Parish area The place-name 'Bagshot' is first attested in the
Pipe Rolls of 1165, where it appears as
Bagsheta. It was the name of a wood, and may have meant 'Bacga's wood'. Recent excavations have shown that settlements of Bagshot date back as far as pre-Roman; before these excavations it was thought that the earliest settlements in Bagshot were late Saxon. Late
Bronze Age settlements have been identified in the area, and iron smelting appears to have been a major 'industry' in the locality. Bagshot at one time included a
Royal forest. It had a Royal hunting lodge certainly through Stuart and Tudor times, now called
Bagshot Park, which is now the residence of
Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh. In Elizabethan times (late 16th century) Bagshot prospered due to its position on the main London to the West Country road (The Great South West Road, now classified as the A30). As with many villages on main coaching routes, Bagshot developed services, inns for the stagecoach passengers, and stables to provide the coaches with fresh horses.
Ann Nelson's "Exeter Telegraph" would stop for 20 minutes at Bagshot on its 17 hour journey to Devon. The prosperity of the Great South West Road created its share of
highwaymen, one of the most notorious being William Davis, a local farmer who lived near what is known locally as the
Jolly Farmer roundabout in Camberley. He was eventually caught at the White Hart Inn in Bagshot and later was hanged at the gallows in Gibbets Lane in Camberley. Not one to avoid suspicion, he always paid his debts in gold! It was after him that the pub was called the Golden Farmer. The Golden Farmer (now Jolly Farmer), was eventually sold to American Golf Discount Store, who still use the old building. ==Churches==