West End & Donkey Town
25 miles southwest of Central London, nestled in between the towns of Camberley and Woking, sits the village and civil parish of West End. The West End civil parish extends to the nearby Donkey Town, and covers a vast heathland landscape. The village itself is cut through by streams and tributaries from the nearby River Bourne. West End is surrounded by West End Common, a vast 70.3 hectare Local Nature Reserve. Owing to this rural landscape, the houses offered in this region are predominantly large-scale country homes with acerages!
Similar to most regions in the surrounding area, West End has archaeological sites that suggest Late Bronze Age settlements occupied the region, dating from up to 3,000 years ago!An area of West End Common was listed as a Scheduled Momument in 1965, upon the discovery of four bowl-barrows - funerary monuments - thought to date from the period between 2400 - 1500 B.C on New England Hill.
Owing to its proximity to London and the advancements of industrialisation, West End began to develop. A map from 1762 shows that by this time it had 65 dwellings! This housing construction picked up again in the early 20th Century, when new homes were added in West End and in the surrounding West End Common. There are 52 listed buildings in West End, 23 of which being Grade II and 25 being Local listings!
It’s archeological evidence, listed buildings, and the protected heathland of West End Common means that housing and infrastructure development around this area is slow. For instance, West End’s closest rail station is Bagshot rail station to the north. However, there are an abundance of country properties offered with significant acerage on the housing market right now, as well as plots of land suitable for development, equestrian facilities, and farmland!