Godalming is one of the oldest towns in Surrey, with evidence of Saxon settlement dating back to the 7th century. A Saxon charter of around 880 AD mentions the town. It received its market charter around 1300 and prospered through the wool and leather trades during the medieval period. The narrow streets and timber framed buildings on the High Street, many with overhanging upper storeys, reflect that mercantile wealth. The Church of St Peter and St Paul has Saxon foundations, though much of the current building is Norman and later.
The Pepperpot, the distinctive old town hall standing on arches in the middle of the High Street, was built in 1814 to replace an earlier market house. It served as the town hall until 1908 and now houses a small museum. Charterhouse School moved to Godalming from London in 1872, taking over the site of a former priory on the hill above town. The school's chapel, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, dominates the skyline. James Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony of Georgia in America, is buried at the Church of St Peter and St Paul. He spent his later years at Westbrook Place in the town.
Jack Phillips, the senior wireless operator on the Titanic, was born in Godalming in 1887. He stayed at his post transmitting distress signals until the ship went down on 15 April 1912, and his actions were credited with saving hundreds of lives. A memorial cloister and garden stand in the town centre, and a dedicated memorial was unveiled in 2012 on the centenary of the disaster. In 1881, Godalming became the first town in the world to have a public electricity supply, powered by a waterwheel on the River Wey. The Siemens dynamo lit the town's streets for three years before the town council reverted to gas, finding the new technology expensive and unreliable. A plaque near the river marks the site of the generator.
