129-453: Guildford ( / ˈ ɡ ɪ l f ər d / ) is a town in west Surrey , England, around 27 mi (43 km) south-west 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 145,673 inhabitants in 2022. The name "Guildford" is thought to derive from a crossing of the River Wey ,
258-503: A Scheduled Monument . 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
387-433: A fee farm grant , 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
516-457: A pretender to the throne 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 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
645-648: A tributary of the River Thames 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 c. 880 . 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
774-544: 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 c. 914 , by
903-593: A dairy. Using a milk separator , 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 , which after the development of its dried milk baby formula in 1906 became Cow & Gate . In 1900,
1032-412: A few years later at least part of it was subject to Mercia, since in 673–675 further lands were given to Chertsey Abbey by Frithuwald , a local sub-king ( subregulus ) ruling under the sovereignty of Wulfhere of Mercia . A decade later Surrey passed into the hands of King Caedwalla of Wessex, who also conquered Kent and Sussex, and founded a monastery at Farnham in 686. The region remained under
1161-458: A garden city to be modelled on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard 's Garden City Movement . 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
1290-458: A large field, several tennis courts, toilets and a scout hut. Park Barn consists of a former and present social housing estate in Guildford. It is bordered to the south by the railway line , the east by Westborough, the north by Rydes Hill 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
1419-408: A major suburb of Guildford. Guildford Park and Dennisville are small residential neighbourhoods immediately south of and at the foot of Stag Hill. Dennisville was founded in 1934 to provide accommodation for workers at Dennis Brothers Woodbridge Hill factory. Both neighbourhoods are close to Guildford railway station to the southeast and become, without division, Onslow Village to the south. As
SECTION 10
#17327826723781548-571: 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. A purpose-built Corn Exchange was erected there in 1818. In 1865, the market was relocated to North Street and in 1895, it moved to Woodbridge Road. Guildford's early prosperity
1677-627: A national average of 11.8% and as such is one of the few counties not to recommend new woodlands in the subordinate planning authorities' plans.In 2020 the Surrey Heath district had the highest proportion of tree cover in England at 41%. Surrey also contains England's principal concentration of lowland heath , on sandy soils in the west of the county. Agriculture not being intensive, there are many commons and access lands, together with an extensive network of footpaths and bridleways including
1806-649: A property of the Crown throughout the Middle Ages and several kings, including Henry II and John 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 . In 1366, Edward III issued
1935-563: A raiding force at Thanet , but suffered heavy losses including their ealdorman , Huda. In 892 Surrey was the scene of another major battle when a large Danish army, variously reported at 200, 250 and 350 ship-loads, moved west from its encampment in Kent and raided in Hampshire and Berkshire. Withdrawing with their loot, the Danes were intercepted and defeated at Farnham by an army led by Alfred
2064-579: A residence for the Bishop of Winchester , while other stone castles were constructed in the same period at Bletchingley by the de Clares and at Reigate by the Warennes. During King John 's struggle with the barons , Magna Carta was issued in June 1215 at Runnymede near Egham . John's efforts to reverse this concession reignited the war, and in 1216 the barons invited Prince Louis of France to take
2193-452: A royal residence in the Tudor period and it was leased from the Crown by Francis Carter in the reign of James I . 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. The Guildford Black Friary
2322-584: 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
2451-571: 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 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 ,
2580-582: Is a ceremonial county in South East England . It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the west. The largest settlement is Woking . The county has an area of 1,663 km (642 square miles) and a population of 1,214,540. Much of the north of the county forms part of the Greater London Built-up Area , which includes
2709-479: Is a non-metropolitan county with eleven districts. The county historically included much of south-west Greater London but excluded what is now the borough of Spelthorne , which was part of Middlesex . It is one of the home counties . The defining geographical feature of the county is the North Downs , a chalk escarpment which runs from the south-west to north-east and divides the densely populated north from
SECTION 20
#17327826723782838-502: Is a small village 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 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
2967-577: 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. Slyfield is a small mixed land-use area north of Guildford that
3096-531: Is divided in two by the chalk ridge of the North Downs , running east–west. The ridge is pierced by the rivers Wey and Mole , tributaries of the Thames, which formed the northern border of the county before modern redrawing of county boundaries, which has left part of its north bank within the county. To the north of the Downs the land is mostly flat, forming part of the basin of the Thames. The geology of this area
3225-670: Is dominated by London Clay in the east, Bagshot Sands in the west and alluvial deposits along the rivers. To the south of the Downs in the western part of the county are the sandstone Surrey Hills , while further east is the plain of the Low Weald , rising in the extreme southeast to the edge of the hills of the High Weald. The Downs and the area to the south form part of a concentric pattern of geological deposits which also extends across southern Kent and most of Sussex, predominantly composed of Wealden Clay , Lower Greensand and
3354-582: Is from a c. 1000 copy of the c. 880 – c. 885 will of Alfred the Great , in which the settlement appears as Gyldeforda . The name is written as Gildeford in Domesday Book and later as Gyldeford ( c. 1130 ), Guldeford ( c. 1186 – c. 1198 ) and Guildeford (1226). The first part of the name is thought to derive from the Old English gylde , meaning gold, possibly referring to
3483-417: 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 . 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
3612-519: 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 soon after the Norman Conquest . A polygonal stone shell keep 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 , known as
3741-564: Is surrounded on three sides by the Surrey Hills National Landscape , 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 , as defined by the Office for National Statistics . The oldest surviving record of Guildford
3870-525: Is the Jacobs Well neighbourhood which is part of Worplesdon civil parish. Stoughton is a mainly residential suburb north of Guildford town centre. It is the location of the former Stoughton Barracks , 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 and Eric Clapton performed concerts at
3999-568: Is the Thames , which historically formed the boundary between the county and Middlesex . As a result of the 1965 boundary changes , many of the Surrey boroughs on the south bank of the river were transferred to Greater London , shortening the length associated with the county. The Thames now forms the Surrey– Berkshire border between Runnymede and Staines-upon-Thames , before flowing wholly within Surrey to Sunbury , from which point it marks
Guildford - Misplaced Pages Continue
4128-647: The Nox gaga and Oht gaga peoples in the Tribal Hidage may refer to two groups living in the vicinity of Surrey. Together their lands were assessed at a total of 7,000 hides , equal to the assessment for Sussex or Essex . Surrey may have formed part of a larger Middle Saxon kingdom or confederacy, also including areas north of the Thames. The name Surrey is derived from Sūþrīge (or Suthrige ), meaning "southern region" (while Bede refers to it as Sudergeona ) and this may originate in its status as
4257-615: The Battle of Hastings , the Norman army advanced through Kent into Surrey, where they defeated an English force which attacked them at Southwark and then burned that suburb. Rather than try to attack London across the river, the Normans continued west through Surrey, crossed the Thames at Wallingford in Berkshire and descended on London from the north-west. As was the case across England,
4386-581: The Battle of Lewes in Sussex. Although the rebels were victorious, soon after the battle royal forces captured and destroyed Bletchingley Castle, whose owner Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Hertford and Gloucester , was de Montfort's most powerful ally. By the 14th century, castles were of dwindling military importance, but remained a mark of social prestige, leading to the construction of castles at Starborough near Lingfield by Lord Cobham , and at Betchworth by John Fitzalan , whose father had recently inherited
4515-655: The College of God's Gift in Dulwich with an endowment including an art collection, which was later expanded and opened to the public in 1817, becoming Britain's first public art gallery . Broadstreet, Backside and Rydes Commons Broadstreet, Backside and Rydes Commons is a 158-hectare (390-acre) nature reserve in Wood Street Village in Surrey . It is owned by Surrey County Council and managed by
4644-624: The Dennis Brothers 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 , 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. At the start of the Second World War, 2500 children were evacuated from southwest London to
4773-526: The Maguire Seven . The Guildford Four were convicted for carrying out the bombings in October 1975 and received life sentences . All four maintained their innocence and, after a campaign of almost fifteen years, their convictions were quashed in October 1989. In the 21st century Guildford still has a High Street paved with granite setts , and is one of the most expensive places to buy property in
4902-543: The Norman Conquest , a motte-and-bailey castle was constructed; which was developed into a royal residence by Henry III . During the late Middle Ages , Guildford prospered as a result of the 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
5031-585: The North Downs Way , a scenic long-distance path . Accordingly, Surrey provides many rural and semi-rural leisure activities, with a large horse population in modern terms. The highest elevation in Surrey is Leith Hill near Dorking . It is 295 m (968 ft) above sea level and is the second highest point in southeastern England after Walbury Hill in West Berkshire which is 297 m (974 ft). The longest river to enter Surrey
5160-727: The River Eden , a tributary of the Medway , are in Tandridge District , in east Surrey. The River Colne and its anabranch , the Wraysbury River , make a brief appearance in the north of the county to join the Thames at Staines. Like the rest of the British Isles , Surrey has a maritime climate with warm summers and cool winters. The Met Office weather station at Wisley , about 6.5 miles (10.5 km) to
5289-401: The River Thames 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 was being transported via the river from the county boundary with West Sussex and in 1724, Daniel Defoe wrote that corn from Farnham was being sent by barge to London. The Act also allowed passengers to be transported via
Guildford - Misplaced Pages Continue
5418-669: The Robbins Report 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 , 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
5547-703: The Scots Guards , two members of the Women's Royal Army Corps and one civilian . 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 arrested three men and a woman, later collectively known as the Guildford Four . A few days later, seven further individuals were arrested who became known as
5676-586: The University occupies the top and north of Stag Hill, it is a popular location for student lodgings. Onslow Village is a sloped suburb on the western outskirts of Guildford. It, with one outlying road continuation, forms a wedge between the A3 road and A31 roads 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
5805-498: The de Clare family. In 1088, King William II granted William de Warenne the title of Earl of Surrey as a reward for Warenne's loyalty during the rebellion that followed the death of William I . When the male line of the Warennes became extinct in the 14th century, the earldom was inherited by the Fitzalan Earls of Arundel . The Fitzalan line of Earls of Surrey died out in 1415, but after other short-lived revivals in
5934-514: 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 London Road (Guildford) . 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,
6063-472: The suburbs within the M25 motorway as well as Woking (103,900), Guildford (77,057), and Leatherhead (32,522). The west of the county contains part of built-up area which includes Camberley , Farnham , and Frimley and which extends into Hampshire and Berkshire. The south of the county is rural, and its largest settlements are Horley (22,693) and Godalming (22,689). For local government purposes Surrey
6192-463: The 15th century the title was conferred in 1483 on the Howard family , who still hold it. However, Surrey was not a major focus of any of these families' interests. Guildford Castle , one of many fortresses originally established by the Normans to help them subdue the country, was rebuilt in stone and developed as a royal palace in the 12th century. Farnham Castle was built during the 12th century as
6321-464: The 16th century and collapsed in the 17th, harmed by falling standards and competition from more effective producers in other parts of England. The iron industry in the Weald, whose rich deposits had been exploited since prehistoric times, expanded and spread from its base in Sussex into Kent and Surrey after 1550. New furnace technology stimulated further growth in the early 17th century, but this hastened
6450-618: The 16th-century Dissolution of the Monasteries . Now fallen into disuse, some English counties had nicknames for those raised there such as a 'tyke' from Yorkshire , or a 'yellowbelly' from Lincolnshire . In the case of Surrey, the term was a 'Surrey capon', from Surrey's role in the later Middle Ages as the county where chickens were fattened up for the London meat markets. Under the early Tudor kings, magnificent royal palaces were constructed in northeastern Surrey, conveniently close to London. At Richmond an existing royal residence
6579-675: The 1830s. Under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 , 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 12 sq mi (31 km) stretching from Godalming to Woking . As a result of the Local Government Act 1888 , several responsibilities were transferred from
SECTION 50
#17327826723786708-574: The Catuvellauni died and war broke out between his sons and King Verica of the Atrebates. The Atrebates were defeated, their capital captured and their lands made subject to Togodumnus , king of the Catuvellauni, ruling from Camulodunum ( Colchester ). Verica fled to Gaul and appealed for Roman aid. The Atrebates were allied with Rome during the invasion of Britain in AD ;43. During
6837-548: The Earldom of Surrey. Though Reigate and Bletchingley remained modest settlements, the role of their castles as local centres for the two leading aristocratic interests in Surrey had enabled them to gain borough status by the early 13th century. As a result, they gained representation in Parliament when it became established towards the end of that century, alongside the more substantial urban settlements of Guildford and Southwark. Surrey's third sizeable town, Kingston, despite its size, borough status and historical association with
6966-434: The East Saxon diocese of London , indicating that it was under East Saxon rule at that time, but was later transferred to the West Saxon diocese of Winchester . Its most important religious institution throughout the Anglo-Saxon period and beyond was Chertsey Abbey , founded in 666. At this point Surrey was evidently under Kentish domination, as the abbey was founded under the patronage of King Ecgberht of Kent. However,
7095-408: The Friary Centre began in 1978. The east–west route along the North Downs has been in use since ancient times. In the late 19th century it was dubbed the Pilgrims Way , 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
7224-478: The Great 's son Edward, the future King Edward the Elder , and fled across the Thames towards Essex. Surrey remained safe from attack for over a century thereafter, due to its location and to the growing power of the West Saxon, later English, kingdom. Kingston was the scene for the coronations of Æthelstan in 924 and of Æthelred the Unready in 978, and, according to later tradition, also of other 10th-century Kings of England. The renewed Danish attacks during
7353-406: The Great Tower, was constructed in the mid-12th century from Bargate stone . 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
7482-451: The Guildford area and in June the following year, evacuees arrived from Brighton. The borough council built 18 communal air raid shelters , including the shelter at Foxenden Quarry, capable of accommodating 1000 people. In late 1940, six British Restaurants were opened in the town and, in May the following year, the first nursery school for children aged between two and five was opened, enabling their mothers to participate in war work. Over
7611-447: The Kentish rebel army. In 1082 a Cluniac abbey was founded at Bermondsey by Alwine, a wealthy English citizen of London. Waverley Abbey near Farnham, founded in 1128, was the first Cistercian monastery in England. Over the next quarter-century monks spread out from here to found new houses, creating a network of twelve monasteries descended from Waverley across southern and central England. The 12th and early 13th centuries also saw
7740-476: The Midlands in the mid-17th century, but the manufacture of paper and gunpowder proved more enduring. For a time in the mid-17th century the Surrey mills were the main producers of gunpowder in England. A glass industry also developed in the mid-16th century on the southwestern borders of Surrey, but had collapsed by 1630, as the wood-fired Surrey glassworks were surpassed by emerging coal-fired works elsewhere in England. The Wey Navigation , opened in 1653,
7869-455: 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 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 . Its population at the 2011 Census was 9,307. Surrey Surrey ( / ˈ s ʌr i / )
SECTION 60
#17327826723787998-436: The Roman era, the only important settlement within the historic area of Surrey was the London suburb of Southwark (now part of Greater London ), but there were small towns at Staines , Ewell , Dorking , Croydon and Kingston upon Thames . Remains of Roman rural temples have been excavated on Farley Heath and near Wanborough and Titsey , and possible temple sites at Chiddingfold , Betchworth and Godstone . The area
8127-416: The Surrey–Greater London border as far as Surbiton . The River Wey is the longest tributary of the Thames above London. Other tributaries of the Thames with their courses partially in Surrey include the Mole , the Addlestone branch and Chertsey branch of the River Bourne (which merge shortly before joining the Thames), and the Hogsmill River , which drains Epsom and Ewell . The upper reaches of
8256-477: The UK and Europe. Similarly, the path alongside the River Wey, running broadly north–south, 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 to Portsmouth . 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
8385-438: The UK outside London. The town has a general street market held on Fridays and Saturdays. A farmers' market 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 stagecoach route. Charlotteville is one of the first planned suburbs in Britain. The estate
8514-402: 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 (1775–1783) was particularly profitable for the two waterways, and
8643-407: 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 impairments , 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. Adjacent to
8772-404: The borough to the newly formed Surrey County Council . 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 is to the south of the modern town centre. Although it is not explicitly mentioned in Domesday Book, it
8901-408: The capital boosted the wealth and population of the surrounding area, but urban development elsewhere was sapped by the overshadowing predominance of London and by the lack of direct access to the sea. Population pressure in the 12th and 13th centuries initiated the gradual clearing of the Weald , the forest spanning the borders of Surrey, Sussex and Kent, which had hitherto been left undeveloped due to
9030-445: The chalk of the Downs. Much of Surrey is in the Metropolitan Green Belt . It contains valued reserves of mature woodland (reflected in the official logo of Surrey County Council, a pair of interlocking oak leaves). Among its many notable beauty spots are Box Hill , Leith Hill , Frensham Ponds , Newlands Corner and Puttenham & Crooksbury Commons . Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22.4% coverage compared to
9159-435: 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 . The second part of the name ( ‑ford ) refers to a crossing of the River Wey . 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 and Iron Age settlements on
9288-484: 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,
9417-405: The conquest of England by Cnut. Cnut's death in 1035 was followed by a period of political uncertainty, as the succession was disputed between his sons. In 1036 Alfred , son of King Æthelred, returned from Normandy , where he had been taken for safety as a child at the time of Cnut's conquest of England. It is uncertain what his intentions were, but after landing with a small retinue in Sussex he
9546-538: 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 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,
9675-519: The control of Caedwalla's successor Ine in the early 8th century. Its political history for most of the 8th century is unclear, although West Saxon control may have broken down around 722, but by 784–785 it had passed into the hands of King Offa of Mercia. Mercian rule continued until 825, when following his victory over the Mercians at the Battle of Ellandun , King Egbert of Wessex seized control of Surrey, along with Sussex, Kent and Essex. It
9804-546: The county administration was moved to Newington in 1791 and to Kingston upon Thames in 1893. The county council's headquarters were outside the county's boundaries from 1 April 1965, when Kingston and other areas were included within Greater London by the London Government Act 1963 , until the administration moved to Reigate at the start of 2021. Before Roman times the area today known as Surrey
9933-646: 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 landed in Aldersey Road in August 1944. At the start of the war, Stoughton Barracks became a training centre for army recruits and George VI 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 that
10062-484: The difficulty of farming on its heavy clay soil. Surrey's most significant source of prosperity in the later Middle Ages was the production of woollen cloth, which emerged during that period as England's main export industry. The county was an early centre of English textile manufacturing, benefiting from the presence of deposits of fuller's earth , the rare mineral composite important in the process of finishing cloth, around Reigate and Nutfield . The industry in Surrey
10191-506: The disastrous reign of Æthelred led to the devastation of Surrey by the army of Thorkell the Tall , which ravaged all of southeastern England in 1009–1011. The climax of this wave of attacks came in 1016, which saw prolonged fighting between the forces of King Edmund Ironside and the Danish king Cnut , including an English victory over the Danes somewhere in northeastern Surrey, but ended with
10320-467: 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. Jacob's Well is another former village that is now
10449-417: 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 in 1035 or 1036. Contemporary accounts are somewhat contradictory, but the modern consensus is that Aetheling,
10578-411: 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
10707-438: The establishment of Augustinian priories at Merton , Newark , Tandridge , Southwark and Reigate. A Dominican friary was established at Guildford by Henry III's widow Eleanor of Provence , in memory of her grandson who had died at Guildford in 1274. In the 15th century a Carthusian priory was founded by King Henry V at Sheen . These would all perish, along with the still important Benedictine abbey of Chertsey , in
10836-465: The extinction of the business as the mines were worked out. However, this period also saw the emergence of important new industries, centred on the valley of the Tillingbourne , south-east of Guildford, which often adapted watermills originally built for the now moribund cloth industry. The production of brass goods and wire in this area was relatively short-lived, falling victim to competitors in
10965-413: The first two houses were laid and by March 1922 ninety-one houses had been built. 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,
11094-590: 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 of Nine Elms to form Friary Meux. The combined company was taken over by Allied Breweries in 1963 Brewing ceased in December 1968 and the site was sold to the developer, MEPC plc . The brewery was demolished in 1974 and, after archaeological investigations had been concluded, construction of
11223-474: 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 were discovered at Broadstreet Common during an excavation in 1998. 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
11352-475: The historic manor of Stoke at its centre, now the site of Guildford College . To the north of the park is the Guildford Spectrum leisure and sports centre. To the south of this mostly residential neighbourhood is London Road railway station, On Stoke Road there is a listed hotel, The Stoke . Burpham and Merrow are former villages that are now a major suburbs of Guildford. Bellfields
11481-473: 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 offered 6 acres (2.4 ha) of land at the summit of Stag Hill as the site. The design of the cathedral, by Edward Maufe ,
11610-440: The largest landowners in Surrey (then Sudrie ) at the end of Edward's reign were Chertsey Abbey and Harold Godwinson , Earl of Wessex and later king, followed by the estates of King Edward himself. Apart from the abbey, most of whose lands were within the shire, Surrey was not the principal focus of any major landowner's holdings, a tendency which was to persist in later periods. Given the vast and widespread landed interests and
11739-459: 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
11868-469: 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. In Domesday Book of 1086, Guildford appears as Gildeford and is divided into seven parts, all of which were the property of William I . Two of the areas were held by reeves and four were held by lesser tenants , one of whom
11997-404: The monarchy, did not gain parliamentary representation until 1832. Surrey had little political or economic significance in the Middle Ages. Its agricultural wealth was limited by the infertility of most of its soils, and it was not the main power-base of any important aristocratic family, nor the seat of a bishopric. The London suburb of Southwark was a major urban settlement, and the proximity of
12126-519: The more rural south; it is pierced by the rivers Wey and Mole , both tributaries of the Thames . The north of the county is a lowland, part of the Thames basin. The south-east is part of the Weald , and the south-west contains the Surrey Hills and Thursley, Hankley and Frensham Commons , an extensive area of heath . The county has the densest woodland cover in England, at 22.4 per cent. Surrey
12255-447: The mouth of the Thames in a fleet of about 350 ships, which would have carried over 15,000 men. Having sacked Canterbury and London and defeated King Beorhtwulf of Mercia in battle, the Danes crossed the Thames into Surrey, but were slaughtered by a West Saxon army led by King Æthelwulf in the Battle of Aclea , bringing the invasion to an end. Two years later the men of Surrey marched into Kent to help their Kentish neighbours fight
12384-587: The national and international preoccupations of the monarchy and the earldom of Wessex, the Abbot of Chertsey was therefore probably the most important figure in the local elite. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the emergence of the shire's internal division into 14 hundreds , which continued until Victorian times. These were the hundreds of Blackheath , Brixton , Copthorne , Effingham Half-Hundred , Elmbridge , Farnham , Godalming , Godley , Kingston , Reigate , Tandridge , Wallington , Woking and Wotton . After
12513-493: The native ruling class of Surrey was virtually eliminated by Norman seizure of land. Only one significant English landowner, the brother of the last English Abbot of Chertsey, remained by the time the Domesday survey was conducted in 1086. At that time the largest landholding in Surrey, as in many other parts of the country, was the expanded royal estate, while the next largest holding belonged to Richard fitz Gilbert , founder of
12642-496: The north of the county, extending to Guildford, is within the Greater London Built-up Area . This is an area of continuous urban sprawl linked without significant interruption of rural area to Greater London. In the west, there is a developing conurbation straddling the Hampshire/Surrey border, including the Surrey towns of Camberley and Farnham . Guildford is often regarded as the historic county town , although
12771-667: The north-east of Guildford, has recorded temperatures between 37.8 °C (100.0 °F) (August 2003) and −15.1 °C (4.8 °F) (January 1982). From 2006 until 2015, the Wisley weather station held the UK July record high of 36.5 °C (97.7 °F). Surrey has a population of approximately 1.1 million people. Its largest town is Woking with a population of 105,367, followed by Guildford with 77,057, and Walton-on-Thames with 66,566. Towns of between 30,000 and 50,000 inhabitants include Ewell , and Camberley . Much of
12900-441: The north. The community was never large; in 1336 there were only 20 friars and by the time of its dissolution 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
13029-592: The period, armies from Kent heading for London via Southwark passed through what were then the extreme north-eastern fringes of Surrey during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and Cade's Rebellion in 1450, and at various stages of the Wars of the Roses in 1460, 1469 and 1471. The upheaval of 1381 also involved widespread local unrest in Surrey, as was the case all across south-eastern England, and some recruits from Surrey joined
13158-473: 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
13287-462: The rebels heading for London briefly occupied Guildford and fought a skirmish with a government detachment on Guildown outside the town, before marching on to defeat at Blackheath in Kent. The forces of Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 passed through what was then northeastern Surrey on their way from Kent to London, briefly occupying Southwark and then crossing the Thames at Kingston after failing to storm London Bridge. Surrey's cloth industry declined in
13416-475: The social control exercised there by the local authorities of Surrey was less effective and restrictive than that of the City authorities. Bankside was the scene of the golden age of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre , with the work of playwrights including William Shakespeare , Christopher Marlowe , Ben Jonson and John Webster performed in its playhouses. The leading actor and impresario Edward Alleyn founded
13545-526: The southern portion of the Middle Saxon territory. If it ever existed, the Middle Saxon kingdom had disappeared by the 7th century, and Surrey became a frontier area disputed between the kingdoms of Kent , Essex, Sussex, Wessex and Mercia , until its permanent absorption by Wessex in 825. Despite this fluctuating situation it retained its identity as an enduring territorial unit. During the 7th century Surrey became Christian and initially formed part of
13674-643: The then mayor as its first president, and the Charlotteville Jubilee Trust charity, formed at the time of the Golden Jubilee . 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. Stoke next Guildford , the central northern area of the town, contains Stoke Park and
13803-456: The throne in 1042. This hostility peaked in 1051, when Godwin and his sons were driven into exile; returning the following year, the men of Surrey rose to support them, along with those of Sussex, Kent, Essex and elsewhere, helping them secure their reinstatement and the banishment of the king's Norman entourage. The repercussions of this antagonism helped bring about the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. The Domesday Book records that
13932-449: The throne. Having landed in Kent and been welcomed in London, he advanced across Surrey to attack John, then at Winchester , occupying Reigate and Guildford castles along the way. Guildford Castle later became one of the favourite residences of King Henry III , who considerably expanded the palace there. During the baronial revolt against Henry, in 1264 the rebel army of Simon de Montfort passed southwards through Surrey on their way to
14061-546: The town through Charlotteville to the downs and towards St Martha's Hill and Albury . 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 means that Peak's work may survive. The development introduced institutions such as the Cork Club, the Charlotteville Cycling Club , founded in 1903 with
14190-524: 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 . Onslow Village Ltd acquired 646 acres (261 hectares) 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
14319-535: Was Ranulf 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
14448-528: Was a community of Dominicans , founded by Eleanor of Provence , wife of Henry III, around 1275. It occupied a site of around 10 acres (4.0 ha) 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 to the east and kitchen to
14577-590: Was a founding shareholder of the East India Company who became the company's Governor and later Lord Mayor of London . Southwark expanded rapidly in this period, and by 1600, if considered as a separate entity, it was the second-largest urban area in England, behind only London itself. Parts of it were outside the jurisdiction of the government of the City of London , and as a result the area of Bankside became London's principal entertainment district, since
14706-597: Was built c. 1800 . 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 was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1651. Twelve locks (including two flood locks), and 9 mi (14 km) of new cuts were constructed between
14835-471: Was built on the south side of the tracks for the convenience of those travelling by stagecoach from Guildford and quickly became the railhead for the western half of the county. Guildford railway station opened in 1845 as the terminus of a branch from Woking. Four years later, the line was extended to Godalming and the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway opened at the same time. The final railway line,
14964-405: Was chosen following an open competition. The building is constructed of bricks made from the clay excavated for the foundations and crypt . The foundation stone was laid in 1936, but by the outbreak of the Second World War, only the choir 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
15093-473: 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 , and they poured their entire stock into the gutters of the High Street. Left with no livelihood, they converted their now empty shop into
15222-610: Was dug across Stoke Park. Local factories were rededicated to the war effort: The Dennis works produced Churchill tanks , water pumps, bombs and aircraft parts, RFD in Stoke Road produced life rafts and flotation aids for the Royal Navy and Warner Engineering produced tank tracks and brass bomb noses. The Diocese of Guildford was created in 1927 out of the northern part of the Diocese of Winchester . Holy Trinity Church ,
15351-570: Was focused on Guildford, which gave its name to a variety of cloth, gilforte , which was exported widely across Europe and the Middle East and imitated by manufacturers elsewhere in Europe. However, as the English cloth industry expanded, Surrey was outstripped by other growing regions of production. Though Surrey was not the scene of serious fighting in the various rebellions and civil wars of
15480-427: Was founded on the wool trade. The North Downs provided good grazing land for sheep, there were local deposits of Fuller's earth in Surrey and the Wey provided a source of both water and power for fulling mills . The town specialised in the manufacture of kersey , a coarse cloth, dyed and sold as "Guildford Blue". The Italian merchant, Francesco di Marco Datini , is known to have purchased cloth from Guildford in
15609-405: 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 Road, Cheselden Road, Harvey Road and Jenner Road. Public footpaths lead from
15738-670: Was granted in September of the same year and the first students were officially admitted in the autumn of 1968. On the evening of 5 October 1974, the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated two gelignite bombs at two pubs in the town. The venues are thought to have been chosen as they were popular with off-duty military personnel from Aldershot Garrison . The first bomb exploded at the Horse and Groom in North Street at 8:50 pm, killing two members of
15867-571: Was incorporated into Wessex as a shire and continued thereafter under the rule of the West Saxon kings, who eventually became kings of all of England. In the 9th century England was afflicted, along with the rest of northwestern Europe, by the attacks of Scandinavian Vikings . Surrey's inland position shielded it from coastal raiding, so that it was not normally troubled except by the largest and most ambitious Scandinavian armies. In 851 an exceptionally large invasion force of Danes arrived at
15996-422: Was met by Godwin, Earl of Wessex , who escorted him in apparently friendly fashion to Guildford . Having taken lodgings there, Alfred's men were attacked as they slept and killed, mutilated or enslaved by Godwin's followers, while the prince himself was blinded and imprisoned, dying shortly afterwards. This must have contributed to the antipathy between Godwin and Alfred's brother Edward the Confessor , who came to
16125-403: Was one of England's first canal systems. George Abbot , the son of a Guildford clothworker, served as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1611–1633. In 1619 he founded Abbot's Hospital , an almshouse in Guildford, which is still operating. He also made unsuccessful efforts to revitalise the local cloth industry. One of his brothers, Robert , became Bishop of Salisbury , while another, Maurice ,
16254-705: Was probably largely occupied by the Atrebates tribe, centred at Calleva Atrebatum ( Silchester ), in the modern county of Hampshire , but eastern parts of it may have been held by the Cantiaci , based largely in Kent . The Atrebates are known to have controlled the southern bank of the Thames from Roman texts describing the tribal relations between them and the powerful Catuvellauni on the north bank. In about AD 42 King Cunobelinus (in Welsh legend Cynfelin ap Tegfan ) of
16383-467: Was rebuilt on a grand scale under King Henry VII , who also founded a Franciscan friary nearby in 1499. The still more spectacular palace of Nonsuch was later built for Henry VIII near Ewell. The palace at Guildford Castle had fallen out of use long before, but a royal hunting lodge existed outside the town. All these have since been demolished. During the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 ,
16512-440: 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 c. 1040 . 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
16641-525: Was traversed by Stane Street and other Roman roads. During the 5th and 6th centuries Surrey was conquered and settled by Saxons . The names of possible tribes inhabiting the area have been conjectured on the basis of place names. These include the Godhelmingas (around Godalming ) and Woccingas (between Woking and Wokingham in Berkshire). It has also been speculated that the entries for
#377622