This semi-suburban village sits in the Surrey borough of Spelthorne, just half a mile from the southern border of Heathrow Airport. Much of the area is taken up by the vast Staines Reservoirs and the Colne Valley Regional Park, located between the busy A3044 and A30, and a Site of Specific Scientific Interest due to its important populations of tufted ducks, pochard, goosander and goldeneye. The village of Stanwell itself is almost entirely residential and made up of wide, suburban streets of large interwar and post war houses that, along with the numerous good nearby schools, are popular with families. There are plenty of local amenities, such as the Ashford Sports Club, the Ashford and Staines Community Centre, and a number of convenient supermarkets. The transport links that stem from Heathrow Airport are surprisingly well-connected for somewhere this far from central London, and have made Stanwell a favoured commuter enclave.

Stanwell’s name is believed to derive from either ‘St Ann’s well’ or ‘stone well’, similar to nearby Staines, which also means ‘stones’. The nearby River Colne was a fruitful watercourse, and encouraged the development of a small hamlet amongst the open fields and flood plains along its bank. In 1603, the man who arrested Guy Fawkes, Thomas Knyvett, was granted the manor of Stanwell. Knyvett later established a free school in 1624, which still stands today, though it is no longer a school but belongs to the housing association. By the 19th century orchards and market gardens had begun to spread out across the area, and in 1884 the Staines and West Drayton Railway was opened, bringing suburban development to the neighbourhood. The Staines Reservoirs were built in 1902 and were supplying London with fresh water by 1904. Estates began to spring up around 1920, and were further encouraged by the development of Heathrow Airport following the Second World War.

The Church of St Mary is a grade I-listed parish church that dates all the way back to the 12th century and has Norman and Gothic elements including a 14th-century spire. Another impressive building, which sadly no longer exists, was Stanwell Place, a grand manor house built in the 17th century. The manor was passed down through a number of wealthy families, before being sold to King Faisal II of Iraq. Faisal was assassinated in 1958, leading to the house and its grounds being purchased for gravel extraction. The manor became derelict and the building was demolished in the 1960s.

Despite Heathrow Airport offering the residents of Stanwell a convenient Underground route into central London, the fact that the stations are located in Zone 6 can mean travel can get very expensive, especially when travelling at peak times. The village’s proximity to the airport can also cause issues of noise pollution, though this does keep the house prices down.

The constant expansion of Heathrow Airport often causes problems with traffic and noise in the area. On the 25th June 2018, the House of Commons voted strongly in favour of a third runway despite the initiative’s lack of popularity amongst local residents and communities around Heathrow. That said, the Heathrow expansion initiative has been a controversial and unpredictably changing project: new emissions targets make the expansion difficult to achieve, the 2020-2021 pandemic has led to new projections that push the need for expansion 5 years to the future.

Evidently, the area does not experience much new development like most of central London, but that does not mean that there is no developer interest in the neighbourhood at all. Berkeley Group, a large and well-known property developer, is already developing a large residential complex, by the name of ‘Eden Grove’, overlooking the Staines Reservoirs. It is expected to be fully completed in 2026, though homes will be ready to move into in 2023. The development will deliver a stylish collection of 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments, which will all be serviced by a 24-hour concierge, a gym, a cinema room & a co-working space. Interest in the project, especially considering it’s low prices compared to more central parts of London, has proven to be quite high considering that half of the flats are already sold.

Thames Water has also been carrying out improvement and new infrastructure works for the Staines Reservoirs. In 2020, they carried out works on the dam and its associated infrastructure to extend its durability and longevity, claiming that these developments will extend the reservoirs usability well into the next century.