Bagshot is a large village in the

Surrey Heath Surrey Heath is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Camberley. Much of the area is within the Metropolitan Green Belt. The ...

borough of

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England, approximately southwest of central London. In the past, Bagshot served as an important staging post between London,

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

and the

West Country The West Country is a loosely defined area within southwest England, usually taken to include the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Bristol, with some considering it to extend to all or parts of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and ...

, evidenced by the original

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of t ...

s still present in the village today. Much of the land surrounding Bagshot is owned by the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

. The village is adjacent to junction 3 of the M3 motorway. Bagshot railway station is on the line between

Ascot Ascot, Ascott or Askot may refer to: Places Australia * Ascot, Queensland, suburb of Brisbane * Ascot, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a locality * Ascot Park, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide * Ascot (Ballarat), town near Ballarat in Victoria ...

and

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

and train services are run by

South Western Railway South Western Railway Limited, trading as South Western Railway (SWR), is the British state-owned train operating company that took over the services of the South Western Railway (2017–2025), operator of the same name from FirstGroup and MTR ...

Bagshot is part of the

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Windlesham, which has a population of 17,000 and also includes the neighbouring village of

Lightwater Lightwater is a village in the Surrey Heath district of Surrey, England, about southwest of central London. Immediately surrounding towns and villages include Bagshot, Deepcut, Windlesham, Camberley, and West End, Woking. It is bounded to the ...

History

The place-name 'Bagshot' is first attested in the

Pipe Rolls The Pipe rolls, sometimes called the Great rollsBrown ''Governance'' pp. 54–56 or the Great Rolls of the Pipe, are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury, and its successors, as well as the Exche ...

of 1165, where it appears as ''Bagsheta''. It was the name of a wood, and may have meant 'Bacga's wood'. Recent excavations have shown that settlements of Bagshot date back as far as pre-Roman; before these excavations it was thought that the earliest settlements in Bagshot were late Saxon. Late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

settlements have been identified in the area, and iron smelting appears to have been a major 'industry' in the locality. Bagshot at one time included a

Royal forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...

. It had a Royal hunting lodge certainly through Stuart and Tudor times, now called

Bagshot Park Bagshot Park is a List of British royal residences, royal residence located near Bagshot, a village south of Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor. It is on Bagshot Heath, a tract of formerly open land in Surrey and Berkshire. Bagshot Park occupies wi ...

, which is now the residence of

Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh (Edward Antony Richard Louis; born 10 March 1964) is a member of the British royal family. He is the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the youngest sibling of King ...

. In Elizabethan times (late 16th century) Bagshot prospered due to its position on the main London to the West Country road (The Great South West Road, now classified as the A30). As with many villages on main coaching routes, Bagshot developed services, inns for the stagecoach passengers, and stables to provide the coaches with fresh horses. Ann Nelson's "Exeter Telegraph" would stop for 20 minutes at Bagshot on its 17 hour journey to Devon. The prosperity of the Great South West Road created its share of

highwaymen A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to foo ...

, one of the most notorious being William Davis, a local farmer who lived near what is known locally as the Jolly Farmer roundabout in Camberley. He was eventually caught at the White Hart Inn in Bagshot and later was hanged at the gallows in Gibbets Lane in Camberley. Not one to avoid suspicion, he always paid his debts in gold! It was after him that the pub was called the Golden Farmer. The Golden Farmer (now Jolly Farmer), was eventually sold to American Golf Discount Store, who still use the old building.

Churches

Bagshot has four churches:

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

(St. Anne's);

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

(Christ the King);

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

(Brook Church). St Anne's Church was built in 1884 in a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style under the patronage of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught who lived in the nearby

. It is a building in red brick with stone detail under a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. The east window was dedicated in memory of Prince Arthur's youngest brother

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (Leopold George Duncan Albert; 7 April 185328 March 1884) was the eighth child and youngest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Leopold was later created Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence, and Baron Arklow. He ...

(d. 1884). There is a bell tower with a peal of eight bells. It is a

grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

and is situated in a

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

Sport and leisure

Bagshot has two multi-purpose sports fields and a cricket field. Curley Park Rangers, the youth football club, meet regularly and play on pitches in both

and Bagshot. The CPR clubhouse is located at the Bagshot pitch. White Hart Royals, the football team of the White Hart pub in Bagshot village, compete in the Camberley & District Sunday Football League. Bagshot Cricket Club runs a number of adult and under 16 teams and complete in the Thames Valley League, the Three Counties League and the West Surrey Youth League. Bagshot Tennis Club has four floodlit courts and fields teams in the Woking League. Swinley Forest, which borders Bagshot to the north, provides some of the best mountain biking in South-East England, with many off-road ' single-track' trails available as well as plenty of fire roads. Mountain biking and walking is free. Swinley Woods was considered as a venue for the mountain biking event of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Other clubs and organisations include Bagshot Concert Band, the Surrey Heath Archaeology and Heritage Trust, Bagshot Gymnastics Club, Camberley and Bagshot Metal Detecting Club and local branches of the

Scouts Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

, Royal Air Forces Association,

Women's Institute The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organization for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being the ...

and Camberley Rifle & Pistol Club. It is also a short distance from The National Clay Shooting Centre and the Bisley shooting ranges. Bagshot Village Community Library is situated on the High Street and in addition to the usual library services provides Story and 'Rhymetimes' for the local toddler community. Lightwater Country Park was accessible by crossing the M3 footbridge- this has since been demolished. However, a new replacement footbridge is set to be opened in May 2025

Today

Pennyhill Park Hotel Pennyhill Park Hotel is a 19th-century country house hotel and spa in Bagshot, Surrey in the southeast of England. History The first historical reference to Pennyhill Park's land relates to when the site was used as a Beacon#For defensive commun ...

located at the far western edge of Bagshot is where the England rugby team train.

, home of

is located on the northern edge of the village. The A30 leaving Bagshot to the southwest for Camberley has a large roundabout on it called the Jolly Farmer after a public house that used to stand in its centre, now used as a Golfing Store. The local borough,

, was mainly a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

area, and the council had been led by the Conservatives from its founding in 1974 until the Liberal Democrats captured a majority in the 2023 local election. Bagshot itself is, however, represented by one Liberal Democrat and two Conservative borough councillors. At the 2024 General election, the urrey Heath UK Parliamentary constituencyalso voted for Professor

Al Pinkerton Alasdair Douglas Pinkerton is a British Liberal Democrat politician and academic who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath since 2024. He has been an associate professor in geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London. P ...

of the Liberal Democrats who gained a majority of 5640 over the Conservatives.

Notable people

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

(born 1947), English musician, lead guitarist of

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

, with a famous guitar store in Bagshot *

Steve Backshall Stephen James Backshall (born 21 April 1973) is a British naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC Television, BBC TV's ''Deadly (franchise), Deadly...'' franchise. His other BBC work includes being part of the expedition ...

(born 1973), English naturalist and television presenter * Moiya Kelly (1934–2023), English actress

References

External links

About Bagshot Village

The origins of Bagshot

Bagshot Village
* {{authority control Villages in Surrey Surrey Heath English royal forests