Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/63

 GODALMING HUNDRED

��GODALMING

��to the public in times of flood, when the ford was dangerous. This is the bridge at the east end of the town ; it was first improved when the Ports- mouth road was made, or improved, in I749- 9 It was taken over by the county 5 April 1782, and the first stone of the new bridge was laid by Lord Grantley 23 July 1782.' The bridgenear the church was made where a ford existed, about 1870. Bolden Bridge, just above it, was formerly repaired by the lord of the manor."

Broadwater, in the Portsmouth road, is the seat of Mr. E. G. Price. Munstead Hall, picturesquely situated in the woods on what used to be called Munstead Heath, on the hills north-east of the town, is the seat of Sir Henry Jekyll, K.C.M.G. Apple- garth, on Charterhouse Hill, is the seat of Sir John Jardine, K.C.S.I., M.P.

The situation of the town is very pleasant, as it lies in a great valley of green meadows, with the Wey winding in and out, and with wooded hills rising all around, on the spurs of which the outlying parts of the town are scattered. There is a modern Godalming, consisting of red-brick streets and trim villas, well surrounded with trees, lying to the north of the old town and around the railway station : but the old town follows the Portsmouth road, with streets right and left. At the junction of the principal of these Church Street with the High Street is placed the town hall or market-house, the successor of an older one, dating from 1814. With its small tower and cupola, polygonal end on open arches, and general irregularity, it groups well with its surround- ings. For use it is superseded by new municipal buildings in Bridge Street, completed in 1908.

Both the High Street and the cross streets abound with old houses, some of timber and plaster, some tile-hung, and others with 1 8th and igth- century brick fronts. In the outskirts of the town, on the south-west side, the houses are built on high banks above the road, with raised footways. Other specially picturesque parts are in Wharf Street, by the water-mill, and in Church Street, where are some ancient timber houses with projecting upper stories. Owton or Hart Lane, now called Mint Street, has some ancient half-timber work. The White Hart Inn, in the High Street, near the Market house, is another good example of a timber house with two overhanging stories having nicely carved brackets ; and the adjoining shop has a

��projecting gable-end quite in keeping. The Angel Hotel, on the other side of the High Street, though its front has been modernized, has some interesting old timber work in the rear ; and the ' King's Arms,' where Peter the Great and his suite of twenty-one lodged on the way from Portsmouth to London in 1698, is another hostelry. Among other ancient timber houses in the High Street is one which has the Westbrook arms on a pane of glass ; but it was not their home. They lived at Westbrook, where the last of them died, 1537. It is now cut up into a bank and a shop, but retains its projecting gables, with richly carved barge-boards, and a hint of timber framing, concealed by stucco. Its date appears to be about the middle of the i6th century. But more interest- ing architecturally than any of these is a house with an overhanging upper story at the corner of Church Street and High Street. It is probably a house called ' at Pleystow,' belonging to the Croftes family in the 1 6th century. The upper story, like many of its neighbours, had been coated with plaster, but in the course of repairs a piece of this fell off, and disclosed some timber framing of unusual character. The whole front was then stripped, with the result that a very rich design of timber pargeting,

���GODALMING : OLD TIMBER-FRAMED HOUSE

��21 Geo. II, cap. 36. 3

��10 MS. at Loseley ; 22 Geo. Ill, cap. 17. 25

��LoKlejr MSS.

4

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