Windsor Forest consisted in early times of a tract of wood and heath which even before the Norman Conquest was looked upon as Crown property. It is one of the five forests mentioned by name in Domesday. It was no doubt of great extent, but its boundaries are not known even if they were ever very clearly defined. There is in the British Museum a volume of maps and plans of Windsor by John Norden, made in the early part of the reign of James I, and the map of the forest shows that it was at that time bounded by the Thames on the north, by the Loddon on the west, by the Blackwater on the south, and that it extended to the east into Surrey as far as the Hog’s Back, Guildford, and the river Wey.

The forest was at that time divided into 16 walks, each under a Keeper. Two of these, Cranbourne and New Lodge Walks, appear to have been previously known as Cranbourne Chase, and together with Egham Walk were the part of the forest lying nearest to the castle, and including what is now the Home Park and the Great Park. The other walks in Berkshire were Swinley Walk, Easthampstead Walk, Sandhurst Walk, Bigshot Walk, Bearwood Walk, and Warfield Walk. There was also a large district extending from Maidenhead and Bray to Wokingham and Twyford, which was called the Fines Bayliwick, and of which Sir Henry Neville claimed to be Keeper by inheritance.

Several parks are marked in the forest. Of these the Little Park is now the Home Park, Windsor, and the Great Park and Moat Park are in the present Windsor Great Park. Sunninghill Park, Foliejon Park, Easthampstead Park, and Bagshot Park, the last mostly in Surrey, still remain.

Besides the Parks there were certain enclosed places called Rails. Cranbourne Rails is in Windsor Park. Swinley Rails was until recently the place where the deer for the Royal Hunt were kept, and Bigshot Rails is apparently the place now named Ravenswood, near Wellington College.

In the early part of the nineteenth century there was a great deal of discussion as to the rights of the Crown over Windsor Forest, and in 1813 an Act of Parliament was passed dealing with the matter, and the Forest is now enclosed either as Crown land or as the property of private persons. Ascot Race Course is in the old Swinley Walk.

Walter Fitz Other was appointed by William the Conqueror Castellan, or Governor of Windsor Castle, and Warden of the Forest; and the office, which has become known as that of Constable of the Castle, has existed from his appointment to the present day.