Shamley Green, or Shamele as it was first referred to in a taxation list of 1332, started as a collection of small farms and houses forming an agricultural hamlet in the Parish of Wonersh. Its isolated farmsteads were located on sites carefully selected to meet the basic needs of residents for water, access, shelter, drainage and varied land use as the ancient forest cover was cleared.

From Elizabethan times through to the 18th and early 19th centuries, further developments occurred around the peripheries of the open spaces which formed the Village Green and common grazing lands, such as Lords Hill. To sustain a fairly isolated, self-sufficient, rural economy, small shops and artisan activities evolved, the principle sources of employment being at the Lords Hill commercial complex run by members of the Society of Dependants, a low-profile religious sect of great probity and reliability, and a tannery, based at Upper Lostiford water mill. All of these have now closed and been converted to residential use.

A chapel of ease built on Plonks Hill in 1863-4 became the Shamley Green Parish Church in 1881, by which time, the original hamlet had become an independent village.

During the 1930s, modest, detached, rural house building projects were undertaken extending the village footprint along Hullbrook Lane, Sweetwater Lane and Stonards Brow to fill in the gap between the Green and Lords Hill Common. Similar developments extended housing along the Guildford Road to the school, founded in 1842. The post-war era saw two large developments at Hullmead and Nursery Hill, effectively doubling the size of the village. Subsequently, numerous examples of plot sub-division and infilling have increased dwelling density to a point where there are few potential development locations within the village envelope. Today the village has a variety of housing within it, ranging from substantial dwellings to more modest cottages and bungalows. Lee Crouch, one of the oldest continuously inhabited house in Surrey, and Upper House Farm, which contains elements of what is said to be the oldest building in the county, are both within the village boundaries.