Before the 19th century, the area now occupied by Camberley was referred to as Bagshot or
Frimley Heath. An
Iron Age fort, among many examples known as Caesar's Camp, was to the north of this area alongside the Roman road The Devil's Highway. The
Intenarium Curiosum, published in 1724, describes a collection of Roman pottery around the area, and a further collection was discovered at
Frimley Green in the late 20th century. In the
Middle Ages, the area was part of
Windsor Forest. – and
Claude Duval. The land remained largely undeveloped and uncultivated due to a sandy
topsoil making it unsuitable for farming. A brick tower was built on top of The Knoll in the 1770s, by John Norris of Blackwater. It may have been used for communications but there is no firm evidence. The remains are now known as
The Obelisk.
19th century The town as it now stands has its roots in the building of The Royal Military College, which later became the
Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in 1812. A settlement known as "New Town" grew in the area around the college which in 1831 was renamed Yorktown, after
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. At this time, the population was 702. In 1848, the first
parish church of St. Michael, Yorktown was built by
Henry Woodyer, in an area formerly part of
Frimley, itself only a
chapelry of
Ash. Later, the
Staff College was established to the east of the academy, and a property speculator built the nearby Cambridge Hotel. During the 19th century, Camberley grew in size. This was given added impetus with the arrival of the branch-line railway and
railway station in 1878 and a reputation for healthy air, due to the vast number of pine trees, which were said to be good for those suffering from
pulmonary disorders. By the end of the century the population had reached 8,400. Since then, the town has absorbed the original settlement of Yorktown, which is now regarded as part of Camberley.
20th century The Southern Scott Scramble, the first known
motorcycle scrambling event, took place on Camberley Heath on 29 March 1924. The event, won by A.B. Sparks, attracted a crowd in the thousands and is considered to be the first instance of what later developed in the sport of
motocross. During the
Second World War, the
Old Dean common was used as an instruction camp of the
Free French Forces. The
Kremer prize was conceived in the Cambridge Hotel in Camberley in 1959 after Henry Kremer toured a Microcell factory. The defunct Barossa Golf Club, on Barossa Common, was founded in 1893 and continued until the Second World War. The Old Dean housing estate was built in the 1950s on the "Old Dean Common" for residents of heavily bombed Surrey-area's homeless after the Second World War. Many of the roads on that half of the Old Dean are named after areas of London, with the others named after places on the common. In 1969 there was an outbreak of
rabies when a dog, just released from a six month
quarantine after returning from Germany, attacked two people on Camberley Common. The scare resulted in restriction orders for dogs and large-scale shoots to carry out the destruction of foxes and other wildlife.
21st century After debate and delay (plans having been discussed for over half a decade), in 2006, a mixed-use development west of Park Street named The Atrium was built of residential, leisure and retail buildings with wide pedestrianised areas and 683 public parking spaces. Its 217 mid-rise apartments split into courtyards in the
Barcelona style. Fourteen new retail units face directly onto Park Street, opposite the Main Square shopping centre. Park Street has been
pedestrianised and landscaped as part of the development. Leisure facilities include a nine-screen cinema, a
bowling alley, a health and fitness club, cafés and restaurants. Various elements of The Atrium were opened during 2008, with the final elements, the main cinema and bowling alley, opening in October and November 2008, respectively. In 2009, the town's households were named by
Experian as having the highest
carbon footprint in the UK, estimated at 28.05 tonnes per household per year (compared to 18.36 tonnes for the lowest, South Shields). ==Local and national government==