History of Sandhurst in the Royal County of Berkshire
by David Nash Ford

S A N D H U R S T

Home of the Royal Military Academy

Ambarrow & Edgebarrow are said to be the result of some great battle between the Saxons and the Danes, the dead from each side being buried beneath them. In fact, both are perfectly natural hills.

The parish church of Sandhurst was originally a chapel-of-ease to the mother-church at Sonning. The present building, with its Surrey-style spire, dates almost entirely from a rebuilding of 1853, but there are a few interesting old relics inside, including an ancient brass to Richard Geale and his wife.

There was a Royal Hunting Lodge here at the centre of Sandhurst Walke, an important sub-division of Windsor Forest. Hart's Leap Road is thought, by some, to be the site and marks the very edge of the forest. King George III is said to have been its last Royal visitor. Centuries earlier, Prince Arthur, elder brother of Henry VIII, crossed the River Blackwater at Sandhurst whilst on his way to meet his future bride, Princess Catherine of Aragon, Castile & Leon at Dogmersfield Park (Hants).

The place is now best-known as the home of the Royal Military Academy. It was established in the parish, as the Royal Military College, in 1813 when moved from Great Marlow. In 1946 it was merged with the RMA at Woolwich. The main buildings, designed by James Wyatt, are imposing but austere. The plain two-storeyed frontage stretches the length of the parade ground, broken only by a six columned classical portico.