonard Gates took over the running of his shop, which held the local distribution franchise for Gilbey's wines and spirits, and also sold beer. However, in 1885, the brothers were persuaded to join the temperance movement
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...
, and they poured their entire stock into the gutters of the High Street. Left with no livelihood, they converted their now empty shop into a dairy. Using a milk separator
A separator is a centrifugal device that separates milk into cream and skimmed milk. Separation was commonly performed on farms in the past. Most farmers milked a few cows, usually by hand, and separated milk. Some of the skimmed milk was consum ...
, they bought milk from local farmers, and after extracting the cream and whey, sold the skim back to the farmers for pig feed. In 1888 three more of the Gates brothers and their sons joined the business, which led to the formal registration of the company under the name of the West Surrey Central Dairy Company
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
, which after the development of its dried milk baby formula in 1906 became Cow & Gate
Cow & Gate was a United Kingdom based dairy products company, which expanded into milk bottling, distribution, and baby food production. It merged in 1959 with United Dairies to form Unigate plc, which today is known as Uniq plc. The Cow & Gate br ...
.
In 1900, the Dennis Brothers
Dennis Brothers Limited was an English manufacturer of commercial vehicles based in Guildford. It is best remembered as a manufacturer of buses, fire engines and lorries (trucks) and municipal vehicles such as dustcarts. All vehicles were made ...
company constructed what was probably the first purpose-built car factory in the country, on Bridge Street. This is now known as the Rodboro Buildings
The Rodboro Buildings in Guildford was one of, if not the first, purpose-built car factories in England and the world. It is a Grade II listed building.
History
Car factory
By 1900 John Dennis and his brother Raymond ran a successful car and ...
, after a later occupant. The company soon outgrew the site, and between 1905 and 1913 production was gradually moved to a new factory near Woodbridge Hill.
Guildford in the World Wars
At the start of the Second World War, 2500 children were evacuated from southwest London to the Guildford area and in June the following year, evacuees arrived from Brighton. The borough council built 18 communal air raid shelter
Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...
s, including the shelter at Foxenden Quarry, capable of accommodating 1000 people. In late 1940, six British Restaurant
British Restaurants were communal kitchens created in 1940 during the Second World War to help people who had been bombed out of their homes, had run out of ration coupons or otherwise needed help. In 1943, 2,160 British Restaurants served 600,0 ...
s were opened in the town and, in May the following year, the first nursery school
A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school ...
for children aged between two and five was opened, enabling their mothers to participate in war work. Over the course of the war, seven people were killed in the town as a result of enemy bombing, three of whom died when a V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...
landed in Aldersley Road in August 1944.
At the start of the war, Stoughton Barracks
Stoughton Barracks was a military installation at Guildford in Surrey.
History
The barracks were built in the Fortress Gothic Revival Style and completed in 1876. Their creation took place as part of the Cardwell Reforms which encouraged the ...
became a training centre for army recruits and George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...
visited twice in late 1939. The defence of the town was the responsibility of the 4th Battalion of Surrey Home Guard and defensive installations included dragon's teeth close to London Road station, numerous pillboxes and an anti-tank ditch
Anti-tank trenches, also called anti-tank ditches, are ditches dug into and around fortified positions to hold up the advance of enemy tanks. Anti-tank ditches were first used in World War I by Germany in an effort to protect their trenches again ...
that was dug across Stoke Park. Local factories were rededicated to the war effort: The Dennis works produced Churchill tank
The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV (A22) Churchill was a British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, its ability to climb steep slopes, a ...
s, water pumps, bombs and aircraft parts, RFD in Stoke Road produced life rafts and flotation aids for the Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
and Warner Engineering produced tank tracks and brass bomb noses.
Cathedral and University
The Diocese of Guildford
__NOTOC__
The Diocese of Guildford is a Church of England diocese covering eight and half of the eleven districts in Surrey, much of north-east Hampshire and a parish in Greater London. The cathedral is Guildford Cathedral and the bishop is th ...
was created in 1927 out of the northern part of the Diocese of Winchester
The Diocese of Winchester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. Founded in 676, it is one of the older dioceses in England. It once covered Wessex, many times its present size which is today most of the historic enla ...
. Holy Trinity Church, the largest church in the town, became the cathedral. However, by May of the following year, it was obvious that it was too small to hold the status permanently and the Diocesan Conference resolved to build a new cathedral in the town. In November 1927, The Earl of Onslow
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
offered of land at the summit of Stag Hill as the site.
The design of the cathedral, by Edward Maufe
Sir Edward Brantwood Maufe, Royal Academy, RA, FRIBA (12 December 1882 – 12 December 1974) was an English architect and designer. He built private homes as well as commercial and institutional buildings, and is remembered chiefly for his ...
, was chosen following an open competition. The building is constructed of bricks made from the clay excavated for the foundations and crypt
A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics.
Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...
. The foundation stone was laid in 1936, but by the outbreak of the Second World War, only the choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
had been completed. The crypt was finished following the end of the war and was dedicated in 1947.[ Building work on the rest of the structure was also resumed and the consecration service took place on 17 May 1961.] Construction work finally ceased in 1965.[
The campaign to found a university in Guildford began as an initiative of the local ]Rotary Club
Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, profe ...
in 1962, to explore an approach to the University Grants Commission. At around the same time, the governors of the Battersea College of Advanced Technology were looking for a new campus, as their institution had outgrown its own south London site. A year later, the Robbins Report
The Robbins Report (the report of the Committee on Higher Education, chaired by Lord Robbins) was commissioned by the British government and published in 1963. The committee met from 1961 to 1963. After the report's publication, its conclusions wer ...
recommended that all colleges of advanced technology should be given the status of universities. In May 1963, Edward Boyle, the Secretary of State for Education
The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. ...
, announced that the Battersea College would relocate to Guildford as the University of Surrey.[ The northern part of Stag Hill was chosen as the campus and the construction of the first buildings began in January 1966. The Royal Charter was granted in September of the same year and the first students were officially admitted in the autumn of 1968.
]
Guildford pub bombings
On the evening of 5 October 1974, the Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...
detonated two gelignite
Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpe ...
bombs at two pubs
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
in the town. The venues are thought to have been chosen as they were popular with off-duty military personnel from Aldershot Garrison
Aldershot Garrison, also known as Aldershot Military Town, is a major garrison in South East England, between Aldershot and Farnborough in Hampshire. The garrison was established when the War Department bought a large area of land near the villa ...
. The first bomb exploded at the Horse and Groom in North Street at 8:50 pm, killing two members of the Scots Guards
The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642, although it was only placed on the ...
, two members of the Women's Royal Army Corps
The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992, except medical, dental and veterinary officers and cha ...
and one civilian
Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...
. The second exploded around 35 minutes later at the Seven Stars in Swan Lane, injuring six members of staff and one customer.
In early December 1974, Surrey Police
Surrey Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Surrey in South East England.
The force is currently led by Chief Constable Gavin Stephens. Previously the force was led by Nick Ephgrave who left the force ...
arrested three men and a woman, later collectively known as the Guildford Four
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildfo ...
. A few days later, seven further individuals were arrested who became known as the Maguire Seven
Maguire ( , also spelled MacGuire or McGuire) is an Irish surname from the Goidelic languages, Gaelic , which is "son of Odhar" meaning "dun", "dark one". According to legend, this relates to the eleventh descendant of The Three Collas, Colla da ...
. The Guildford Four were convicted
In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which is consid ...
for carrying out the bombings in October 1975 and received life sentences
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...
. All four maintained their innocence and, after a campaign of almost fifteen years, their convictions were quashed in October 1989.
Modern Guildford
In the 21st century Guildford still has a High Street paved with granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
setts
A sett, also known as a block or Belgian block, is a broadly rectangular quarried stone used in paving roads and walkways. Formerly in widespread use, particularly on steeper streets because setts provided horses' hooves with better grip tha ...
,[Shopping in Guildford]
and is one of the most expensive places to buy property in the UK outside London. The town has a general street market held on Fridays and Saturdays. A farmers' market
A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...
is usually held on the first Tuesday of each month. There is a Tourist Information Office, guided walks and various hotels including the historic Angel Hotel which long served as a coaching stop on the main London to Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
route.
County town
Guildford is sometimes described as the county town
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...
of Surrey. Surrey County Council maintains no administrative presence in Guildford and moved from Kingston upon Thames (which became part of Greater London in the 1960s), to Reigate in 2020.
There are claims that Henry VII granted the status of county town when he made Guildford the custody of the standard measures. However, the statute does not explicitly state that this makes the settlement a county town.
Guildford's official historian, the borough council's "Honorary Remembrancer", Matthew Alexander, claims that Guildford was granted the "''ancient county court
A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...
in Guildford by a grant of Henry III in 1257, marking Guildford's status as the county town of Surrey''", but it has been argued that this status is an inaccurate interpretation. His position is not backed up by the original documentation.
Geography
Bellfields
Bellfields is a suburb in the north of Guildford lying adjacent to Slyfield Industrial Estate and Stoughton. The area includes private estates as well as current and former social housing estates. Christ's College, Guildford's senior school and Pond Meadow special needs school are in Bellfields. The neighbourhood includes St Peter's Shared Church and the Guildford Family Centre.
Burpham
This former village is now a major suburb of Guildford..
Charlotteville
Charlotteville is one of the first planned suburbs in Britain. The estate was funded by a local doctor, Thomas Sells, and named after his wife, Charlotte. It was developed by the Guildford architect Henry Peak in 1862 and is loosely bound between Shalford Road and Sydenham Road, encompassing the beauty spot of Pewley Down. The area's roads were named after English doctors, including Addison
Addison may refer to:
Places Canada
* Addison, Ontario
United States
*Addison, Alabama
*Addison, Illinois
*Addison Street in Chicago, Illinois which runs by Wrigley Field
* Addison, Kentucky
*Addison, Maine
*Addison, Michigan
*Addison, New York
...
Road, Cheselden Road, Harvey
Harvey, Harveys or Harvey's may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Harvey'' (play), a 1944 play by Mary Chase about a man befriended by an invisible anthropomorphic rabbit
* Harvey Awards ("Harveys"), one of the most important awards ...
Road and Jenner Road. Public footpaths lead from the town through Charlotteville to the downs and towards St Martha's Hill and Albury
Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...
. It houses a great many cottages and a few large, mostly privately owned properties. The official designation of the heart of Charlotteville as a conservation area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
means that Peak's work may survive. The development introduced institutions such as the Cork Club, the Charlotteville Cycling Club
Charlotteville Cycling Club is a cycling club in Guildford, southern England. The club incorporated in 1903, saw a national record broken in 1934 by Harry Ferris and organises the Guildford Town Centre Races, which have taken place since 1984.
...
, founded in 1903 with the then mayor as its first president, and the Charlotteville Jubilee Trust charity, formed at the time of the Golden Jubilee
A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali ''"সু ...
. Two schools were established in the village - one infant and one junior school. merging to form the Holy Trinity Pewley Down School in the late 2000s. The last of the shops closed in 2006.
Guildford Park and Dennisville
These small residential neighbourhoods are immediately south of and at the foot of Stag Hill. Dennisville was founded in 1934 to provide accommodation for workers at Dennis Brothers
Dennis Brothers Limited was an English manufacturer of commercial vehicles based in Guildford. It is best remembered as a manufacturer of buses, fire engines and lorries (trucks) and municipal vehicles such as dustcarts. All vehicles were made ...
Woodbridge Hill factory. Both neighbourhoods are close to Guildford railway station
Guildford railway station is at one of three main railway junctions on the Portsmouth Direct Line and serves the town of Guildford in Surrey, England. It is down the line from via Woking.
It provides an interchange station for two other rai ...
to the southeast and become, without division, Onslow Village to the south. As the University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
occupies the top and north of Stag Hill, it is a popular location for student lodgings.
Jacobs Well
This former village is now a major suburb of Guildford.
Merrow
This former village is now a major suburb of Guildford.
Onslow Village
Onslow Village is the sloped suburb on the western outskirts of Guildford. It, with one outlying road continuation, forms a wedge between the A3 road
The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classified ...
and A31 road
The A31 is a major trunk road in southern England that runs from Guildford in Surrey to Bere Regis in Dorset.
Route of road
The road begins in Guildford at the start of Farnham Road near Guildford Station, coming out of the town and passing ...
s south of the junction of the A3 and Egerton Road, Guildford's ''Cathedral Turn'' and directly below Henley Fort, the 1880s built London Defence Position and a Scheduled Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
. The area consists of a number of residential streets many of which are characterised by beech hedges. Parts of Onslow Village have been designated as conservation areas, enforcing a number of planning restrictions that are intended to protect the character and identity of the locality. Local amenities include the 5th Guildford Scout Group, a community news website, a Tennis Club and Onslow Arboretum. It also has its own football team, Onslow FC, established in 1986.
There is a small village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
centre, with a parade of shops and a village hall. Onslow has one infant school, Onslow Infant School, as well as Queen Eleanor's School, a primary school. The local Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
church is All Saints.
The Village also has a Residents' association, the Onslow Village Residents' Association (OVRA) which was set up in 1956 and whose object is to "safeguard the amenities of Onslow village and to promote the welfare, interests and well-being of the residents". The Onslow Village Society was formed with the aim to tackle the acute shortage of decent working-class housing following the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Onslow Village Ltd acquired or just over a square mile of land from the Earl of Onslow in 1920 for approximately one-quarter of its market value at the time. The aim was to create a garden city to be modelled on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard
Sir Ebenezer Howard (29 January 1850 – 1 May 1928) was an English urban planner and founder of the garden city movement, known for his publication '' To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform'' (1898), the description of a utopian city in whi ...
's Garden City Movement
The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...
. It was their intention to build a self-contained community with smallholdings, public buildings, open spaces, recreation grounds, woodland and a railway station, as well as developing sites for churches, hotels and factories. On Saturday 1 May 1920, ten weeks after the formation of the Society, the foundations of the first two houses were laid and by March 1922 ninety-one houses had been built. Unfortunately due to a lack of funding the scheme never reached full completion, with about 600 houses actually being built. Original drawings however showed that there were further plans to develop the farmland at Manor Farm, north of the A3. By the mid-1970s, one-third of the properties were still owned by Onslow Village Ltd. Then, in 1984, the company was wound up and many shareholders and tenants had the chance to buy their homes at affordable prices.
Onslow Village never got its railway station, however, it did eventually get its woodland: the Onslow arboretum, developed by Guildford Borough Council as a specialist collection of eighty tree species from around the world. The Onslow arboretum is located right next to the recreation area which has its own park, a large field, several tennis courts, toilets and a scout hut.[
]
Park Barn
Park Barn consists of a former and present social housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...
estate in Guildford. It is bordered to the south by the railway line
Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...
, the east by Westborough, the north by Rydes Hill and Wood Street, sometimes mapped as part of it but in Worplesdon
Worplesdon is a village NNW of Guildford in Surrey, England and a large dispersed civil parish that includes the settlements of: Worplesdon itself (including its central church area, Perry Hill), Fairlands, Jacobs Well, Rydeshill and Wood S ...
civil parish and the west by Broadstreet Common. The estate is home to King's College, a school for 11 – 16-year-olds. There are also a number of primary schools in the area of Park Barn, including Guildford Grove Primary School, which has a specialist sign-supported rescue base on the site that supports pupils with profound hearing impairment
Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spoken l ...
s, known as The Lighthouse. The Football team, Park Barn FC, plays in League 4 of the Guildford and Woking Alliance League. Guildford City Boxing Club moved from Bellfields to Cabell Road in Park Barn in 2014.
Stoughton
Stoughton is a mainly residential
A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.
Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
north of Guildford town centre. It is the location of the former Stoughton Barracks
Stoughton Barracks was a military installation at Guildford in Surrey.
History
The barracks were built in the Fortress Gothic Revival Style and completed in 1876. Their creation took place as part of the Cardwell Reforms which encouraged the ...
, which was redeveloped for housing in the 1990s and renamed Cardwell's Keep. In Stoughton is ''The Wooden Bridge'' pub where both the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
and Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...
performed concerts
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or musical band, band. Concerts are held in a w ...
at the early stages of their respective careers. Another pub of historic note was ''The Royal Hotel'' in Worplesdon Road, which hosted an early U2 concert and was owned by the former wrestler Mick McManus. This is now a Chinese restaurant. Stoughton has one junior school, Northmead Junior School and one infant school, Stoughton Infant School.
Slyfield
Is the small mixed land-use area north of Guildford that is largely indeterminate from Bellfields, however to its east is Guildford's largest industrial and commercial park, Slyfield Industrial Estate. There was a cattle market held in the south of the industrial area until 2000 which moved to Maidstone, Kent
Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it with ...
. Slyfield has a community hall and a school, Weyfield Primary. To the north of Slyfield is Stoke Hill, on top of which is a park, Stringer's Common, across which is the Jacobs Well neighbourhood which is part of Worplesdon civil parish.
Stoke
The central northern area of the town contains Stoke Park and the historic manor of Stoke at its centre, now the site of Guildford College. To the north of the park is the Guildford Spectrum
Guildford Spectrum is a leisure complex in Guildford, Surrey, England. Owned by Guildford Borough Council, it was opened on 23 February 1993 at a cost of £28 million. It is the home of ice hockey teams the Guildford Flames and the Guildford Pho ...
leisure and sports centre. To the south of this mostly residential neighbourhood is London Road railway station, On Stoke Road there is a listed
Listed may refer to:
* Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm
* Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic
* Endangered species in biology
* Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...
hotel, ''The Stoke''.
Westborough
Adjacent to the Park Barn Estate, the Westborough Estate was built in the 1920s due to the growing population at the start of the 20th century. Westborough is home to a United Reformed church
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.
Origins and history
The United Reformed Church resulte ...
and to a community primary school on Southway. There is a small parade of shops where Southway meets Aldershot Road. Westborough is also a ward of the Borough of Guildford
The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. With around half of the borough's population, Guildford is its largest settlement and only town, and is the location of the council.
The district w ...
. Its population at the 2011 Census was 9,307.
National and local government
UK parliament
The town is in the parliamentary constituency of Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
. As of 2022, it is represented at Westminster by Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
Angela Richardson
Angela Joy Richardson (born 21 October 1974) is a British Conservative Party politician, who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Guildford since the 2019 general election.
Political career
In May 2019, Richardson stood for electi ...
, who was first elected in December 2019. The constituency was previously represented by Anne Milton
Anne Frances Milton (''née'' Turner; born 3 November 1955) is a British politician who served as Minister of State for Skills and Apprenticeships from 2017 to 2019. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Guildford from 2005 to 2019. Elected as ...
, first elected in 2005, who had the Conservative whip removed in September 2019 and sat for the final two months of the parliament as an independent politician
An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.
Some politicians have political views th ...
.
County council
Councillors are elected to Surrey County Council
Surrey County Council is the county council administering certain services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1965 the Conservative Party has ...
every four years. The town is covered by five divisions, each of which elects one councillor. The five divisions are: "Guildford East", "Guildford North", "Guildford South-East", "Guildford South-West" and "Guildford West". Although Guildford has historically been regarded as the county town of Surrey, the council itself has its administrative headquarters in Reigate
Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earlie ...
.[
]
Borough council
Elections to the borough council take place every four years and a total of 48 councillors serve at any one time. The council is led by an executive committee, consisting of the Leader, a Deputy Leader and six portfolio holders. Each year, one of the councillors serves as "Mayor of Guildford" for a period of twelve months. The role of mayor is primarily ceremonial and the post has little political power. Since April 1982, the council has been based at the Grade II-listed Millmead House, which was built in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Twin towns
Guildford has been twinned with Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...
, Germany since 1979. A link between Guildford and Mukono
Mukono Town is a municipality in Mukono District in the Central Region of Uganda. The town is administered by the Mukono Town Council. The district headquarters are located in this town.
Location
Mukono Municipality is 21 km east of ...
, Uganda, was established in 2003 and the borough council signed a formal partnership agreement with Dongying
Dongying (), a prefecture-level city, lies on the northern (Bohai Sea) coast of Shandong province, People's Republic of China. As of the 2020 census, 2,193,518 people resided within its administrative area of and 1,188,656 in the built-up area ...
, China, in 2017.
Demography and housing
In the 2011 census, the population of Guildford was 79,185. 87.3% of the inhabitants were white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, 7.1% were of Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
descent and 2.2% were mixed race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
.
Business
The 2011 ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' annual list of Top 500 Global Companies listed five major businesses with a significant presence in the town – the list includes Philips Electronics
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...
, Ericsson
(lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...
, Colgate-Palmolive
Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...
, Allianz
Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management.
The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. The ...
and Sanofi
Sanofi S.A. is a French multinational pharmaceutical and healthcare company headquartered in Paris, France. Originally, the corporation was established in 1973 and merged with Synthélabo in 1999 to form Sanofi-Synthélabo. In 2004, Sanofi-Syn ...
.
Media Molecule
Media Molecule Ltd. is a British video game developer based in Guildford, Guildford, Surrey. Founded in 2006 by Mark Healey, Alex Evans, David Smith, and Kareem Ettouney, Sony Computer Entertainment acquired the firm in 2010. It became part of S ...
(acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...
in 2010), Lionhead Studios
Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson (British game designer), Steve Jackson. The company is best known for the ''Black & White (series), Bl ...
(acquired by Microsoft Game Studios
Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...
in 2006, closure announced on 7 March 2016), Hello Games
Hello Games Ltd is a British video game company based in Guildford, Surrey. The company was founded by Sean Murray, Grant Duncan, Ryan Doyle and David Ream in February 2008 and has developed the ''Joe Danger'' series, ''No Man's Sky'', and '' T ...
, Criterion Games
Criterion Games is a British video game developer based in Guildford. Founded in January 1996 as a division of Criterion Software, it was owned by Canon Inc. until Criterion Software was sold to Electronic Arts in October 2004. Many of Criter ...
(acquired by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
in 2004), Ghost Games UK (founded in 2013 by Electronic Arts), and Bullfrog Productions
Bullfrog Productions Limited was a British video game developer based in Guildford, England. Founded in 1987 by Peter Molyneux and Les Edgar, the company gained recognition in 1989 for their third release, ''Populous (video game), Populous'', ...
(acquired by Electronic Arts in 1995, closed in 2001) have helped the town become a centre for video game production. The electronic components business, discoverIE Group plc, formerly known as Acal plc, with some 4,400 employees, is based at Surrey Research Park.
The bus chassis factory of the Alexander Dennis
Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, ...
(established as Dennis Specialist Vehicles
Dennis Specialist Vehicles was an English manufacturer of commercial vehicles based in Guildford, building buses, fire engines, lorries (trucks) and municipal vehicles such as dustcarts. All vehicles were made to order to the customer's requirem ...
) and fire engine bodywork factory John Dennis Coachbuilders are also in the town as well as military vehicle builders Automotive Technik. The Surrey Research Park
The Surrey Research Park is a large research park in Guildford, Surrey. The Surrey Research Park has been planned, developed, funded and managed by the University of Surrey which operates the park as a wholly owned University Enterprise Unit. ...
contains a number of world leading companies including satellite manufacturers Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space.
The company began ou ...
and BOC, part of The Linde Group
Linde plc is a global multinational chemical company founded in Germany and, since 2018, domiciled in Ireland and headquartered in the United Kingdom. Linde is the world's largest industrial gas company by market share and revenue. It serves ...
the largest provider of industrial, medical and specialist gases in the UK and Ireland.
Public services
Utilities
Until the start of the 18th century, residents of Guildford obtained their water from well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
s or from the Wey. In 1701, William Yarnold received a grant from the borough corporation to erect a waterwheel and pumps to raise river water to a reservoir at the foot of Pewley Down. A network of pipes, formed from the hollow trunks of elm trees, was installed to distribute water through the town. A new well was sunk in the town in 1865, but contamination by sewage resulted in an outbreak of typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
. By 1898, the mains water infrastructure in the town was well-developed and included both gas- and coal-powered pumps.[ In 1952, the Guildford Corporation sold the town's water supply infrastructure to the Guildford, Godalming and District Water Board.]
The town sewerage system, including the wastewater treatment works at Bellfields, was constructed between 1889 and 1895. The current sewage works date from the 1960s, but will be relocated to a site to the north, as part of the Slyfield Area Regeneration Project. The move will release land for up to 1500 new homes. The new works are expected to open in 2026.
The first gasworks in Guildford was opened in 1824 and street lighting was installed in May of that year. The construction of a larger facility was authorised by parliament in 1857. The gasworks closed in the late 1960s and the area was cleared for the construction of the Bedford Road Sports Centre and the associated car park. Since 2000, part of the site has been occupied by the Odeon Cinema complex.
The first electricity-generating station was opened in 1896 in Onslow Street with an installed capacity
Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, or maximum effect, is the intended full-load sustained output of a facility such as a power station, of 60 kW. It was rebuilt and extended in 1913 and was replaced in May 1928 by a new plant in Woodbridge Road. Under the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926
The Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. 5. c. 51) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which amended the law on the supply of electricity. Its long title is: ‘An Act to amend the law with respect to the supply of electricity ...
, Guildford was connected to the National Grid, initially to a 33 kV supply ring, which linked the town to Woking, Godalming, Farnham, Hindhead and Aldershot. The electricity industry
The electric power industry covers the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electric power to the general public and industry. The commodity sold is actually energy, not power, e.g. consumers pay for kilowatt-hours, power multip ...
was nationalised
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
in 1948 and ownership of the Woodbridge Road station passed to the British Electricity Authority
The British Electricity Authority (BEA) was established as the central British electricity authority in 1948 under the nationalisation of Great Britain's electricity supply industry enacted by the Electricity Act 1947. The BEA was responsible for ...
and then to the Central Electricity Generating Board
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
It was established on 1 Januar ...
(CEGB). In 1966 the power station had a generating capacity of 11.25 megawatts
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...
(MW) and delivered 9,090 MWh of electricity. The CEGB closed the station in 1968 and it was subsequently demolished.[
There have been small-scale renewable electricity installations in Guildford since the start of the 20th century. In around 1907, the inventor, E. Lancaster Burne, erected one of the first ]wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...
s on Pewley Hill to generate electricity for his house. A hydroelectric project to harness power from the River Wey opened in the former Toll House, part of the Town Mill on Millmead, in 2006. The building, first constructed in 1897, originally housed turbines to pump river water to a reservoir on Pewley Hill.[ Over its first ten years of operation, the installation generated over 1.5 GWh of electricity, which was supplied direct to the national grid.
]
Emergency services and justice
The first police force in Guildford was established by the Guildford Watch Committee in 1836, which appointed nine constables, led by a part-time superintendent. In 1851, it briefly merged with the Surrey Constabulary, responsible for much of the rest of the county, but the two were separated again three years later. By 1866, the Guilford force has sixteen officers, one of whom had a salary paid by the LSWR. Five additional officers were employed in 1932, when the borough was enlarged.
Between 1840 and 1864, severe outbursts of semi-organised lawlessness, commonly known as the "Guy Riots", occurred in Guildford. The violence was focused on celebrations for the Fifth of November
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Fireworks Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain, involving bonfires and fireworks displays. Its history begins with the eve ...
, but was amplified by local political issues. The rioters would rampage through the town after nightfall, damaging property and assaulting local residents.[ Following severe lawlessness in March and September 1863, 200 soldiers were dispatched to the town in anticipation of further violence that November. The army was able to disperse the rioters and four ringleaders were arrested. They were sentenced to hard labour the following April and there was no repeat of the violence in subsequent years.
In 1941, the Guildford police force was amalgamated again with the Surrey Constabulary as a wartime efficiency measure and the merger became permanent in 1947.][ The following year, the combined force moved its headquarters to Mount Browne in Sandy Lane. As of 2022, the local police force is ]Surrey Police
Surrey Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Surrey in South East England.
The force is currently led by Chief Constable Gavin Stephens. Previously the force was led by Nick Ephgrave who left the force ...
and Guildford Police Station is on Walnut Tree Close, on the site of the former market.
Guildford Fire Brigade was founded in 1863 as a volunteer force. Initially the horse-drawn fire engine was housed in a shed in North Street,[ but a brick building (now the public toilets) was built in the same road in 1872 The Guildford Brigade merged with others in Surrey in 1947, when the service became the responsibility of the county council.][ In 2022, the ]fire authority
In England and Wales a fire authority or fire and rescue authority is a statutory body made up of a committee of local councillors which oversees the policy and service delivery of a fire and rescue service. Prior to the Fire Services Act 2004 man ...
for Guildford is Surrey County Council and the town fire station is at Ladymead.
The ambulance service in Guildford was provided by St John Ambulance
St John Ambulance is the name of a number of affiliated organisations in different countries which teach and provide first aid and emergency medical services, and are primarily staffed by volunteers. The associations are overseen by the internat ...
until 1966, when the county council set up its own service. In 2022, local ambulance services are run by the South East Coast Ambulance Service
The South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) is the NHS ambulance services trust for south-eastern England, covering Kent (including Medway), Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex (including Brighton and Hove). It also cov ...
and the ambulance station is on London Road.
Healthcare
The first medical facility in the town, the Guildford Dispensary, opened in Quarry Street in January 1860. Supported by private donations, it provided free medical care to the poor, including a home visiting service and an out-patients clinic. During its first year of operation over a thousand patients were treated, highlighting the urgent need for a public hospital in the area.[ The dispensary closed in 1866, when the Royal Surrey County Hospital opened on Farnham Road.][
The land for ]Farnham Road Hospital
Farnham Road Hospital is a mental health hospital in Guildford, Surrey. It is managed by Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The main building is a Grade II listed building.
History
The foundation stone for the hospital was lai ...
was donated by Lord Onslow[ and was built as a memorial to Prince Albert, who had died in 1861. It opened in 1866 with the name Royal Surrey County Hospital with two wards and 60 beds.][ In 1948, it became part of the NHS.][ It acquired its current name in 1980.] In 2022, Farnham Road Hospital is a specialist mental health hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
.
The Guildford Infirmary was built in the grounds of the workhouse in 1896 and was initially run by the Guildford Guardians of the Poor. It was renamed the Warren Road Hospital in 1930, when it was taken over by Surrey County Council. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, an annexe was built to treat both military and civilian casualties and the hospital became part of the Emergency Hospital Service
During World War II, a centralised state-run Emergency Hospital Service was established in the United Kingdom.Paul Addison, "The Road to 1945", Jonathan Cape, 1975, pp. 178–81. It employed doctors and nurses to care for those injured by enemy act ...
. In 1945, it became St Luke's Hospital and three years later it was incorporated into the NHS
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
. It ceased to be a general hospital in January 1980, when much of its operations were transferred to the Royal Surrey County Hospital.[ St Luke's continued to house a nurses' training facility and to offer outpatients services until 1991. The site finally closed in 1999 and had been redeveloped by 2003.][
The current ]Royal Surrey County Hospital
The Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH) is a 520-bed District General Hospital, located on the fringe of Guildford, run by the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust.
History
The hospital has its origins in a facility at Farnham Road which opened i ...
, at Park Barn, opened in stages from January 1980, inheriting its name from its predecessor, which continues to operate as the Farnham Road Hospital.[ The St Luke's Wing opened in February 1997, following the closure of St Luke's Hospital.][ In 2022, the Royal Surrey County Hospital is the nearest hospital to Guildford town centre with an ]Accident and Emergency Department
An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...
.
Transport
Bus
Guildford is linked by a number of bus routes to surrounding towns and villages in west Surrey. Operators serving the town include Carlone Buses, Compass Bus, Falcon Bus, Safeguard, Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
and White Bus. There are four park and ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...
car parks surrounding Guildford, which are served by buses to the town centre. A RailAir coach service runs from the station to Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
. Route 030, operated by National Express
National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...
, links the town to London and Portsmouth.
Train
Guildford railway station
Guildford railway station is at one of three main railway junctions on the Portsmouth Direct Line and serves the town of Guildford in Surrey, England. It is down the line from via Woking.
It provides an interchange station for two other rai ...
is to the northwest of the town centre. It is managed by South Western Railway, which operates most services. Trains run to via , to via and , and to via . Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
operates services to via and to via .
South Western Railway runs all services from London Road (Guildford) station, which is to the northeast of the town centre. Trains run to London Waterloo via or .
River navigations
The River Wey is navigable from Weybridge
Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...
to Godalming
Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest 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 settleme ...
and the navigation authority A navigation authority is a company or statutory body which is concerned with the management of a navigable canal or river.
Rights of a navigation authority
Whilst the rights of individual authorities vary, a navigation authority will typically ha ...
is the National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
.
Cycling
National Cycle Network
The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...
Route 22, which will connect London to Portsmouth, and Route 223, which connects Chertsey
Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in the ...
to Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England.
The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on the ...
, pass through Guildford. A bike-sharing scheme launched on the University of Surrey campus in August 2018.
Long-distance footpaths
The North Downs Way
The North Downs Way National Trail is a long-distance path in southern England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham to Dover, past Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, along the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty ...
passes between Farnham
Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...
and Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
, passes around to the south of the town. The E2 European long distance path
The E2 European long distance path or E2 path is a 4850 km (3010-mile) series of long-distance footpaths that is intended to run from Galway in Ireland to France's Mediterranean coast and currently runs through Northern Ireland, Scotland, Eng ...
runs along the towpath
A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport ...
of the River Wey through Guildford. The Fox Way is a footpath that circles the town.
Education
State-funded schools
As in the rest of Surrey, Guildford's state schools operate a two/three age group system. Primary schools in the town include Holy Trinity (which merged with Pewley Down in 1995), Burpham, St Thomas of Canterbury (Catholic), Sandfield Primary School, Boxgrove Primary School and Guildford Grove Primary School. Amongst the junior school
A Junior school is a type of school which provides primary education to children, often in the age range from 8 and 13, following attendance at Infant school which covers the age range 5–7. (As both Infant and Junior schools are giving Primary E ...
s are Bushy Hill, Northmead Junior and Queen Eleanor's C of E. Secondary schools include George Abbot, Guildford County School
Guildford County School (GCS) is a co-educational day school on Farnham Road ( A31), Guildford, England, 200 metres from Guildford town centre. It has around 1050 students enrolled, including the Sixth Form. It is run by its headmaster Steve Smi ...
, St Peter's, King's College and Christ's College.
Independent schools
The Royal Grammar School was established in 1509. The old school building, which was constructed over the turn of the Tudor and Elizabethan
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
periods and houses a chained library
A chained library is a library where the books are attached to their bookcase by a chain, which is sufficiently long enough to allow the books to be taken from their shelves and read, but not removed from the library itself. The practice was usua ...
, lies towards the top of High Street. In 1552, the school received the patronage of Edward VI
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...
. The surviving parts of the castle were restored in Victorian times and again in 2004; the rest of the grounds became a public garden. Nearby is the Royal Grammar preparatory school which is the choir school for Guildford Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford, commonly known as Guildford Cathedral, is the Anglican cathedral at Guildford, Surrey, England. Richard Onslow donated the first of land on which the cathedral stands, with Viscount Bennett, ...
.
Other independent schools in the town include Guildford High School
Guildford High School is an independent day school for girls that was founded in 1888. Approximately 1,000 girls between ages 4 to 18 attend the school from Guildford and its surrounding towns and villages. The school comprises a Junior School ...
(founded 1876), Tormead School
Tormead School is an independent day school for girls aged 4–18 years old in Guildford, Surrey, England. It comprises a reception, prep school, senior school and sixth form. It was founded in 1905 and is a member of the Headmasters' and Hea ...
(founded 1905), Priors Field School and Rydes Hill Preparatory School.
Higher education
The campus of the University of Surrey is in Guildford. Battersea College of Technology
Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park.
History
Bat ...
(previously the Battersea Polytechnic Institute) moved to the town in 1966, gaining a Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...
in order to award its own degrees and changing its name to its current title.
The town is home to the inaugural campus of the University of Law
The University of Law (founded in 1962 as The College of Law of England and Wales) is a For-profit education, for-profit private university in the United Kingdom, providing law degrees, specialist legal training and Professional development, conti ...
and to the Guildford School of Acting
Guildford School of Acting (GSA) is a drama school in Guildford, Surrey, England. It is an academic school in the University of Surrey. It is a member of the Federation of Drama Schools
The Federation of Drama Schools functions to facilitate ...
. Other institutions in Guildford include Guildford College of Further and Higher Education
Guildford College of Further and Higher Education (GCFHE) in Guildford, Surrey was a Surrey County Council-funded educational establishment for students of age 16+ undertaking full-time and part-time studies, established in 1939. It became p ...
(which also occupies the site of the former Guildford School of Art
Guildford School of Art was formed in 1856 as Guildford Working Men's Institution and was one of several schools of art run by Surrey County Council. After several mergers with tertiary art institutions it became part of the University for the ...
), Academy of Contemporary Music
The Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) is a music academy in Guildford, Surrey, England providing contemporary music-based courses.
The school of music has a focus on rock, pop music, electronic dance music and a vocational approach. T ...
and the Italia Conti Arts Centre.
Places of worship
Anglican churches
The Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
churches in the town belong to the Guildford Deanery, part of the Diocese of Guildford
__NOTOC__
The Diocese of Guildford is a Church of England diocese covering eight and half of the eleven districts in Surrey, much of north-east Hampshire and a parish in Greater London. The cathedral is Guildford Cathedral and the bishop is th ...
. All six of the churches are listed
Listed may refer to:
* Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm
* Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic
* Endangered species in biology
* Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...
, including two that are Grade I listed.
St Mary's Church, on Quarry Street, is the oldest place of worship in the town. The tower is thought to have been built before the Norman Conquest and the transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...
s were constructed in . Many structural features have survived from the medieval period, although much of today's church dates from a restoration in 1882.[ The oldest part of Holy Trinity Church, at the east end of the High Street, is the Weston Chapel, which dates from . The original building is thought to have been constructed in the early medieval period, but it was rebuilt between 1749 and 1763. The windows in the nave were altered by ]Henry Woodyer
Henry Woodyer (1816–1896) was an English architect, a pupil of William Butterfield and a disciple of A. W. N. Pugin and the Ecclesiologists.
Life
Woodyer was born in Guildford, Surrey, England, in 1816, the son of a successful, highly resp ...
in 1869 and the transepts were added by Arthur Blomfield
Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in ...
in 1888. The original St Nicolas Church, at the western end of the Town Bridge, is also thought to have been constructed in the early medieval period. The Loseley Chapel dates from the 15th century, but the rest of the building was rebuilt in the 1870 by the Gothic Revival architect, Samuel Sanders Teulon
Samuel Sanders Teulon (2 March 1812 – 2 May 1873) was an English Gothic Revival architect, noted for his use of polychrome brickwork and the complex planning of his buildings.
Family
Teulon was born in 1812 in Greenwich, Kent, the son of a ...
.
The oldest parts of the Church of St John the Evangelist at Stoke-next-Guildford were built in the early 14th century. The tower was added in the 15th century and the north chapel in the 16th, when the north aisle was widened. The church includes stained glass designed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...
and a monument by John Flaxman
John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...
. Christ Church, in Waterden Road, was designed by Ewan Christian
Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commiss ...
in 1868 in the 13th-century English Gothic style. The Church of St Saviour, in Woodbridge Road, was consecrated in 1899 and was built in the 14th-century Gothic style.
Other Christian churches
There are three Roman Catholic churches in Guildford, St Joseph's near the town centre, St Mary's in Rydes Hill, and St Pius X in Merrow. The Catholic Parish of Guildford also includes the Church of St Edmund the Confessor at Sutton Place. There are two United Reformed Churches, two Baptist Churches a New Life Baptist Church, a Christadelphian
The Christadelphians () or Christadelphianism are a restorationist and millenarian Christian group who hold a view of biblical unitarianism. There are approximately 50,000 Christadelphians in around 120 countries. The movement developed in the U ...
meeting hall, two Methodist Churches, the Salvation Army,
Bethel Chapel, Brethren Assembly, Church in a Club Stoughton, Elim Penecostal Church, Chinese Christian Fellowship,[ and five Independent Churches
]
Quaker meeting house
The first Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
meetings in Guildford are thought to have taken place in 1668 and a burial ground was purchased five years later in North Street. The current meeting house, in Ward Street, was built in 1804-8 and retains its original, panelled meeting room.
Jewish synagogues
In 1995, a chamber was discovered in the High Street, which is considered to be the remains of the 12th-century Guildford Synagogue
Guildford Synagogue refers both to a probably medieval synagogue and to a modern congregation in Guildford, Surrey, England.
Medieval synagogue
Jews probably arrived in Guildford during the 12th century. It is widely believed that they built a s ...
. While this remains a matter of contention, it is likely to be the oldest surviving former synagogue in Western Europe.[ The modern-day synagogue, in York Road, was built in 1979 and was consecrated by Chief Rabbi ]Immanuel Jakobovits
Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits (8 February 192131 October 1999) was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1967 to 1991. Prior to this, he had served as Chief Rabbi of Ireland and as rabbi of the Fift ...
.
Culture
Guildford House Gallery, in the High Street, is run by Guildford Borough Council. Its art collection includes works of Guildford and the surrounding area, and works by Guildford artists, most notably John Russell.
In Sir Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of '' Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of '' Le Morte d' ...
's 1470 version of the Arthurian
King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a Legend, legendary king of Great Britain, Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In the earliest tradition ...
romances, ''Le Morte d'Arthur
' (originally written as '; inaccurate Middle French for "The Death of Arthur") is a 15th-century Middle English prose reworking by Sir Thomas Malory of tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the Rou ...
'', Guildford is identified with Astolat
Astolat (; French: Escalot) is a legendary castle and town of Great Britain named in Arthurian legends. It is the home of Elaine, "the lily maid of Astolat", as well of her father Sir Bernard and her brothers Lavaine and Tirre. It is known as Sha ...
of Arthurian renown. Continuing the Arthurian connection, there is a local public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
, the Astolat. Guildford has been associated with the 1863 novel ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...
'' because of its importance in the life of its author, Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
. There are several reminders of this connection throughout the town. Guildford Museum has a collection of items belonging to Carroll, see above. In addition to this, sculptor Jean Argent created two full-size bronze sculptures of Alice passing through the Looking-Glass and Alice and the White Rabbit, which can be found in the Castle Grounds and by the River Wey
The River Wey is a main tributary of the River Thames in south east England. Its two branches, one of which rises near Alton in Hampshire and the other in West Sussex to the south of Haslemere, join at Tilford in Surrey. Once combined the ...
at Millmead respectively. In ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comic science fiction, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally The Hitchhiker's Guide to th ...
'' by Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' developed into a " ...
, the character Ford Prefect
The Ford Prefect is a line of British cars which was produced by Ford UK between 1938 and 1961 as an upmarket version of the Ford Popular and Ford Anglia small family cars. It was introduced in October 1938 and remained in production until 19 ...
, actually an alien from Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant of spectral type M1-2 and one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. It is usually the tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second-brightest in the constellation of Orion ...
, claims to be an out-of-work actor from Guildford. ''Crime at Guildford
''Crime at Guildford'' is a 1935 detective novel by the writer Freeman Wills Crofts.Reilly p.396 Crofts was a leading figure of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and often set his novels in Surrey where he lived close to Guildford. It was the th ...
'' (1935), a novel by Freeman Wills Crofts
Freeman Wills Crofts FRSA (1 June 1879 – 11 April 1957) was an Irish mystery author, best remembered for the character of Inspector Joseph French.
A railway engineer by training, Crofts introduced railway themes into many of his stories, whi ...
, is set in the town.
Guildford has been captured on film in ''Carry On Sergeant
''Carry On Sergeant'' is a 1958 British comedy film about National Service starring William Hartnell, Bob Monkhouse and Eric Barker; it is the first in the series of ''Carry On'' films, with 31 entries released from 1958 to 1992. The film wa ...
'', which was filmed at the former Queens Barracks, and ''The Omen
''The Omen'' is a 1976 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer ...
'', a scene from which was filmed at Guildford Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford, commonly known as Guildford Cathedral, is the Anglican cathedral at Guildford, Surrey, England. Richard Onslow donated the first of land on which the cathedral stands, with Viscount Bennett, ...
.
The town's principal commercial theatre is the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre is a theatre located in Guildford, Surrey, England. Named after the actress Yvonne Arnaud, it presents a series of locally produced and national touring productions, including opera, ballet and pantomime. The theatre h ...
, which often shows productions after they have spent time in London's West End. The Electric Theatre
The Electric Theatre is a theatre located in Guildford, Surrey, England, which has gained a widespread reputation for promotion of the musical arts at all levels from community workshops to concerts by internationally well-known artists.
The ...
opened in 1997 to host performances by musicians and amateur drama groups. It also hosts regular film, family and music festivals as well as comedy, and has a Riverside Cafe Bar and Terrace.
Guildford Shakespeare Company performs in the town, using the bandstand in the castle grounds as the stage in the summer and several churches close to the High Street through the winter.
Guildford has an Odeon
Odeon may refer to:
Ancient Greek and Roman buildings
* Odeon (building), ancient Greek and Roman buildings built for singing exercises, musical shows and poetry competitions
* Odeon of Agrippa, Athens
* Odeon of Athens
* Odeon of Domitian, Rome
...
cinema multiplex, which in June 2007 was the first cinema in the world to show digital 4K films to the public. Guildford Civic Hall
Guildford Civic Hall was an arts and entertainment venue in Guildford, Surrey, England. Opened in 1962, it closed in January 2004, was the town's main arts and entertainment venue until it closed in January 2004. The Civic Hall was replaced by a new venue, G Live
G Live is an arts centre in Guildford, Surrey, England. The venue was officially opened by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent in February 2012.
Background
Guildford Civic Hall was the town's main arts and entertainment venue. It closed in January 2004 ...
, which opened in September 2011. In 2009 the Mill Studio in Guildford featured the English premiere of the one-woman musical, ''Estelle Bright'', starring actress/singer Sarah Tullamore
Sarah Tullamore is an English-born actress, singer, dancer and voice-over artist.
Biography
Tullamore was born in Carshalton, a suburb of the London Borough of Sutton, England and grew up in Banstead.
She began her vocal career as a child singer ...
.
The Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, founded as the Guildford Municipal Orchestra, received full council funding from 1945 until it was withdrawn in 2012. The orchestra was disbanded in March 2013, with Guildford Borough Council providing a classical music grant to other organisations instead. Singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Rowan Hitchcock (born 3 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano, and bass guitar. After leading the Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing the ...
has sung about the town in "No, I Don't Remember Guildford", a song from his 1999 album ''Jewels for Sophia''.
Stoke Park, Guildford's largest park, was the venue for the now-defunct GuilFest music festival during the summer but still hosts the Surrey County Show – agricultural and general – on the last bank holiday Monday in May. Prior to 2007, the Ambient Picnic was held in Shalford Park, by the River Wey
The River Wey is a main tributary of the River Thames in south east England. Its two branches, one of which rises near Alton in Hampshire and the other in West Sussex to the south of Haslemere, join at Tilford in Surrey. Once combined the ...
.
Guildford has a model railway club, the Astolat Model Railway Circle, which meets at the National Trust's Dapdune Wharf. They host an annual model railway exhibition at the Sports Park in January.
Radio stations Kane 103.7 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Surrey & East Hampshire, County Sound Radio (1566 AM)
County Sound Radio was an analogue commercial radio station covering Surrey and north-east Hampshire in the United Kingdom. One of its closing forms in 2012-2014 formed Eagle Extra occupying 1566 MW following an internal split between older an ...
, GU2 Radio
Stag Radio is the radio station run by the students of the University of Surrey in Guildford, Surrey, England, which broadcasts on 1350 AM during term-time. It is a long term Restricted Service Licensed broadcaster operating under a Low-po ...
, and BBC Radio Surrey
BBC Radio Surrey is the BBC's local radio station serving Surrey, north-east Hampshire and north West Sussex (including Gatwick Airport). It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at the University of Surrey in Guil ...
are based in Guildford.
Local television news programmes are BBC London News
''BBC London News'' (referred to onscreen as ''BBC London'') is the BBC's regional television news programme for Greater London and its surrounding areas. Its local competitor is ''ITV News London'', which is produced by ITN for ITV London.
' ...
and BBC South Today
''BBC South Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the south of England, covering Hampshire, Isle of Wight, West Sussex, much of Dorset and parts of Berkshire, Surrey and Wiltshire.
Since 2000, an opt-out of the main program ...
on BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
, ITV London
ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ''ITV Broadcasting Limited'' for two broadcast franchises of ITV, Carlton Television (weekdays) and London Weekend Television (weekends) in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is tra ...
and ITV Meridian
ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South, and is owned an ...
on ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
The Surrey Advertiser is the local newspaper, a Reach plc publication, which also publishes the online Surrey Live. There is also an independent "online newspaper" The Guildford Dragon NEWS which was founded in 2012.
Sport
Sports venues
The Spectrum Leisure Centre opened in 1993 and replaced the Bedford Road Sports Centre, which closed at the same time.[ Located on the northern side of Stoke Park, it offers four swimming pools, including a 25-metre lane pool and a leisure pool with eight ]water slide
A water slide (also referred to as a flume, or water chute) is a type of slide designed for warm-weather or indoor recreational use at water parks. Water slides differ in their riding method and therefore size. Some slides require riders to si ...
s. The facility also houses an Olympic-sized ice rink
An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...
and a ten-pin bowling
Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll ...
alley.
Guildford Lido
Guildford Lido was opened in June 1933 by the Mayor of Guildford, Alderman William Harvey. It has been in continuous use for over eight decades.
Description
The Lido (swimming pool), lido is a 50x27.4m pool in approximately of landscaped garde ...
, also in Stoke Park, is an Olympic-size, 50-metre outdoor, heated swimming pool. It opened in 1933, and was built as part of a scheme to provide jobs for local workers during the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. It was rebuilt in 1989 and relined in 2002.
The Surrey Sports Park, owned by the University of Surrey, opened in 2010 and on the Manor Park campus to the west of the town. It has a 50-metre swimming pool, a climbing wall, as well as squash courts and artificial sports pitches.
Professional sports teams
The Guildford Flames
The Guildford Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Guildford, Surrey and they play their home games in the Guildford Spectrum. They compete in the top-tier of hockey in the United Kingdom, the Elite Ice Hockey League.
Founded in ...
ice hockey team is based at the Spectrum Leisure Centre and played its first competitive games in the 1992-93 season. Between 2005 and 2016, the team won the English Premier League four times and, in the 2018-19 season, were Patton Conference
The Patton Conference is one of three conferences in the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) and comprises four teams. Its counterparts are the Erhardt Conference and the Gardiner Conference. It is named after IIHF and British Hockey Hall of Fame ind ...
champions.
The Surrey Scorchers is a professional basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
club, formed in 2015, following the takeover of the Surrey British Basketball League
The British Basketball League (BBL) is a men's professional basketball league in Great Britain and represents the highest level of play in the countries. The league is contested by 10 teams from England and Scotland. There are no clubs howeve ...
, by the Surrey Sports Park. Also based at the Surrey Sports Park are the Surrey Storm
Surrey Storm is an English netball team based at the University of Surrey. Their senior team plays in the Netball Superleague. Between 2001 and 2005 they played in the Super Cup as London Hurricanes. After forming a partnership with Brunel U ...
Netball team. Founded in 2001 as the London Hurricanes, the club moved to Guildford and adopted their current name in 2009.
Cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
is thought to have evolved from bat and ball games, played by children in southeast England during the Middle Ages. The first written record of the sport is from a witness statement by the Guildford resident and former Royal Grammar School pupil, John Derrick. In 1597 (old style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
, 1598 modern style), Derrick testified in a court case over the disputed enclosure of wasteland that, as a child, "hee and his fellowes did runne and play there at Creckett and other plaies".
Guildford Cricket Club was founded in 1866. They play their home matches at the Woodbridge Road
The Sports Ground, Woodbridge Road is a cricket ground in Guildford, Surrey. The ground was given to the town in trust in 1911 by Sir Harry Waechter, Bart. Guildford Cricket Club play their home matches on the ground. Surrey County Cricket C ...
ground. Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a first-class club in county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Surrey, including areas that now form South London ...
also play one or two matches a season there. Former players include the England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
cricketers Martin Bicknell
Martin Paul Bicknell (born 14 January 1969) is a former English cricketer. He played in four Test matches, with the last two, against South Africa in 2003, coming ten years after the first two in the 1993 Ashes series. England had played 114 ...
, Rikki Clarke
Rikki Clarke (born 29 September 1981) is a retired English cricketer, who last played for Surrey. He was educated at Broadwater School and then Godalming College. Clarke began his career as a professional cricketer with Surrey in 2000, maki ...
, Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles (born 19 March 1973) is a former English first-class cricketer, who played 54 Test matches and 62 One Day Internationals for England before being forced to retire due to a recurring hip injury. Giles played the entirety of ...
, Phil Salt and Ollie Pope
Oliver John Douglas Pope (born 2 January 1998) is an English professional cricketer who plays for the England cricket team and Surrey County Cricket Club. He is a right-handed batsman who occasionally plays as a wicket-keeper. He made his Test de ...
.
Other sports
The current incarnation of Guildford City Football Club was founded in 1996, when the former Burpham F.C. relocated to the Spectrum Leisure Centre and changed its name to A.F.C. Guildford. Nine years later, it was renamed to Guildford United, but soon afterwards became Guildford City F.C.
Guildford International Volleyball Club has won the fourth division of the National Volleyball League.
Guildford Hockey Club is based at Broadwater School in Godalming
Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest 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 settleme ...
, and the men's 1st XI compete in the England Hockey League. Surrey Spartans Hockey Club is based in Guildford at the University of Surrey Sports Park.
Charlotteville Cycling Club, founded in 1903, is based in Guildford. The club promotes the Guildford Town Centre Cycle Races that take place on the cobbled High Street each July.
Guildford City Boxing Club, (formerly Guildford City ABC), headed by coach, John Edwards is based in Cabell Road in Park Barn. Founded in the 1920s and originally called the Onslow Lions, the boxing club is considered one of the oldest in Surrey. Guildford Crows Aussie Rules FC was founded in 2009 and competes in the AFLGB Southern Division. The club trains at Stoke Park and plays home matches at Effingham and Leatherhead Rugby Club.
Guildford Rowing Club
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
is based in the town and has won at Henley Women's Regatta
Henley Women's Regatta, often abbreviated to "HWR" or "Women's Henley", is a rowing regatta held at Henley-on-Thames, England. Chris Aistrop and Rosemary Mayglothling were jointly responsible for setting up the Regatta in June 1988 and Aistrop ...
.
Notable buildings and landmarks
Abbot's Hospital
The Hospital of the Holy Trinity, more commonly known as Abbot's Hospital
The Hospital of the Blessed Trinity, better known as Abbot's Hospital, is a Grade I listed Jacobean building and charity in Guildford.
History
The hospital was founded by George Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury (1611–1633) in 1619 to p ...
, was founded in 1622 by George Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
and a former pupil of the Royal Grammar School. It was not intended as a place for healing the sick, but instead provided accommodation for single people (initially 12 male and eight female), who had either been born in Guildford or who had lived there at least 20 years. The hospital also included a "manufacture" or workshop for the production of cloth, which was subsidised by the foundation's endowments.[ Initially ]linen
Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.
Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...
was woven, but from 1638 wool was produced instead. In 1656, the trustees successfully applied to the Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...
to close the workshop and the funds were redirected to grants for the poor.
The hospital is constructed of dark red brick and is built around a central, rectangular courtyard. The four-storey gatehouse, on the High Street, faces Holy Trinity Church. Many of the rooms have panelling dating from the early 17th century and the chapel, in the northwest corner, retains its original wooden seating. The building was extended and refurbished in the 1980s, to improve the standard of the living accommodation.[
]
Dapdune Wharf
Dapdune Wharf
Dapdune Wharf is a former industrial wharf and boat yard on the Wey and Godalming Navigations in Guildford, England, UK, close to the Surrey County Cricket Club ground. It is now maintained by the National Trust.
Originally a goods transshipme ...
has been the main boatyard for the River Wey Navigation since the waterway was completed in 1653. Over the summer months, the National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
runs a variety of trips on the Wey Navigation, starting from Dapdune Wharf
Dapdune Wharf is a former industrial wharf and boat yard on the Wey and Godalming Navigations in Guildford, England, UK, close to the Surrey County Cricket Club ground. It is now maintained by the National Trust.
Originally a goods transshipme ...
near the town centre, where there is a visitor centre.
Guildford Institute
The Guildford Institute was founded in March 1834 as the Guildford Mechanics' Institute to promote "useful knowledge among the working classes". Its current premises, on North Street, were opened in 1892 and its activities were funded by a membership subscription. Following the Second World War, the Institute entered a period of decline, but its fortunes revived in the 1970s with a new management team and, from 1982, a 26-year partnership with the University of Surrey. A redevelopment project was launched in 2012 and was completed the following year. In 2022, the Institute offers a wide range of courses, a lending library and archive, a vegan restaurant and aims to provide an educational, cultural and social hub for the local community.
Guildford Museum
The Guildford Museum was founded by the Surrey Archaeological Society, which relocated to Castle Arch House from Southwark
Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
in 1898. The building, thought to have been constructed , incorporates part of the 13th-century castle gateway. Although the public had been allowed limited access to the Society's collections since its relocation to Guildford, the museum was not formally opened until 1907.[
A new gallery, constructed in the Arts and Crafts style, was opened in 1911 to house objects donated by the horticulturalist, ]Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote ...
. In 1927-28, the adjacent early 19th century townhouse, 48 Quarry Street was acquired and was converted to house the Muniment Room. The borough council took over the running of the museum in 1933.[ In 2021, the collection numbers around 75,000 items and includes archaeological finds, textiles and clothing, and artefacts illustrating the social and industrial history of the town.][
]
The Guildhall
The guild in Guildford was formed in the late 14th century shortly after 1366, when Edward III issued the fee farm grant, enabling the town to become self-governing in exchange for a yearly rent of £10.[ The first mention of a guildhall is from later in Edward's reign, when repairs were carried out at some point before the king's death in 1377. The current building is thought to have been constructed and was extended northwards in 1589. The council chamber and the exterior façade, facing the High Street, were created in 1683, funded by public subscription.] The clock case dates from the same year, but the mechanism inside may be up to a century older. The original bell, which now stands in the entrance hall, was replaced in 1931 and may have previously been installed in St Martha's Church.[
]
The Spike
The building now known as The Spike, was constructed in 1906 as the Guildford Union Workhouse Casuals Ward. It was used to house any vagrants found on the streets of the town, who were to be detained for two nights and compelled to undertake hard labour. Four of the original thirteen stone breaking cells survive. Following the repeal of the Poor Laws in 1929, the building continued to be used as a hostel for the homeless. In the mid-1960s, it became the archive and document store for St Luke's Hospital, which had been built on the rest of the former workhouse site. Since 2008, the building has functioned as joint community and heritage centre.
The Undercroft
The Undercroft, beneath 7274 High Street, is one of six cellars in the town centre that survive from the late-Medieval period. It is open twice a week.
Parks and open spaces
Stoke Park
Stoke Park is a large park on the edge of the town centre, with sports facilities and play areas. It was donated to the town in 1925 by Lord Onslow.
Allen House Grounds
Allen House, to the north of the Upper High Street, was built in the 17th century and took its name from Anthony Allen, who owned the property in the early 18th century. The house and its grounds were given to the Royal Grammar School in 1914 and the site was used to train local volunteer soldiers during the First World War. The building was used as a teaching annex by the school until 1964, when it was demolished to make way for a new classroom complex.[ The rest of the site was purchased by the borough council and is known today as the Allen House Grounds. Following a refurbishment in 2009,][ the site includes a formal garden, inspired by the poem '']Jabberwocky
"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865). The bo ...
'', by Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
, a multi-sports court and a putting green
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
.[
]
Pewley Down
Pewley Down, located on a hill southeast of the town centre, is a Local Nature Reserve owned and managed by the borough council. The area of chalk grassland provides a habitat for six species of orchid, and 26 species of butterfly were recorded there in 2010.
Notable people
* George Abbot (15621633) Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
was born in Guildford and lived in the town until 1580, when he became a student at Balliol College
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
, Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. He founded Abbot's Hospital in 1619.
* John Russell (17451806) portrait artist was born in Guildford and lived in the town until 1760.
* Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...
(18211887) botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
was born in Stoke-next-Guildford and lived in the town until 1839
* Edward Carpenter
Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 – 28 June 1929) was an English utopian socialist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, an early activist for gay rightsWarren Allen Smith: ''Who's Who in Hell, A Handbook and International Directory for Human ...
(18441934) poet and philosopher moved to Guildford after the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and lived in the town until his death.
* Roger Fry
Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developme ...
(18661934) artist and art critic
An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...
lived in Chantry View Road from 1909 to 1919
* Mildred Cable (18781952) Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
was born in Sydenham Road, Guildford and was educated at Guildford High School
* Leonard Colebrook
Leonard Colebrook FRS ( – ) was an English physician and bacteriologist.
Education
Colebrook was educated at the Grammar School in Guildford (1891–96), Westbourne High School in Bournemouth (1896–99) and Christ's College Blackheath in Ke ...
(18831967) bacteriologist
A bacteriologist is a microbiologist, or similarly trained professional, in bacteriology -- a subdivision of microbiology that studies bacteria, typically Pathogenic bacteria, pathogenic ones. Bacteriologists are interested in studying and learnin ...
was born in Guildford and was educated at the Royal Grammar School until 1896
* Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical com ...
(19121954) mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
and computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
lived in Ennismore Avenue from 1927 to 1931, when he became a student at King's College, Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
* Stuart Wilson (b. 1946) actor was born in Guildford
* Mike Rutherford
Michael John Cloete Crawford Rutherford (born 2 October 1950) is an English guitarist, bassist and songwriter, co-founder of the rock band Genesis. Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks are the group's two continuous members.
Initially servin ...
(b. 1950) musician was born in Guildford
* Kazuo Ishiguro
Sir Kazuo Ishiguro ( ; born 8 November 1954) is a British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and moved to Britain in 1960 with his parents when he was five.
He is one of the most cr ...
(b. 1954) novelist lived in Guildford as a child, having moved to the town at the age of six.
See also
* List of public art in Surrey
Notes
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External links
Guildford Borough Council
Guildford Society
{{Authority control
Towns in Surrey
County towns in England
Market towns in Surrey
Cricket in Surrey
English cricket in the 14th to 17th centuries
Towns with cathedrals in the United Kingdom
Unparished areas in Surrey
Borough of Guildford