A festive trip down Memory Lane
By The Editor
25th Dec 2020 | Local News
We live in strange times, and this year we are marking a Christmas like no other we have seen before.
Many of us have happy memories of the festive season spent in Godalming, whether as a child or as a worker at one of Godalming's many companies.
Join us on a trip down Memory Lane this Christmas, courtesy of these photos, reproduced here thanks to Godalming Museum. Click on the photos to scroll through.
The photo of the large group of children was taken at Alan Paine's knitwear factory, which stood where Sainsbury's is now. During the 20th century Godalming had several big employers – Alan Paine's, RFD and the Godalming Laundry – which had sports and social clubs for their employees which organised, among other things, children's Christmas parties.
The red wooden aeroplane which hangs in one of the galleries at Godalming Museum was made by a soldier based at Witley Camp during the Second World War and given to a local child, Ralph Denyer, at a Christmas party at the camp. Children didn't get many presents during the war and Ralph treasured this all his life and then gave it to the museum.
Diana Gundry remembered the Christmas party in 1944: "All the school children from the local area had been invited to a big Christmas party at the army camp at Witley. This was a great excitement. You were allowed to wear your best clothes, party dresses, and you were collected from the school in army lorries.
"Going to a place like Witley camp – it seemed absolutely immense. We were taken into these wooden huts where they had been decorated for Christmas and we were given tea and at the end of the party we were all given presents; and jolly good presents they were, because I know I got a blackboard and easel."
All of us at Godalming Nub News wish you a merry Christmas and a happier new year in 2021.
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