You can extend a house in Godstone, but expect to ask permission first. Hundreds of listed buildings stand in and around the village. Both of its old centres are conservation areas. The clay underneath moves with the weather. The neighbours keep applying anyway, which tells you extending is possible, just rarely quick.
In and around Godstone there are 282 listed buildings. Of those, 5 are grade I, 17 are grade II* and 260 are grade II. Listing protects the whole building, inside and out, not only the frontage. Knocking through a wall, changing windows or adding a rear extension to a listed house all need listed building consent from Tandridge District Council, and doing the work without it is a criminal offence, not an administrative slip. If a listed house is on your shortlist, budget for the consent process alongside the building work.
There are 11 conservation areas across the wider area, and Church Town and The Green, Godstone cover the village's two historic centres. In a conservation area, many changes that elsewhere need no planning application do need one, particularly anything visible from the street. Cladding, dormer windows and demolition are the usual examples. Before you draw up plans, check with the council whether any extra local restrictions apply to your street.
There are also 12 scheduled monuments in the area, the strictest tier of protection. One of them is the medieval moated site at Lagham Manor in South Godstone. They matter mainly if your land borders one.
Plenty of people apply anyway. Between April 2024 and June 2026, 241 planning applications were lodged in the area, 119 of them in the last twelve months. Extending here is clearly possible. It takes more paperwork and more patience than a house on a newer estate would.
Old mining matters less than the heritage, but it still needs checking. About 1% of postcodes in the area are affected by recorded mine workings, and one postcode sits directly over one. In practice that means a mining search at conveyancing and, if something turns up, a specialist report. A lender or insurer may ask for either before a big extension goes ahead. It says nothing about whether a particular house is sound.
The clay is the bigger issue for building work. The British Geological Survey's hazard mapping puts the area's shrink-swell clay at class 3 at worst, and 68% of postcodes reach that class. Clay like this swells when wet and shrinks when dry, so extensions often need deeper foundations and a structural engineer's view before building control signs them off. Nearby trees make it more complicated. None of this stops you building, but it adds cost.
For an ordinary house outside the conservation areas and not listed, some modest changes may fall under permitted development, which means no planning application is needed. Once a house is listed or inside a conservation area, you'll generally need consent. Check the house's status before you fall for the space where the extension would go.
Your freedom to change a home here is below average. It can be done, but the listings, conservation areas and clay mean every extension involves the council and some engineering.