What a Shambles! Council Takes Highlighted Street Sign Down

Published on: 30 Jun, 2025
Updated on: 2 Jul, 2025

The Shambles

Martin Giles

June 30 – An erroneous street sign indicating that The Shambles, which runs off Guildford High Street, was in Godalming, has been removed following yesterday’s article in The Dragon pointing out the mistake spotted by a sharp-eyed Dragon reader.

Today a council spokesperson said: “This had been highlighted as an error with the installation contractor who was due to come back and rectify the issue. Given the feature in The Dragon, and the fact that we had one of our own teams working in the High Street, we’ve been able to remove the sign today.

“The sign will be corrected and replaced with the next wave of road sign installations in the coming weeks.”

June 29 – The Guildford and Waverley Council amalgamation seems to have taken a new twist if the pictured street sign, submitted by Dragon reader Eddie Ward, is correct.

The Shambles, a cul-de-sac side street which runs directly off Guildford High Street, is now part of Godalming! Is a takeover in the offing, maybe as part of the local government reorganisation?

The Dragon will be asking the council to explain.

The entrance to The Shambles from the High Street Google

Historic note: Streets are called “The Shambles” because the term originally referred to an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market, or a street where butchers displayed their wares on shelves. The word “shambles” itself comes from the Old English “fleshammels,” which translates to “butchers’ stalls” or “shelves for meat”

Responses to What a Shambles! Council Takes Highlighted Street Sign Down

Michael Moriarty Reply

June 29, 2025 at 10:14 pm

I think this is less an issue of the amalgamation of Guildford and Waverley Councils and more whoever’s been approving street signs hasn’t been paying enough attention over the past couple of months.

We’ve had similar ones happen in Ash, where a couple streets in the south of the parish ended up with Aldershot identifiers on them, instead of Ash.
John Lomas Reply

July 1, 2025 at 9:45 am

I remember when we lived on Hazel Road, Ash Green. that the postal address was Aldershot, Hants even though we were in the old Guildford Rural Council area, that was before postcodes.

If you use Google Maps to find an address on Hazel Road now you will get ?????, Hazel Road, Aldershot GU12 6HP.