Present Day Aspect and Character
sh Vale, situated just to the north of Ash, is where the Basingstoke Canal enters the county from Aldershot on a long embankment across the Blackwater valley.  It was opened in 1796 to connect Basingstoke to the Wey at Byfleet, but its use was reduced by the railway which reached Basingstoke in 1839 and Aldershot in 1849.  Great sections are dry or weed-choked as the embankment which brought water from Hampshire was closed in 1969, but there are still occasional small lakes of surprising beauty along its path, like that at Mytchett skirted by pines and oaks hiding modern suburbia and army buildings.  

Ash and Ash Vale have no obvious boundary between them, but building stops abruptly on the east side by the many rifle ranges bordering Ash,  Cleygate and Pirbright Commons.   The B3411 is a linear road connecting Ash Vale to Ash and Mytchett which runs north south more or less in parallel with the Canal. The area is largely residential with many homes of modern and bungalow styles in cul-de-sacs or on crescents running off the B3411.  Horseshoe Lane is a particularly attractive residential road in otherwise rather bland immediate surroundings and within a stone's throw of Ash Vale Station.   Ash Vale and North Camp railway stations are in close proximity on different lines, Ash Vale running between Woking and Aldershot and Camberley and  North Camp running between Guildford and Farnborough.  

This is army country with large areas of these open spaces devoted to training areas.  The boundary of Guildford Borough borders Surrey Heath just to the north of Ash Vale.



Schools: Holly Lodge County, Ash Vale             Tel: 01252 548390