The Godalming Knitting Industry and its Workplaces

Abstract

Abstract An early framework knitting industry, peripheral to that of London, was established in south-west Surrey and adjacent areas in the seventeenth century. The town of Godalming has remained a minor knitwear centre up to the present day. As the manufacture of hosiery became concentrated during the course of the eighteenth century in the East Midlands, the Godalming industry survived by specialisation. In particular it produced underclothing from 1790 until the late nineteenth century. A Godalming firm played an innovative role in the manufacture of patterned sweaters in the 1890s. The establishment of the outerwear industry which followed foreshadowed the spread of knitwear factories in the Home Counties in the twentieth century. This article considers the significance of the buildings associated with the industry. In order to place these in their historical context, it first outlines the history of the industry as revealed by documentary sources.