Godalming Godalming slightly acid only freely draining sandy soil, whereas in the lower parts mentioned above it is slowly permeable loamy/clayey slightly acid but base-rich soil, which area includes the town centre itself. Surrey County Council, headquartered in Kingston, elected every four years, has two councillors from Godalming. Peter Martin, Deputy Leader of the county council and representative of Godalming South, Milford and Witley lives in Godalming. The town is divided into five wards; Binscombe, Central and Ockford, Charterhouse, Farncombe and Catteshall, and Holloway. Godalming has 10 representatives governing the Borough of Waverley, headquartered in Godalming: See Godalming Town Council website
St Edmund Church, Godalming open to the public have sometimes been offered at the chapel of Barrow Hills School, a Catholic preparatory school between Godalming and Witley. During the 1920s, public Mass was occasionally said at Captain Rushbrooke's private chapel at Cosford House in Bowlhead Green. Haslemere was the first parish to be carved out of the original St Edmund's parish. A Mass centre was founded there in 1908, but no church building was provided initially—the back room of a pub was used for worship. In 1924 it was allocated its own parish and priest, and the present Church of Our Lady of Lourdes