The Godalming Navigation arrived here in 1764 terminating at the
Town Bridge having been extended from Guildford. Adjacent was Bridge
House, which was demolished in 1959. This was the home of Murray
Marshall who owned three barges and had his own mooring behind the
house and his timber yard in the Wharf.
Since the construction of Flambard Way, The Wharf, by name, has
been lost from today’s maps, but up to the early 1900’s
it was Godalming’s very important trading link. The Wharf
covered a large area stretching from Brighton Road to the Town Bridge
and from Bridge Street to Catteshall Lane. The National Trust owns
the navigation from Weybridge to the Town Bridge in Godalming, including
the old stable building shown here and the road leading into Sainsbury’s
superstore, which was always called The Wharf. Now, the River Wey
up to the Town Bridge is used extensively by pleasure craft, the
horse-drawn narrowboat Iona, shown, is based here.
The thickly wooded escarpment is South Hill facing Frith Hill and
Farncombe Hill, which gives Godalming its proud title of ‘The
Valley of the Nightingales’.
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