
Guildford is the county town of Surrey, England, located 27 miles southwest of London. Guildford was originally settled by the Celtic Britons, and the Romans built villas in the area. The Saxons founded the town of Guldeford, named for its golden flowers or golden sand along the River Wey. Guildford was the location of the royal mint from 978 until shortly after the Norman conquest of England, and King William the Conqueror built a motte and bailey there. In 1497, Guildford was briefly occupied by Cornish rebels. Guildford became the center of a network of waterways due to canal-building from the 17th to 19th centuries. During World War II, Guildford's air raid shelter housed 1,000 people, and it was barely damaged during the Blitz. In 1974, the Provisional IRA perpetrated the Guildford pub bombings, and four innocent Irish people were tortured, convicted, and imprisoned by the British government until 1989. By the 21st century, Guildford was one of the most expensive places to live in the United Kingdom, and it served as the de facto county town of Surrey. By 2011, Guildford had a population of 77,057 people, and its constituency in Parliament was dominated by the Conservative Party since 1834, with brief interruptions from 1841 to 1847, 1852 to 1857, 1868 to 1874, 1906 to 1910, and 2001 to 2005.