The History of the Museum

Godalming Museum was founded in 1921 in the Old Town Hall, affectionately known as the Pepperpot. The museum set out to tell the story of Godalming and the surrounding area and early donations included fossils found by workers in the town's Bargate stone quarries, prehistoric flint tools found by agricultural labourers and the remarkable Percy Woods archive of Deeds and historical notes.

The collection soon outgrew the Pepperpot, but it wasn't until the 1980s that the museum was able to move to its present building, a 15th century timber-framed Wealden House, hiding behind a Georgian brick front. The building is the biggest artefact in a collection that now includes geology, archaeology, social history, art, oral history and archives. The museum garden is a living exhibit, inspired by the designs of Gertrude Jekyll and Sir Edwin Lutyens. It complements displays of the artist, gardener and craftswoman's work in the Arts and Crafts gallery where a star exhibit is the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies banner she designed for Godalming.

Recent collecting has focused on Godalming's often forgotten industrial history, with memories and artefacts recalling the town's knitting factories and engineering works. Godalming is very much a community museum, run in partnership by the Godalming Museum Trust and Godalming Town Council and relying on the skills and enthusiasm of its team of volunteers.