Stanwell is a village close to two of the three main towns in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, about 16 miles (26 km) west of central London. A small corner of its land is vital industrial land serving Heathrow Airport – most of the rest is residential/recreational, and the housing ranges from suburban homes with gardens to low- to mid-rise urban apartment blocks. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, it has, like the rest of Spelthorne, been in Surrey since 1965. The village is to the south of the cargo-handling area of Heathrow Airport and to the east of the Staines Reservoirs.

Its recognisable extent has been substantially cut three times – all in the 20th century. Land was taken for reservoirs in about 1900; a few decades later land was taken into Heathrow Airport; and in 1995, after the completion of the M25 motorway, the settlement of Poyle (beyond Stanwell Moor) was detached from the Borough and reassigned to Colnbrook in the Borough of Slough.

Stanwell Moor is seen as its own village since the 1870s secularisation of local government. It likewise has reservoirs in its historical area. It was recognised as a manor in medieval times. It has a few pasture/horse-riding fields, horticultural businesses and flood meadows. It is centred 1 mile (1.6 km) from the historical nucleus of Stanwell and is part of the same ward and ecclesiastical parish.

Since the 1945 naming of Ashford Hospital, after two other re-namings, from the Staines Poor Law Union Infirmary, the far south of Stanwell has been widely conflated as being part of Ashford by visitors and some residents. This is reinforced by a large supermarket adopting the Ashford name and by the ease of delivery-made borders of the TW15 versus TW19 postal districts.