Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/748

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��Kingston gaol was abolished at the same time. 11 Debtors used to be confined under the town hall, and in the building across the street where the judges sat in circuit. An old print is extant of a man being hanged on a scaffold in the street there ; but the more usual place of execution was at Henley Grove on the slope of the Hog's Back, opposite the present hospital. The judges sat in this house or in a hall which had been part of the old Red Lion Inn in Market Street, bought and altered for this purpose by Lord Onslow and Lord Grantley in 1789.'* On the site of part of the same old inn was the Cock Pit, and the theatre was close by. A bill of sale of 17^4. records that the Cock Pit was let for 15 guineas for the race week. Opposite the town hall now is the Tuscan fagade of the old Corn Market erected in 1818. It is not now used as the market (vide infra). Next to this is the old Three Tuns Inn, a fine house with three gables. Among modern buildings is the Royal Surrey County Hospital on the west side of the river. It was built in 1866 as a memorial to the late Prince Consort. Adjoining the hospital are Hilliers' Almshouses, originally founded in 1 800 by Elizabeth Hillier in Shoreditch for seven women, and enlarged by Nathaniel Hillier of Stoke Park, Guildford, in 1812, for eight women. The almshouses were removed from Curtain Road, Shore- ditch, to Guildford in 1879. The Isolation Hospital between the South Eastern and South Western Railway lines, in Woodbridge, was founded in 1886. The County and Borough Hall in North Street, where the Assizes are held, was built in 1845. The public baths in Castle Street were opened in 1889.

The cemetery, on the end of the Hog's Back, was consecrated in 1856. Close by it is Booker's Tower ; a tower built for the view from the top of it by one Charles Booker. It is the property of the corporation.

The old bridge, of five arches, was of stone and very narrow. A ford crossed the river by the south side of it. It was repaired with brickwork, and the central arch was rebuilt to admit the passage of barges on the [making of the Godalming Navigation in 1760. In 1825 the bridge was widened by iron arches and balustrades, which probably weakened the original structure from which they projected. In 1900 a great flood washed large quantities of timber out of Messrs. Moons' timber yard above the bridge. This blocked the narrow arches and the bridge col- lapsed entirely. A new iron bridge was built about two years later. Fortunately in 1882 an iron bridge had been built lower down near the railway station. The foot-bridge at the foot of Quarry Hill, built by subscription, was opened 25 August 1909.

The King's Mills must from their description as ' in the parishes of St. Mary and St. Nicholas ' have stood across the river very near the present mills. Before 1256-7 they were removed to a place below the bridge, next Guildford Park, to the great injury of the joint-holders of the manor of Arlington, and of Richard Testard who had mills near St. Nicholas's Church and in St. Mary's parish opposite, respectively. The result of the complaints made was that ulti-

��mately the mills were removed back to their previous site. 15 The Arlington Mill has disappeared, leaving its name in Mill Mead. The other mills were employed for fulling besides grinding corn, and the fulling mill was in St. Mary's parish, as appears from the parish registers. In 1701 waterworks were set up in the fulling mill for the supply of the town from the river. 1 ' The waterworks are still employed to pump the water of the Guildford Waterworks. The mills were rebuilt in 1766.

Among buildings which have disappeared from Guildford was the Spital, or St. Thomas's Hospital. It stood in the angle between the Epsom and London roads, and a small ancient building was in existence when Manning wrote, but a sketch by John Russell, R.A., in 1791, exhibits no architectural features. A prior or master appears in the Court Rolls of Stoke Manor, to the lord of which he paid 6d. a year, but in 1491 it belonged to the manor of Poyle (q.v.). It does not appear to have been suppressed under Edward VI. A single cripple, dignified by the title of prior, was nominated to it by the magistrates up to the i8th century."

The Dominican Friary has been treated under the section of Religious Houses. It has left its name in Friary Steet and in Friary Ward. The precincts of the Friars are still strictly extra-parochial. The house of the Friars, after being leased by the Crown to various holders, was partly pulled down in 1606 by Sir George More, who carried away the materials by leave of George Austen, to whom he had sold his rights." This was possibly to build the wing which Sir George added to Loseley. The site was granted in fee- simple to the Earl of Annandale in i63O. 19 He had a new house built by Inigo Jones. After various altera- tions this was changed into barracks in 1794 and pulled down in 1 8 1 8.

The Trinity and St. Mary's National Schools were founded in 1814 and enlarged at various dates down to 1905. The St. Nicholas Boys' and Girls' Schools (National) in the Portsmouth Road were built in 1851, the Infants' School in 1860, and the Ludlow Road School (mixed) in 1890.

The Congregational and the Wesleyan Methodist chapels are in North Street, and there is an old Baptist chapel in Castle Street. The Friends' Meeting House and Unitarian chapel are in Ward Street on the borders of Guildford and the parish of Stoke. Land was bought for a Friends' Meeting House as far back as 1673. The Nonconformists were strong in Guildford from 1662, and there is a well-attested tradition*" of Bunyan preaching just outside the, borough. An Independent chapel was built of wood in Black Horse Lane soon after the Toleration Act of 1689, but had no settled minister till I7O4. 21 The old Baptist chapel was called Charcoal Barn Chape!, for it was on the site of a town storehouse of charcoal where the congregation formerly met.

Guildford Castle is of the mount

THE CASTLE and bailey type of castle, belonging

perhaps to the era of the Conquest.

The whole area covered by the castle works is about

��18 Information from the son of the last gaoler.

14 Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr.

15 Inq. p.m. 7 Edw. I, no. 73.

" Manning and Bray, op. cit. i, 33.

��at Guildford, sometimes connected with this hospital, is not supported by other evidence.

w Loseley MSS. iii, foL 44.

Pat. 6 Chas. I pt. viii, m. z.

In the family of Mr. Williamson, an

��17 Speed's mention of Crutched Friars old Nonconformist family, a member of

554

��which was arrested under the Conventicle Act in 1683. The late Mr. David Wil- liamson kindly supplied the editor with most of the information upon the Non- conformist bodies, and other valuable facts.


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