Philip Gorton is a professional researcher. He has been studying local history since childhood and specialises in the history of houses. In the late 1970s, he began using records and archives in earnest when writing his degree dissertation on the urban development of Victorian Godalming. He lived in Compton from 1961 to 1983 and his family lived there from the late nineteenth century.
He is particularly interested in vernacular houses and is an active member of the Domestic Building Research Group, which surveys and records traditional buildings in Surrey.
He has been taking commissions to research the history of houses since 1993 in addition to other research work. The majority of the houses are in south west Surrey and he has built a thorough understanding of the area and its history.
Sally Gorton has been involved with the house histories since the early 1990s and now specialises in the genealogical aspects of the work. She and Philip have been writing the histories together since 2005 and Sally is particularly skilled at teasing out the dry facts from a variety of sources and turning them into a readable and absorbing narrative.
She is a trained artist and is very involved in the presentation and visual balance of the house history books. Consequently, many customers have commissioned Sally to produce a painting of their house, which is often used as a frontispiece or within the text of the book.
For more information, visit their websites:
www.house-history-research.co.uk
www.sallygorton.co.uk
or contact:
Philip & Sally Gorton
11 Orchardfield Road
Godalming
Surrey
GU7 3PB
01483 420763
07765 524995
Email