The current Academy site

The site the Academy occupies was originally enclosed after the English Civil War by a local farmer who fenced off the area of Windsor Forest between the Blackwater and the Wish Stream, named Sandhurst Park. The area is wooded - a hurst - and situated on light soil - sand. At the end of the 18th century a retired officer bought the land together with Frimley Park. The farmer was forced to sell the park in 1800 to his wife's uncle, Prime Minister William Pitt. He in turn sold it on to the government a few months later with the purpose of becoming the site of the newly-created Royal Military College. The area around the Academy is dotted with ancient monuments such as the Iron Age hill fort, Caesar's Camp, to the north of the Barossa training area, and the Roman road, the Devil's Highway, running from East to West. Three counties meet just outside the Academy grounds, probably under the Tesco's car park, where the Wishstream marks the border between Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire.