Letter: Is Guildford Definitely Surrey’s County Town?

Published on: 14 Aug, 2015
Updated on: 4 Feb, 2017

Extract from a map showing English counties and the designated county towns. (Click to enlarge.)

From Martin Elliott

Forgive my limited, amateur knowledge but isn’t the questioned status of Guildford as a county town fairly common?

Despite Royal Charters, etc. Guildford has been in competition with Kingston-upon-Thames as an administrative base for centuries.

This resulted, due to a lack of investment in facilities in the past, to the move of the assizes.

I’m sure a local historian can correct my faulty knowledge.

Matthew Alexander in his hon remembrancer robes during the judiciary procession, October 2013.

The Guildford Dragon has consulted Matthew Alexander, Guildford’s hon remembrancer, who has very kindly responded as follows:

The question of county town status could be considered rather redundant, as it is an informal term today; certainly no other town can properly claim to be Surrey’s county town.

Historically, the county town was defined as the meeting place of the sheriff’s county court (not to be confused with the modern County Courts, which date from 1846).

Henry III’s charter of 7^th September 1257 stated that: “the county court of Surrey shall be held in the said town of Guildford forever.” It still is, though the only remaining function of this once powerful court is to proclaim the new monarch.

In 1952 the present Queen was proclaimed by the High Sheriff on Guildford High Street, and nowhere else in Surrey. Other towns held municipal proclamation ceremonies, but these were unofficial.

Until the great Reform Act of 1832, the elections of Surrey’s two MPs – the Knights of the Shire – to parliament took place at special meetings of the county court held at Guildford. It meant that electors from as far as Southwark had to come to Guildford personally to cast their votes.

The growth of the suburbs south of the Thames increasingly concentrated Surrey’s population into the north-east corner. When the London County Council was formed in 1889, the most urbanised parishes were removed from Surrey.

At the same time, Surrey County Council was formed, establishing its headquarters in Kingston-upon-Thames. However, despite popular assumptions, this did not make Kingston the county town, any more than Guildford Cathedral made this borough automatically into a city. (Incidentally, the absorption of Kingston into the Greater London Council in 1963 resulted in the anomaly that the Surrey County Council actually administered its county from outside its borders.)

The question of the assizes – the trials of serious crimes heard by the crown’s itinerant judges – is another red herring. When Edward I established the assizes in 1272, they were held in a number of towns in Surrey, but frequently in Guildford.

By the 18^th century the growth of London had skewed the business of the courts more to the north-east and a pattern became established of holding the Spring Assizes at Kingston and the Summer Assizes at Croydon or Guildford.

From 1890 to 1930 they were only held in Guildford, which nonetheless failed to provide an adequate court building. This led to their removal to Kingston, where they remained until abolished by the Courts Act of 1971. All this is quite irrelevant to county town status, however.

With regard to rivalries, Woking, it seems, still has ambitions. Some might regard it as a shame that the Surrey History Centre is in Woking, not Guildford. Perhaps now Woking hopes to attract the Surrey Archaeological Society and even become the home for a “Surrey County Museum”? Ed

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