Guildford

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Guildford
Guildford Clock
Guildford Clock
Coordinates 51 ° 14 ′  N , 0 ° 34 ′  W Coordinates: 51 ° 14 ′  N , 0 ° 34 ′  W
OS National Grid SU9949
Guildford (England)
Guildford
Guildford
Residents 69,400 (as of April 29, 2001)
administration
Post town Guildford
ZIP code section GU1-4
prefix 01483
Part of the country England
Shire county Surrey
District Guildford
Website: guildford.gov.uk

Guildford is the capital of the historic county of Surrey in England and is today both the central administrative seat for the region of South East England and the seat of the Borough of Guildford . In 2001 Guildford had 66,773 residents.

Since the place is in a very sandy area, Guildford is probably named after a "golden", so sandy ford ( English ford = ford) in the River Wey , which should have existed at the time of the Anglo-Saxons .

history

Alfred Ætheling , the son of King Æthelred , lived in Normandy during the Danish invasion of Anglo-Saxon England . Around 1040 he returned to England, where he was found in Guildford and arrested by the troops of Earl Godwin and handed over to Harold Harefoot's men. These blinded and mutilated him, so that he died soon afterwards.

Guildford Castle
Freiburg-Guildford partnership
University of Surrey and Guildford Cathedral

In Guildford there was the Norman Guildford Castle , which served as an overnight stay on the southern point of the royal hunting grounds. On various occasions it was by King Johann Ohneland and Heinrich III. utilized. Today only partially restored remains can be seen and are accessible to the public as part of a public garden.

From the 14th to the 18th century, the city flourished due to the profitable wool trade . Lewis Carroll (1832–1898), author of Alice in Wonderland, lived in Guildford for a long time. In 1959, the reigning Formula 1 world champion Mike Hawthorn had a fatal accident in his private car on the Guildford bypass .

On 5 October 1974, the committed Provisional IRA bomb attacks on two pubs in the city ( Horse and Groom and Seven Stars ), predominantly from stationed in Guildford soldiers of the British Army were busy. The bombs killed five people and left many injured. Due to the immense public pressure to succeed, the police soon presented a number of suspects who, because of their Northern Irish origins, were alleged to be linked to the Provisional IRA . The wrongly accused, who later became known as " Guildford Four " or " Maguire Seven ", were ultimately sentenced to long imprisonment in one of the most serious misjudgments in recent British judicial history because of confessions that were forced by the police . On October 19, 1989, the wrong convictions were overturned on the basis of new evidence.

economy

Guildford is a prosperous city with two train stations, which offers numerous commuters, among other things, easy access to the greater London area. The game software company Lionhead Studios was based here until it was closed by Microsoft in March 2016. The British headquarters of the insurance company Allianz is in Guildford .

education

Guildford is the hometown of the University of Surrey . It was founded in 1966 and has about 16,000 students.

Town twinning

A town partnership exists with

Partnership relationships, especially in the school area, exist with

Film and literature

The final scene of The Omen was filmed in Guildford's Cathedral.

Guildford is mentioned in the novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams : There one of the main characters, Ford Prefect, claims to come from near Guildford, although the story describes him as an alien by Betelgeuse .

The Crime of Guildford , a1935 Freeman Wills Crofts detective novel, is set in Guildford.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

Other personalities associated with the city

The rock band The Stranglers formed in 1974 in Guildford as " Guildford Stranglers ".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2001 Census: Town / villages in Surrey with population more than 1000 ( Memento from October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06. In: Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Archived from the original on July 10, 2007 .;
  3. ↑ Figure 6 - HE student enrolments by HE provider and domicile / Academic year 2018/19. In: Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics.
  4. ↑ Guildford Borough ( February 25, 2011 memento in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : Guildford  - collection of images, videos and audio files