Walk 2 : Wanborough to Godalming

Wanborough 'bump-barrow') may be named after a Bronze Age burial site on the Hog's Back. A Wanborough manor and chapel are said to have belonged to King Harold's brothers and to have been ransacked by William the Conqueror's army marching up the Hog's Back. The present manor house was built in the eighteenth century. During the war it was a training centre for 'the members of the European Resistance Movement who served behind enemy lines in special operations, facing loneliness and unknown dangers in the cause of humanity'.

Wanborough Church, one of the smallest in Surrey, was rebuilt by the Cistercian monks of Waverley Abbey in 1130, and was visited by pilgrims passing along the Pilgrim's Way.

Railway bridge with crosses. Brian Beaumont-Nesbitt writes: "When Surrey C.C. wanted to build a by-pass through the Watts property, Mary Watts refused, then finally agreed - if the bridge was designed by Lutyens. It dates from 1931, the Vic Soc says it is 'an excellent example in miniature of Lutyens' interest in geometry. The tunnel surrounds, created with a sequence of stepped arches, are skilful exercises in perspectival adjustment - the vertical walls are battered, the centres of the arches are not the same, and the horizontal planes also taper." The original railings of oak cantilevered out had to be replaced by metal safety rails, but the two crosses over the Pilgrims Way have been renewed."

Watts Gallery, Down Lane, Compton (tel 01483 810 235, admission free). In summer the gallery is open 2pm-6pm on Monday, Tuesday and Friday and Sunday; 11am-1pm and 2pm-6pm on Wednesday and Saturday. In winter (October 1st to March 1st) the gallery is open 2pm-4pm on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday; 11am-1pm and 2pm-4pm on Wednesday and Saturday. It is closed, apart from Thursdays, on Good Friday, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This gallery is how all galleries should be: wonderfully intimate, eccentric and on a human scale. There's a vast sculpture of Watts' lifelong friend Tennyson (with his wolfhound), allegorical paintings of Time, Death and Judgement, political paintings of hunger, and some coy nudes. Watts' most famous painting is the Rossetti-like portrait of the actress Ellen Terry, called 'Choosing' (would she give up the stage for him?). Their marriage, in 1864, is said never to have been consummated. He was 46 and she was 17.

Watts Chapel was the project of his second wife, Mary, who designed this Celtic, Byzantine, art nouveau masterpiece without previous architectural or building experience, inspired by the Home Arts and Industries Association, and with the help of local villagers. Every interior surface is covered with what Mrs Watts called 'glorified wallpaper' - angels and seraphs made out of gesso, a material which her husband used when rheumatism meant he could no longer handle wet clay. He is buried in the cloister behind the chapel. Admission is free, and it's open dawn to dusk daily.

Godalming is thought to mean 'field (-ing) of Godhelm' (the putative first Saxon to claim the land). It was a coaching town between London and Portsmouth, and a centre of trade in wool, stone-quarrying, timber, leather, paper, corn and brewing. The High Street has many half-timbered and projecting buildings.

Brian Beaumont-Nesbitt writes: "On the north side of the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul in Godalming, (roughly opposite your back on the main Borough Road, before going straight on) there is the Phillips Memorial Cloister designed by Thackeray Turner in 1913 with a garden by Gertrude Jekyll. Phillips was the chief wireless operator of the Titanic, who went down at his post on the ship. Worth the detour."

This text was taken from an older edition of the book, and is a little out of date. Please check the updates for this walk.