Guildford: the back story

About Guildford: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Brighton Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Guildford takes its name from a Saxon crossing of the River Wey, the Golden (Guilden) Ford. A Norman castle rose above it soon after 1066; the cobbled High Street grew down the hill to the river, which was opened to barges in 1653; and in the twentieth century a red-brick cathedral rose on Stag Hill.

Stand at the top of Guildford’s High Street and look down: cobbles fall steeply to the river, past Georgian shopfronts, a timber-framed inn or two and the gilded clock of the Guildhall hanging over the street. Few English high streets are so handsome, or so steep.

A golden ford

Guildford’s heritage reaches back to Saxon times, when it was known as the Golden (Guilden) Ford, on the River Wey.

Check opening times and trains on the official sites before you travel.

The castle

Guildford Castle is thought to have been built by William the Conqueror, or one of his barons, shortly after 1066. It served as a royal palace, a prison and a private home before the Guildford Corporation bought it in 1885; the grounds opened as public gardens in 1888 to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Today the eleventh-century keep stands among famous flower beds, with a statue of Alice Through the Looking Glass, a bandstand and the town’s war memorial.

The High Street

The Guildhall clock, dated 1683, juts out over the cobbles. A few doors away, Guildford House is a seventeenth-century Grade I listed town house that is now the borough’s gallery and tourist information centre, and the Tunsgate arch frames the view across the valley.

A river for barges

The Wey was one of the first British rivers to be made navigable, opening to barge traffic in 1653. The fifteen-mile waterway linked Guildford with Weybridge on the Thames, and so with London; the Godalming Navigation extended it in 1764. Both now belong to the National Trust, whose visitor centre is at Dapdune Wharf.

Guildford today

Guildford is a university town and a shopping town, with independent shops and major stores round its cobbled High Street, a farmers’ market on the first Tuesday of most months, the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre by the river and the cathedral on the skyline.

Our advice: climb the castle keep for the view first, walk down the High Street to the river, and follow the towpath to Dapdune Wharf.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Guildford: the back story before you go.