The Northam Burrows Hotel and Villa Building Company, chaired by Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth, was formed in 1863, and its prospectus stated: This Company has been formed for the erection of a Family Hotel, on an Estate purchased for the purpose immediately contiguous to Northam Burrows, and of Villas and Lodging Houses for Sale or Lease.

The want of such accommodation has long been felt, and as no attempt to supply it has hitherto been made by individuals, it is deemed to be a legitimate project to be undertaken by a Company.

Development of the village began ten years after the 1855 Kingsley novel was published, in order to satisfy the Victorians' passion for seaside holidays.

Shell middens and a submerged forest that date to the Mesolithic period have been excavated on the shoreline at Westward Ho!.

The United Services College, a public school for boys aged about thirteen to eighteen, was founded at Westward Ho!

It lasted until 1906, when it merged with the Imperial Service College in Berkshire and closed its site at Westward Ho!.

Notable old boys included Rudyard Kipling, whose book Stalky & Co. (1899) is based on his time at the College.

is known for its surfing seas and the long expanse of clean sand backed by a pebble ridge and grasslands which extends for about three miles.

The seaward part of the village lies within the North Devon Coast, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The wave-cut platform is an example of a multi-scale fault system, with the phases of tectonic activity exposed at low tide.

The West Country class locomotive number 21C136 (later 34036), built initially for Southern Railways and later British Rail, was named "Westward Ho!"