Secret Guildford

Guildford is a fascinating town dating from Saxon times. William 1 built the Norman Castle overlooking the town from where his soldiers could dominate his rebellious Saxon subjects. By the twelfth century the original residents had accepted their fate and Guildford had become a wealthy town as a result of the flourishing wool trade. The austere castle was transformed into a luxurious palace visited by Kings and Queens over the following centuries.The seventeenth century Abbots Hospital was probably the first ‘sheltered housing’; the Angel in the High Street, a Posting House and Livery Stables, was visited by many famous people from Sir Francis Drake to Oliver Cromwell who billeted his soldiers there during the Civil War! There is a reminder of another resident, Lewis Carroll, in some delightful ‘Alice’ sculptures by the River Wey. The twentieth century Cathedral built high above the town was the first to be built since the Reformation.Over the centuries, Guilford has played host to a number of colourful characters, has survived dramatic events and continues to flourish in the twenty-first century. Secret Guildford will incorporate many of the little-known stories of these characters and reveal its hidden past in this fascinating book full of quirky anecdotes and little known facts.