Guildford, the county town of Surrey

Guildford, the county town of Surrey, is a small market town in Southern England.

Surrey, unlike many other English counties, cannot be traced back to an ancient kingdom. Surrey was first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Suthrige, the Southern District of Middlesex, the land of the Middle Saxons.

Guildford, the town of the ford, is located in a gap in the North Downs where the River Wey breaks through the hills. An ancient track way followed the North Downs and descended to a ford a little to the south of the town centre. This route was in use as late as the 18th century. The track way can still be found, deeply cut into the hillside. At the place of crossing a small chalk spring flows into the River Wey.

The Saxons established a site on the east of the river, which later grew into a larger site on the west bank of the river around the site of St Mary's Church.

Guildford was left in the will of King Alfred to his nephew Ethelwold. Ethelwold later revolted against Alfred's successor and as a result lost his property.

On the death of King Canute there was confusion as to the succession. Alfred Atheling (brother-in-law of Edward the Confessor, son of Ethelred the Unready), then living in Normandy, sailed to England with a large body of men to claim the throne. He was captured at Guildford, possibly as a result of betrayal by Earl Godwin, and had his eyes put out. He died in great misery at a monastery in Ely. His followers were massacred, the remains of whom are thought to be buried in a Saxon cemetery on the outskirts of Guildford at Guildown.

By the time of the Norman Invasion (1066), Guildford was one of the most important towns in Surrey. It is said that at the time of the invasion it was possible, from the Saxon tower of St Mary, to see the smoke rising from the burning of Shalford Manor.

William the Conqueror passed through Surrey on his way to London from Hastings via Kent. Much of Surrey had been in the hands of Edward the Confessor and Harold II, William handed it to his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux.