Godalming

Coordinates: 51°11′N 0°37′W / 51.18°N 0.61°W / 51.18; -0.61

Godalming /ˈɡɒdəlmɪŋ/ is a historic market town, civil parish and administrative centre of the Borough of Waverley in Surrey, England, 4 miles (6 kilometres) SSW of Guildford, traversing the banks of the River Wey in a hilly, heavily wooded part of the outer London commuter belt and Green Belt which is the Greensand Ridge. Godalming is 30.5 mi (49.1 km) southwest of London and shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France and Mayen in Germany. Friendship links are in place with the state of Georgia and Moscow. James Oglethorpe of Godalming was the founder of the colony of Georgia.

Godalming is regarded as an expensive residential town, partly due to its visual appeal, favourable transport links and high proportion of private housing. In recent years it has been ranked the UK's third most desirable property hotspot, voted the fourth best area of the UK in which to live and judged in 2013, under Waverley, to have the highest quality of life in Great Britain.

Godalming Hundred

Godalming was an ancient hundred in the south west of the county of Surrey, England. It corresponds to the central third of the current borough of Waverley and some parts of the current borough of Guildford. Broadly speaking it extended from Guildown in the north to the border with Sussex in the south. Local people maintain the notion of the hundred, sometimes colloquially referred to as Godhelmia, mainly because of the predominance of north/south routes of communication through the area that have existed since ancient times. As recently as 1995 there were proposals (from Surrey County Council) to recreate a local government unit based on the old hundred borders.

History

The Hundred of Godalming was formed sometime after 825 when Wessex annexed the "south eastern provinces" of Surrey, Sussex, Kent and Essex.

Etymology

Godalming takes its name from the Old English Godhelm Ingas meaning "the clan of Godhelm". It is supposed that Godhelm was a Saxon chieftain who first colonised this dry land, bordered by swamps and a steep valley as he and his folk moved up the valley of the River Wey.