Ascot () is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

in the

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a Royal Borough of Berkshire, in South East England. It is named after both the towns of Maidenhead and Windsor, the borough also covers the nearby towns of Ascot and Eton. It is home to Wind ...

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 Ber ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. 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 Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Reading, south of Maiden ...

and west of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. 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 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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

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

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 settlers in the mid-5th ...

''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-e ...

, Eastcote in

and Eastcott in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

have the same etymology.

Governance

Ascot is in the district administered by the

, a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

. Ascot, South Ascot and a small part of North Ascot are in the

, 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 In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

is a Jesse window 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' ...

by Hardman & Co. The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

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 A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specific ...

with a

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...

al roof. Its

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

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 na ...

. The ceilings of the chancel,

baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptism ...

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, Islami ...

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. So ...

. 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 The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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 In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

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 exte ...

), 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 sist ...

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 Charters School is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status located in Sunningdale, Berkshire. In December 2006 and December 2009 it was graded 1 outstanding by OFSTED. History Charters School opened its doors on 23 April 1958 ...

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 department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, incl ...

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 cou ...

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 Intercontin ...

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues an ...

Express and

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

Local). Most buildings are post-war with flats above the ground floor retail space.

Heatherwood Hospital Heatherwood Hospital is an NHS hospital in Ascot, Berkshire. It is managed by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital has its origins in a Victorian country residence known as “Heatherfield” built in 1876, possibly for ...

(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 Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station o ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...

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 ...

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

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

and eastwards to

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 a ...

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 Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

through the

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of , including a deer park, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park was, for ma ...

and the village of

Cheapside Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, which forms part of the A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St. Martin's Le Grand with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, whe ...

. 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 The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differ ...

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 A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

, 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 co ...

and

built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human ...

, is also based in Ascot.

Sport and leisure

Ascot has a

Non-League football Non-League football describes association football, 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 s ...

club,

Ascot United F.C. Ascot United Football Club is a football club based in Ascot, Berkshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Ascot Racecourse. History The club was founded in 1965. In 2001 they joined the Senior Division of the Reading ...

, 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 st ...

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

Army Cadet Force

Ascot also has an Army Cadet Force unit, called 4

Platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may rang ...

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 Household Division is a term used principally in the Commonwealth of Nations to describe a country's most elite or historically senior military units, or those military units that provide ceremonial or protective functions associated directly wit ...

), means that the unit regularly sees Irish Guards events such as the St. Patrick's Day Parade, and even has the privilege of taking part in an Irish Guards ACF skills competition, run by the

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...

. 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 Sarah Nicole Harding (; 17 November 1981 – 5 September 2021) was an English singer, model and actress. Her professional career began in 2002 when she successfully auditioned for the ITV reality series '' Popstars: The Rivals'', during which ...

(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 Detective Sergeant Jamie Winter in the ITV police detective show ''Midsomer Murders''. Early life and education Hendrix was born in Ascot, Berkshire. He grew ...

(1985-), actor, born in Ascot *

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

(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 The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

, successively lived at Tittenhurst Park, Ascot *

Camilla Luddington Camilla Anne Luddington (born 15 December 1983) is a British actress, best known for her role as Dr. Josephine "Jo" Wilson in the ABC medical drama series '' Grey's Anatomy''. She is known for voicing Lara Croft in the ''Tomb Raider'' video ga ...

(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 200 ...

(1965–), singer of

Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet are a Scottish soft rock band formed in 1982. They scored a number of hits in the UK charts and around the world in the 1980s and 1990s. They are best known for their 1994 cover of The Troggs' 1960s hit " Love Is All Around", which ...

, 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