Ascot () is a town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, England. It is south of Windsor, east of

Bracknell Bracknell () is a large town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Bracknell Forest, Borough of Bracknell Forest. It l ...

and west of London. It is most notable as the location of Ascot Racecourse, home of the Royal Ascot meeting, and is reportedly the 13th most expensive town in England when taking into account the average house price, which stands at £1,019,451 as of June 2021. It is also among the ten most expensive towns in Britain to rent a property. The town comprises three areas: Ascot itself, North Ascot and South Ascot. It is in the civil parish of

Sunninghill and Ascot Sunninghill and Ascot is a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and takes up most of the south-east corner of the England, English county of Berkshire. It covers the town of Ascot, Berkshire, Asco ...

Etymology

The name ’Ascot’ derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''ēast'' (east) and ''cot'' (cottage). Ascott in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, Eastcote in London and Eastcott in Wiltshire have the same etymology.

Governance

Ascot is in the district administered by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, a unitary authority. Ascot, South Ascot and a small part of North Ascot are in the civil parish of

, although most of North Ascot is in the civil parish of Winkfield, in the district of Bracknell Forest.

Churches

All Saints Church, Bracknell Road, Ascot, Berks - Chancel - geograph

Church of England

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of All Saints, Ascot Heath is a red brick

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

building designed by Thomas Rushforth and built in 1864. It has a richly decorated interior. The east window of its chancel is a

Jesse window The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, shown in a branching tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David. It is the original use of the family tree as a schematic representation of a gen ...

with

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

made by C.E. Kempe & Co in 1907. Above it is a

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

by Hardman & Co. The Church of England parish church of All Souls, South Ascot is another red-brick Gothic Revival building. It was designed by

J.L. Pearson John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficienc ...

and built in 1896–97. It has a central tower with a pyramidal roof. Its nave has aisles of four

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

. The ceilings of the chancel, baptistery and the crossing under the tower are

rib vault A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic ...

ed. All Souls' is a Grade II* listed building. Ascot Priory was founded in 1861 for the

Society of the Most Holy Trinity A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...

. It has buildings designed by the architects Charles Buckeridge, William Butterfield,

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

and Leonard Stokes.

Roman Catholic

The Roman Catholic church of St Francis is also a red-brick

building. It was designed by the Roman Catholic priest and architect A.J.C. Scoles, built in 1889 and has an apsidal chancel.

Local schools

Independent senior schools in the area include Heathfield School (an all-girls

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

), The Marist School (a private Catholic girls school 2-18 with mixed nursery), St. George's School (a private girls senior school recently attended by Princess Beatrice of York), St Mary's School, a Catholic all-girls boarding school (which

Caroline, Princess of Hanover Princess Caroline of Monaco (Caroline Louise Marguerite; born 23 January 1957) is, by her marriage to Prince Ernst August, the Princess of Hanover. As the eldest child of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and Grace Kelly, she is the elder sister ...

attended), located in South Ascot and the Licensed Victuallers' School, which is located down the road from Ascot Racecourse. Papplewick is also based in Ascot. The local state secondary school in the Ascot area is Charters School in nearby Sunningdale, which received a 'Grade 1 Outstanding' assessment from the Schools watchdog

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

in 2009.

Amenities

Facilities tend to be geared towards the racecourse, but there is a small range of shops in the wide High Street. Most of the expected facilities one would expect to find in a small town are here, including a supermarket, petrol station and many cafes (including a

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

and a Costa Coffee, a

Subway Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to: Transportation * Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems * Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle * Subway (George Bush Interconti ...

, Tesco Express and Sainsbury's Local). Most buildings are post-war with flats above the ground floor retail space. Heatherwood Hospital (filming location for '' Carry on Matron'') was at the western edge of the town. Ascot has a station on a bisection of the railway line from London Waterloo to Reading,

Bagshot Bagshot is a town in the Surrey Heath borough of Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. In the past, Bagshot served as an important staging post between London, Southampton and the West Country, evidenced by the original c ...

, Aldershot and

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 ...

, originally built by the London & South Western Railway and now operated by South Western Railway. As a consequence of the frequent service on this line, Ascot is now a commuter centre with its residents in both directions (westwards to Reading and eastwards to London).

Royal Ascot week

The centrepiece of Ascot's year is held in June:

Royal Ascot Ascot Racecourse ("ascot" pronounced , often pronounced ) is a dual-purpose British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. It hosts 13 of Britain's 36 annual Flat Group 1 horse races and ...

is arguably the world's most famous race meeting, steeped in history dating back to 1711. The British royal family attend the meeting, arriving each day in a procession of horse-drawn carriages from Windsor Castle through the Windsor Great Park and the village of Cheapside. It is a major event in the British social calendar. Although this has placed Ascot onto the British social map, it has many direct effects on the local community, not least of which are the associated traffic problems. The course is still owned by the Crown.

Economy

Ascot Racecourse employs over 70 full-time staff, which increases temporarily to 6,000 during Royal Ascot week. The village has a variety of businesses located at the Ascot Business Park, opened in 2008, including the UK headquarters of global toy manufacturer Jakks Pacific, in addition to numerous

small and medium enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Bank ...

. The

Chartered Institute of Building The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) is a UK-based international professional association which exists to promote and advance for the public benefit the science and practice of building and construction. On official website Originating in ...

, a professional body for those working in the

construction industry Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and come ...

and built environment, is also based in Ascot.

Sport and leisure

Ascot has a

Non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

club, Ascot United F.C., and a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

club, Royal Ascot Cricket Club which play at Ascot Racecourse.

Army Cadet Force

Ascot also has an Army Cadet Force unit, called 4 Platoon Ascot. The unit, being badged as Irish Guards (due to the unit belonging to A Company,

ACF; a company currently badged to the Household Division), means that the unit regularly sees Irish Guards events such as the

St. Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick ( ga, Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit=the Day of the Festival of Patrick), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patr ...

Parade, and even has the privilege of taking part in an Irish Guards ACF skills competition, run by the battalion. It parades from 19:15 until 21:30 on a Monday and Wednesday night at Sunningdale

Parish Hall A church hall or parish hall is a room or building associated with a church, generally for community and charitable use.

and actively recruits from the local and surrounding area. The unit used to parade at Ascot Racecourse, however, they were evicted due to an appeal made by the racecourse owners. They now temporarily parade at Sunningdale Parish Hall, Broomhill Lane. The unit now has a new Detachment Commander.

Notable residents

* Boris Berezovsky (1946–2013), an exiled Russian tycoon, lived and died in Ascot *Josh Cuthbert (1992–), singer from Union J * Chris Evans (1966–), English presenter, businessman and producer for radio and television, lives in Ascot * Sarah Harding (1981–2021), singer, Girls Aloud, born in Ascot *

Nick Hendrix Nick Hendrix (born 19 March 1985) is an English actor, best known for his role as Sergeant#UK Police Sergeant, Detective Sergeant List of Midsomer Murders characters#DS Jamie Winter, Jamie Winter in the ITV (TV network), ITV police detective show ...

(1985-), actor, born in Ascot * John Lennon (1940–1980) and

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...

(1940–) of The Beatles, successively lived at Tittenhurst Park, Ascot * Camilla Luddington (1983–), actress, born and raised in Ascot *

Marti Pellow Marti Pellow (born Mark McLachlan; 23 March 1965) is a Scottish singer. He was the lead singer of the Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet for 28 years: from their formation in 1982 until their split in 1997, and again from their reformation in 2004 ...

(1965–), singer of Wet Wet Wet, lives in Ascot * Adam Roberts (1965–), science fiction author, lives in North Ascot

References

Sources

* *

External links

Ascot Village WebsitePotted History of Sunninghill and Ascot
{{Authority control Towns in Berkshire Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Sunninghill and Ascot