Virginia Water is a commuter village in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England. It is home to the Wentworth Estate and the Wentworth Club. The area has much woodland and occupies a large minority of the Runnymede district. Its name is shared with the lake on its western boundary within Windsor Great Park. Virginia Water has multiple transport links with London–Trumps Green and Thorpe Green touch the M3, Thorpe touches the M25, and Heathrow Airport is 7 miles (11km) northeast.
Many of the detached houses are on the Wentworth Estate, the home of the Wentworth Club which has four golf courses.[2] The Ryder Cup was first played there. It is also home to the headquarters of the PGA European Tour, the professional golf tour.
In 2011 approximately half of the homes of the postcode district, which is narrower than the current electoral ward, were detached houses. In 2015 Land Registry sales data recorded Virginia Water's single postcode district as the most expensive as to the value of homes nationwide.
The area is believed to have been traversed by the Devil's Highway, a Roman road running from London to Silchester in Hampshire.[3] According to a 1983 article by Nicholas Fuentes, the defeat of Boudica’s revolt by the Romans in AD 60/61 may have occurred in Virginia Water. He argued that the topography between Callow Hill and Knowle Hill corresponds with descriptions by Tacitus, with the battlefield situated near the site of the present-day railway station.[4]
Modern history
Christ Church Virginia Water was completed in 1838 and established as a parish the same year.[5]
To the east of the lake is the Clockcase tower, a Grade I listed, triangular belvedere built in the Great Park during the 1750s.[6] It is three-storey Gothic style construction.[6]George III made it into an observatory and Queen Victoria occasionally had tea there.[6] The building is inaccessible to the public, lying within a private part of the park, and remains under the ownership of the Royal Estate.[6]
Virginia Park
Entrance to Virginia Park
Virginia Park is a gated housing development occupying the site of the former Holloway Sanatorium, a mental asylum constructed in 1885 to the design of William Henry Crossland. This was a private institution where patients paid for their own treatment.[7] In 1948, it was taken over by the newly established National Health Service, and closed in the early 1980s, experiencing frequent vandalism in the aftermath.[7]
In 2000, the building and grounds were converted into private-sector housing by a developer, Octagon.[8] Octagon produced 23 residences in the main building and built 190 new houses and apartments on the grounds.[9] Properties are expensive and typically reach beyond the £1 million mark.[7]
The main building is Grade I listed, the highest category of recognition and protection.[10] The sanatorium chapel is Grade II* listed, meaning in a constrained mid-tier of the statutory scheme.[11] The gated estate includes a spa, gymnasium, multi-purpose sports hall, and all-weather tennis court.[7]
1,750 square kilometres (680sqmi) of Virginia Water is owned by a members' trustee body, known as the Wentworth Estate. Founded in the 1920s, this estate comprises private sector houses, luxury apartments, woodland, several golf courses and a leisure club. It also includes part of the River Bourne, Chertsey.
The estate, due to its high walls and electric gates, has been compared to a "fortified suburb" found more commonly in South Africa and a place "where money disappears from view".[12] Famous residents have included Elton John, Bruce Forsyth, Diana Dors and various professional golfers.[12] Properties on the estate are regarded as "super prime" and have sold for as much as £50 million.[12]
In 1998, the estate received significant media attention when former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was placed under house arrest in one of its properties, following his arrest in London and contested extradition.[13]
The 2011 census stated that the Virginia Water postcode district (post town) had the following dwellings, thus making up the relative proportions shown:
[14]
Type
Number
Proportion
Whole house or bungalow: Detached
1,175
49.9%
Whole house or bungalow: Semi-detached
478
20.3%
Whole house or bungalow: Terraced (including end-terrace)
247
10.5%
Flat, maisonette or apartment: Purpose-built block of flats or tenement
346
14.7%
Flat, maisonette or apartment: Part of a converted or shared house (including bed-sits)
52
2.2%
Flat, maisonette or apartment: In a commercial building
33
1.4%
Caravan or other mobile or temporary structure
26
1.1%
Government data in terms of sales of homes from Autumn 2014 to 2015 showed Virginia Water to be the most expensive post town nationally (i.e. excluding any part of London). The recent averaged sold price for its homes was just over £1.1m.[15]
Christ Church Infant School was built by the National Society in 1843. In 2020, due to loss of intake, Surrey County Council earmarked the school for closure, with attendees planned to move to consolidated Englefield Green Infant School by 2023.[16][17]
St Ann's Heath Junior School is on Sandhills Lane. Trumps Green Infant School is on Crown Road.[18][19]
Percy Fletcher – classical composer and musical director at London theatres[30]
Bryan Forbes – film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist, until his death in 2013. Ran a loss-making bookshop on Virginia Water parade as he thought "it was 'right' to have a bookshop in his local village"[31]
Bruce Forsyth – television presenter, some years until his death in 2017[32]
↑"Joan Adeney Easdale". Helga Kaschl: Frauen in Virginia Woolfs Hogarth Press 1917-1941. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
