North of Woking, just south of the Great Windsor Park, sits Ascot in Berkshire. Perhaps most well known for its racecourse, until the track was founded in 1711, the town of Ascot was a small and sleepy rural town. Even still today there live only 11,000 people in the whole town! Owing to the infamy of the Royal Ascot racecourse, in recent years the town has developed a unique reputation for affluence - with the average house price ranging over £1 million!

The name Ascot, in fact, reveals evidence of just how old the town really is. Stemming from Anglo-Saxon, the name translates roughly to ‘eastern cottage’. In fact, there is evidence that even suggests the town goes farther back into history than previously thought - with archaeological evidence pointing to a Bronze Age cemetary located in the heart of Ascot! Most of these sites are now lost to time, except, curiously, for a site at Heatherwood Hospital.

However, the history of Ascot is invariably tied to the history of the racecourse. Founded on the whim of Queen Anne - a lesser-known Queen famously portrayed by Olivia Colman in the 2019 film ‘The Favourite’ - in 1711, when riding on the heathland by Windsor Castle. However the first permenant building used in the Ascot Racecourse wasn’t installed until 1793, and has changed significantly over the centuries. In its 300 year history, the Royal Ascot races have been a mainstay in the social calendars of many - with over 600,000 people attending Ascot yearly!

Owing to its associations of affluence and the racecourse, the area of Ascot rarely receives development for social housing nor affordable housing units throughout the area. Being in the top 20 most expensive areas in the whole of the UK - Ascot suffers from a lack of diversity in its housing market. Whilst no specific location has since been detailed in the Royal Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council’s new local plan for the period of up to 2033 - the borough has detailed that over 14,000 new homes be constructed across the whole district - including provisions for Ascot!