Riverside House, Blackwater, Camberley - 01276 33155 info@tbic.org.uk

A settlement which became known as Yorktown grew up around the gates of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in the 19th century. The college was renamed in 1947 the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

On 8 April it emerged that the army had, on one of their firing ranges, erected several replica mosques creating a certain amount of unwanted notoriety.

During the 19th century, Camberley grew in size. This was given added impetus with the arrival of the branch-line railway (the main-line passes through nearby Deepcut but there is no stop).

Later, the Staff College was established to the east of the Academy, and a property speculator built the nearby Cambridge Hotel. The surrounding area became known as Cambridge Town, but was renamed "Camberley" in 1877 to avoid confusion with Cambridge in Cambridgeshire.

Camberley was mentioned in the black-and-white film Lord of the Flies, loosely based on the William Golding novel. In this, the character Piggy correctly states that Camberley was formerly known as Cambridgetown, but changed its name following confusion with the town of Cambridge. He claims that the new name consisted of three parts; "Cam" taken from the original name of Cambridgetown, "ber" taken from the name of a nearby river (in fact there is no river with this name), and "ley" because it is a common ending for English town names (as in neighbouring Frimley). One would imagine this reference came from the child actor who played Piggy himself, Hugh Edwards, who left Camberley Primary School - long since demolished to make way for a town centre redevelopment - to star in the film.

Camberley grew to become the largest town in the area, and Yorktown is now almost regarded as part of Camberley.

The smaller town of Frimley, being so close to Camberley, is often thought to be a part of the town by many visitors to the area, although the two are, for the most part, clearly separated by the M3 motorway. Frimley has its own town centre, a major regional hospital (Frimley Park) and extensive suburban areas. In the 19th century, Yorktown and Camberley were in the Ecclesiastical Parish of Frimley.

The neighbouring town of Blackwater, 3 km (2 miles) to the west is also considered by some to be a suburb of Camberley, however, it is actually situated in the Hart District of Hampshire and has its own town council. The same could be said for Sandhurst which is home of "The Meadows" retail park and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, all of which are in the Bracknell Forest borough of Berkshire.