Godstone is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...
, England, east of
Reigate
Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...
at the junction of the
A22 and
A25 roads, near the
M25 motorway
The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 the lon ...
and the
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills ...
.
Godstone railway station is separated from it by agricultural land.
Blindley Heath
Godstone is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, east of Reigate at the junction of the A22 and A25 roads, near the M25 motorway and the North Downs. Godstone railway station is separated from it by agricultural land. Blindley He ...
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...
, the
Greensand Way and the
North Downs Way
The North Downs Way National Trail is a long-distance path in southern England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham to Dover, past Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, along the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beaut ...
all pass through areas of Godstone.
Oxted
Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is south south-east of Croydon in Greater London, west of Sevenoaks in Kent, and north of East Grinstead in West Sussex.
Oxt ...
east is the administrative centre of its local government,
Tandridge District
Tandridge is a local government district in east Surrey, England. Its council is based in Oxted, although the largest settlement is Caterham; other notable settlements include Warlingham, Godstone and Lingfield. In mid-2019, the district had an e ...
.
Westerham,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, is east. The
county town
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...
of
Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
is due west and
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
is north.
Etymology
The earliest known appearance of the name is ''Godeston'' from AD 1248. It was subsequently known as ''Godestone, Godiston, Codeston, Codestone, Coddestone, Coddeston'' and ''Goddeston.'' The name took its current form in AD 1548.
The root itself is uncertain but the same as the towns of
Godalming and
Godmanchester
Godmanchester ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It is separated from Huntingdon, to the north, by the valley of the River Great Ouse. Being on the Roman road network, the town has a lo ...
, suggesting it may be derived from the
ethnonym of the
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
who settled
Sub-Roman Britain.
It appears the town was part of a
Sub-Roman network, linked via old
Roman road to
Goddards Green and
Ditchling
Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling.
...
in
Sussex.
A proposed link with
Godgifu, daughter of
Æthelred the Unready
Æthelred II ( ang, Æþelræd, ;Different spellings of this king’s name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern diale ...
, is speculative. The
Domesday book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
does record the parish as being held by her widower, Count
Eustace II of Boulogne
Eustace II, (), also known as Eustace aux Grenons ("Eustace with long moustaches"),Heather J. Tanner, 'Eustace (II), count of Boulogne (d. c.1087)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. was Count of Boulogne fro ...
,
but there is no indication the hamlet was named for her. Attributions to a non-historical founder named ''Cōd'' are examples of
founding myths.
History
Godstone was originally merely a hamlet in the parish of Walkingstead, with the centre of population later shifting from the latter to the former.
It appears that the manor-houses of Marden and Lagham were centres of population till the inhabitants were nearly exterminated by the Black Death of 1349.
["Parishes: Godstone." A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4. Ed. H E Malden. London: Victoria County History, 1912. 283-291. British History Online. Web. 4 June 2022. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/surrey/vol4/pp283-291.]
The village lay within the
Anglo-Saxon administrative division of
Tandridge
Tandridge is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District, in the county of Surrey, England. Its nucleus is on a rise of the Greensand Ridge between Oxted and Godstone. It includes, towards its middle one named sub-locality (hamlet), ...
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...
. It was built along a stretch of the
London to Brighton Way
The London to Brighton Way, also called the London to Portslade Way, is a Roman road between Stane Street at Kennington Park and Brighton (or more specifically Portslade) in Sussex. The road passes through Streatham and Croydon, then through t ...
Roman road, which came through the high Caterham Gap and continues southward along Tilburstow Hill Road. The church gave its name to another and probably earlier settlement on the main road, which then passed by Marden Park and went on to Lagham.
In the 1800s, stone was quarried Godstone. The mine is no longer in production any more but is used by the
caving
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology i ...
community.
Geography
The heart of Godstone consists of two centres, Church Town and Godstone Green, linked by other neighbourhoods. Both are now
conservation areas. Overall the long north–south parish covers and through its length of approximately the A22 road runs.
[
Church Town has old timber-framed buildings. The Old Packhouse, dating from the 15th century, is the oldest timber-framed building in the town. In the 18th Century, brick became the fashionable material for house building, and Church End and Church House, opposite the church, are two ]listed
Listed may refer to:
* Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm
* Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic
* Endangered species in biology
* Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...
architectural examples.
St Nicholas Church dominates Church Town. James Evelyn of Fellbridge House built a memorial chapel in 1787, which has the tombs of Sir John and Lady Evelyn. The North aisle was built in about 1845. Sir George Gilbert Scott's restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
of the church in 1872-3 involved widening of the chancel arch, inserting a new north side to the chancel, new windows to the nave and east end, and adding the south aisle. The churchyard contains a notable sarsen stone
Sarsen stones are silicified sandstone blocks found in quantity in Southern England on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, and Hampshire.
Geology ...
marking the grave of Walker Miles whose work in the early days of the "Ramblers' movement" contributed to the formation of the Ramblers
The Ramblers is the trading name of the Ramblers Association, Great Britain's leading walking charity. The Ramblers is also a membership organisation with around 100,000 members and a network of volunteers who maintain and protect the path ...
of Great Britain.
At the same time, Sir George Gilbert Scott designed St Mary's almshouses next to St Nicholas Church for Mrs Mabel Hunt of Wonham House, in memory of her only daughter who had died at the age of sixteen. Built in a Victorian Tudor/gothic style, they include eight self-contained houses, a wardens house and a beautiful little chapel, dedicated to St Mary. The flèch-capped chapel and the gables compose a very pretty hamlet.
Godstone Green became a busy centre of roads and vehicles during the growth of wheeled traffic in the 16th century, an era which spawned the establishment of Godstone's numerous inns. A number of houses built entirely of brick appeared in the 18th Century, notably the row in the High Street.
During the 19th Century, The Pond at Godstone Green was used as a horse-pond with a sloping bank down which the wagoners drove their horses.
In the very core of the village is a triangular island, which in Victorian times, was densely packed with a remarkable number of cottages intersected by alleys. It is claimed to have been the worst slum in Surrey, which is no longer the case, with each dwelling having been paid much care and attention.
The two parts of Godstone are linked by Bullbeggars Lane, a narrow road leading from the south of the village to the church, and the footpath running from the White Hart pub and its barn, along Bay Pond to Church Lane. The original village around St Nicholas Church was decimated during the great plague
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
of 1342 with the victims being buried in two 'plague pits' in Bullbeggars Lane. Even in death, the sexes were kept separate; men and women were interred in separate pits. The road running past the church was at one time the main coastal road with the present village not being built until Tudor times. The Pack House featured in the Gracie Fields film 'Sing as you dance along', with Gracie dancing along the lane past the cottage which used to be an Inn.
South Godstone
South Godstone was originally known as ''Lagham'' and centred on the old mediæval moated manor house of Lagham, a scheduled ancient monument and Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. It also features a listed brew house, oast house
An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many re ...
and stable just north on its moat. It forms a neighbourhood buffered by countryside immediately north of Godstone railway station.
It has St Stephen's Church, St Stephen's C of E primary school, a garage, an RSPCA centre, several garden nurseries, a hairdresser, and a sports and social club. There is a pub opposite the railway station originally named 'The Railway,' it has been renamed 'The Lagham' currently closed. The Fox & Hounds on Tilburstow Hill is also a short walk away.
It is home to South Godstone FC, whose first team currently compete in Intermediate Division One of the Surrey South Eastern Combination
The Surrey South Eastern Combination is one of the three intermediate association football leagues based in the English county of Surrey (the others are the Surrey Elite Intermediate League and the Surrey County Intermediate League (Western)). I ...
.
Blindley Heath
The Red Barn at Blindley Heath with pond
Blindley Heath is the southernmost portion of the parish, a hamlet separated by fields from the village of Godstone. The Blindley Heath Site of Special Scientific Interest is the best known example of a relict damp grassland on Weald Clay in Surrey and has several ponds and a stretch of the Ray Brook. It is also a Local Nature Reserve and is managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust. There is an active C of E
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
church to St John the Evangelist
John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given ...
built in 1842.
The Enterdent
This is a small parcel of land, tucked away in between Tilburstow Hill Road and Eastbourne Road, to the south of Godstone.
The name ''Enterdent'' alludes to a cluster of cottages on the land set in a wooded valley. The origin of the name, the Enterdent, has never been satisfactorily explained. It has previously been known as Lower and Upper Henterden and, in the 19th century, Polly Pains Bottom. It is perhaps the dene
The Dene people () are an indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages. ''Dene'' is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term "Dene" ha ...
or valley between two hills.
The first two dwellings appeared in 1842, and improvements began on the cottages in 1857, now number 6 and 7 The Enterdent. These buildings were enlarged with an extension at the rear and five further cottages were added, making a row of seven. A second terrace of cottages, this time eight in number, appeared further up the valley.
Today, the fifteen original cottages have been converted to eight homes. The additional five cottages from the original terrace have since been converted into two larger properties, number 1 comprising three cottages, and number 5 comprising the remaining two. Numbers 6 and 7 still remain as individual cottages. At the entrance to the Enterdent, from Eastbourne Road, is a Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
-style house, which was a tea room
A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...
and a hotel from the 1920s to the 1940s. It has since been converted into two cottages, River Cottage and White Cottage.
Despite all the changes, the Enterdent has essentially remained relatively unaltered. The cottage gardens and vegetable allotments stand to this day, so too do the sandpit
A sandpit (most Commonwealth countries) or sandbox (US and Canada) is a low, wide container or shallow depression filled with soft (beach) sand in which children can play. Sharp sand (as used in the building industry) is not suitable for su ...
, the brook
A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to:
Computing
*Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C
*Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler
*BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming ...
, the woods, and the bluebells.
Amenities
Godstone Village School is in the Godstone Green neighbourhood of the village. It caters for children between the ages of 3 and 11.
The Orpheus Centre is an inclusive performing arts college
An Arts College, in the United Kingdom, is a type of specialist school that specialises in the subject fields of the performing, visual, digital and/or media arts. They were announced in 1996 and introduced alongside Sports Colleges to England in ...
for young adults with physical or learning disabilities, founded in 1998 by British entertainer and musician Richard Stilgoe
Sir Richard Henry Simpson Stilgoe (born 28 March 1943) is a British songwriter, lyricist and musician, and broadcaster who is best known for his humorous songs and frequent television appearances. His output includes collaborations with Andrew ...
in his former family home in the village. The CEO is Graham Whitehead. The college is overseen by a voluntary Board of eight, of which the Chairman is John Beer OBE.
Godstone Vineyards is a local wine producer selling wine from the premises on Quarry Road. There is a petting zoo and farm giving children an introduction to animals by the Vineyards, Godstone Farm.
Transport
Godstone is at the junction of the A22 and A25 long-distance roads, the A22 is designated a trunk road by the Highways Agency
National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in England. It al ...
, which leads to Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...
, East Sussex. Junction 6 of the M25 motorway is just to the north of the village, immediately south of this junction is the town's fire station. Godstone is also the traffic control centre for the southern M25.
The village is served by Godstone railway station on the Redhill–Tonbridge line
The Redhill–Tonbridge line is a railway line in South East England that links Redhill, Surrey (on the Brighton Main Line) with Tonbridge, Kent (on the South Eastern Main Line).
History
It was originally part of the South Eastern Railway, ...
which is located in the hamlet of South Godstone (which used to be known as Lagham), approximately 2 miles to the south of the village. The station is served by hourly train services between and .
Godstone is served by Metrobus route 400 and Southdown PSV routes 409 and 410. These services provide connections to Oxted
Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is south south-east of Croydon in Greater London, west of Sevenoaks in Kent, and north of East Grinstead in West Sussex.
Oxt ...
, Selsdon
Selsdon is an area in South-East London, England, located in the London Borough of Croydon, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Prior to 1965 it was in the historic county of Surrey. It is located south of Coombe and Addiscombe, west of ...
, Redhill, Caterham
Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valley but rises to equal ...
, Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...
, East Grinstead and Crawley.
The Greensand Way, a long-distance footpath, skirts the southern edge of the village en route to Tandridge
Tandridge is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District, in the county of Surrey, England. Its nucleus is on a rise of the Greensand Ridge between Oxted and Godstone. It includes, towards its middle one named sub-locality (hamlet), ...
.
Sport
Godstone is the home of Godstone Football Club, whose first team currently play in Surrey South Eastern Combination (Intermediate). Three further senior sides compete in the Redhill and District Saturday and Sunday Football leagues.
Governance
Local administration is divided between Oxted
Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is south south-east of Croydon in Greater London, west of Sevenoaks in Kent, and north of East Grinstead in West Sussex.
Oxt ...
, east and Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable ...
, north-west.
There is one representative on Surrey County Council, Chris Farr who is an Independent.
There are three representatives on Tandridge District Council:
There is also a parish council with 9 members.
Demography and housing
The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%.
The proportion of households in the civil parish who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining % is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible % of households living rent-free).
Nearest settlements
2009 ''E. coli'' outbreak
In 2009, 93 people were infected by an outbreak
In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...
of the '' E. coli'' bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometr ...
at Godstone Farm, liability for which the farm subsequently accepted.
See also
*List of places of worship in Tandridge (district)
The Districts of England, district of Tandridge District, Tandridge, the easternmost of 11 local government districts in the English county of Surrey, has more than 70 current and former places of worship. Religious buildings dating from every ...
References
External links
Godstone Parish Council website
Godstone Village website
{{Authority control
Villages in Surrey
Tandridge
Civil parishes in Surrey