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Guildford Leasing

Dennis Cars had one of the first purpose built car factories in the country in Guildford. John Dennis Coachbuilders (JDC) built fire engines at its Slyfield factory after it split in 1985 from Guildford institution Dennis Brothers but it closed in 2019.

Guildford Castle is the only royal castle ever to be built in Surrey. The castle is believed to have been built shortly after the Norman conquest of 1066 on the orders of William the Conqueror - in order to exert his control over the local inhabitants.

The first recorded reference of cricket being played in England was the testimony of a coroner in a 16th century court case. The records of a 1597 court case say a certain plot of land was used by boys to play the sport around 1550.

Our favourite Guildford fact is that its residents were the first to nickname woodlice "cheesy bobs". Even the Urban Dictionary claims the term apparently originated in the town. It also says the phrase is only known to people in Guildford - so will continue to be its best kept secret.

Acclaimed novelist and Nobel Prize in Literature winner Kazuo Ishiguro moved from Nagasaki in Japan to Guildford when he was 5. His most famous books are The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, are both set in the English countryside.

Guildford has Saxon roots and historians attribute its location to the existence of a gap in the North Downs where the River Wey was forded by the Harrow Way. By AD 978 it was home to an early English Royal Mint. The building of the Wey Navigation and the Basingstoke Canal in the 17th and 18th centuries, respectively, connected Guildford to a network of waterways that aided its prosperity.

There is an old coaching inn on the Epsom Road previously called the "Sanford Arms", which may derive from "Sand Ford", adding weight to the suggestion that the first part of "Guildford" and its many historic predecessors may refer to the very distinctive golden sand showing on the banks of the River Wey where it cuts through the sandy outcrop just south of the town.

Guildford Shakespeare Company performs in the town, using the bandstand in the castle grounds as the stage in the summer and several churches close to the High Street through the winter.

Guildford is one of notably few places locally to have a model railway club, the Astolat Model Railway Circle, which meets at the National Trust's Dapdune Wharf.