godalming case study

• location

  - SW surrey

  - 30 miles from London

  - 5 miles from Guildford

  - 3 miles from A3

  - situated in valley of River Wey

  - surrounded by countryside - hilly, heavily wooded
• media portrayals


  paintings - focussing on Tudor architecture, river scenes

  newspaper articles - guardian portrays as classic British town, well connected, expensive, with a "nice line of independent stores"
• economic activity

  Holloway - 81.5%

  central + Ockford - 83.1%

  England and Wales - 76.8%
• employment by occupation


  managers and officials --- professional

  Holloway - 18.8% --- 33%

  central + Ockford - 13.1% --- 23.5%

  England and Wales - 10.8% --- 17.4%
• qualifications


  levels 4+ --- no qualifications

  Holloway - 59.8% --- 2.4%

  central + Ockford - 43.9% --- 10.9%

  England and Wales - 29.7% --- 15%
• godalming ethnicity

  White - 96% in Godalming - not considered ethnically diverse
• regarded as expensive residential town

  - visual appeal, favourable transport links, high proportion of private housing

  - voted fourth best area to live in uk in 2007
• Jack Phillips


  - senior wireless operator on titanic

  - contacted other ships for assistance, died in the sinking
• population


  in 1801 - 3400

  today - 10435
• crime rate


  in Godalming

  - low

  - 48 per 1000 in 2022

  in Stratford

  - considerably higher

  - 768.2 per 1000
• exogenous factors


  - government immigration policies

  - job creation scheme

  - foreign competitiors of manufacturing

  - chain stores

  - migration of workers from around uk
• endogenous factors


  - physical landscape

  - local people + community actions

  - local businesses

  - schools - charterhouse, godalming college, busbridge primary school, broadwater

  - high quality housing

  - independent shops
• 1300s


  main industry was woollen cloth, government given them a grant to have a weekly market and annual fair
• 1600s


  - decline in woollen cloth industry

  - applied themselves to latest knitting and weaving tech

  - papermaking (until 20th cent)

  - quarrying of Bargate stone
• 1764


  canalisation of River Wey - linking to Guildford and London
• 1849


  railway connecting Godalming to London, and Guildford - then in 1859, connected to Portsmouth
• 1881


  first town in world with public electricity
• 2003


  'the holiday' was filmed in Godalming and surrounding areas
• social and demographic change

  - Very high avg incomes + standard of education

  - Low crime rates

  - High house prices

  - Not as socially and economically diverse as in the past

  - Ockford ridge + Aarons hill social housing have enabled those on lower incomes to reside in town
• job creation scheme


  - Late 1920s

  - National government set up with the building of A3 bypass

  - Workers from NW/Ne England and S wales arrived and lodged

  - Gov provided 200 houses - money from the UK gov funds
• creating a sense of community post ww2

  OCKFORD RIDGE + SOCIAL CLUB:

  - Late war, soldiers wanted area to be social

  - Houses contributed 6 pence per week and by 1946 had the money and land to build hall

  - Membership encouraged

  YOUTH CLUB:

  - With dancing + scout and guide headquarters

  - No grant available, locals raised money
• employment - post ww2

  - Shortage in farmworkers +hospital cleaners (lower wage jobs)

  - Many stayed after road was built, had families with locals

  - Jobs inc engineering, laundry and knitwear
• special persons allowance


  - Work for 3 years + given permit to stay

  - Migrants from Italy, Spain, Germany and Poland

  - Lived in older housing - central Godalming - as cheaper rent

  - Polish lived in newer housing - had supported brits in WW2
• economic characteristics and change

  - Originally a market town

  - 1500 - 1800 had flourishing industry ( declined during 17th century)

  - Had paper industry, tanning industry and was important stopping place for stagecoaches between Portsmouth and London

  - Construction of railway allowed it to grow

  - 1872 - charterhouse moved from London to Godalming

  - 20th century - 2 main factories dominated town - Alan Paine knitwear and Weyburn engineering - both closed due to foreign competition
• economy today

  based on service industry, with accountancy, insurance, shops and leisure services