History Project

Source: A-Z Map Company, 1998

Human settlement at what is now West End can be traced back to the Bronze Age (3000BC to 800BC). There are four Bronze Age burial mounds on Brentmoor Heath, and Bronze Age pottery has been discovered close to Malthouse Farm.



More remarkable still, an Iron Age (800BC to 43AD) settlement at Fairfield Lane was discovered in 2017, consisting of round houses, storage buildings, drains and iron slag –  proof of iron smelting which indicates that it was a settlement of regional significance.

A presentation on this discovery can be downloaded here.
 
A Roman road crossed this area, and Roman-era pottery was found where The Maltings now stands.

In later years this area of sandy heathland, regarded as infertile, was very lightly populated, throughout Anglo-Saxon and medieval times and into the 17th and 18th centuries. The development of turnpike roads made access to this area easier but settlement remained very thin and scattered, mainly consisting of a few farmhouses and labourers’ cottages.


Donkey Town, with the little red library.
 
An early community was established at what is now known as Donkey Town. After the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815 the Lord-of-the-Manor, the Earl of Onslow, offered parcels of ‘waste land’ to any demobilised soldier or sailor who would build his own house on the land. Many took up the offer and a unique community grew which survived little changed until mid-20th century.
 
The arrival of the railway, which reached Woking in 1838 and Bagshot in 1878, prompted an increase in population, the growth gaining pace in the late 19th century. By the 1890s West End possessed most of the institutions which make up a modern community, such as church, schools (including Gordon Boys’ Home, the national memorial to General Gordon), chapels, village hall, shops and organised events.





In 1886 the New Institute or village hall was opened on the High Street. It subsequently became the Working Men’s Club and is home to the West End Social Club since 1977.

In the early hours of 25th September 1940, this Heinkel HEIIIH crashed on Streets Heath near the village hall, with the engines falling in the grounds of Gordon’s School.

Source: West End, Then and Now, 2019

The 20th century saw rapid increases in the population of West End, especially after the Second World War. Over a period of some 50 years, West End became home to a ring of plant nurseries. These nurseries flourished, along with a wide range of shops and services businesses. They eventually gave way to a series of substantial housing estates making their appearance, a trend continuing into the 21st century.