The lake itself is a reservoir, formed by a dam across the Potrero valley early in the twentieth century, and the name came from Hollywood: the valley stood in for Sherwood Forest in the silent-era Robin Hood pictures, and the name stayed. The cabins and lake houses of the 1920s through the 1960s grew up along the shore and the roads above it, and the country club, the gates and the modern tracts came in the late 1980s and 1990s, when the surrounding ranch land was developed around a Jack Nicklaus course. Every community at the lake is unincorporated Ventura County with the Conejo Valley Unified schools, and most carry Westlake Village or Lake Sherwood mailing addresses.

Thistleberry is the MLS subdivision for the older roads on the hillside above the west end of the lake, laid out before the club and the gates and built house by house from the 1950s on. The developer of the original subdivision is not confirmed in any source Gary Jacobs has been able to verify. What the record shows is about 96 parcels of individually built houses of 1,299 to 3,479 square feet, two to four bedrooms, on lots of 10,000 to 22,100 square feet, behind the Sherwood Country Club Estates guard gates, with no tract amenities, and a lake association fee that listings report at $1,554 a year.

Every house is individually built, so the record is a set of houses rather than plans. The top is $3,474,000 on Stafford Road in February 2025 for a 3,126-square-foot four-bedroom from 2001, and $3,250,000 on the same road the same month for a 3,089-square-foot four-bedroom from 2016. The bottom is $1,275,000 on Thorsby Road in July 2020 for a 2,257-square-foot three-bedroom from 1980 on three levels, and $2,000,000 on Lower Lake Road in February 2026 for a 1,299-square-foot three-bedroom from 1963, which shows what the lot is worth apart from the house. Five of the eight are three-bedroom houses; one of the eight is single story.

No plan sheet for Thistleberry is in the Conejo Simi Moorpark Association of Realtors archive that this guide series draws on, so there is no drawing to reproduce. The sale record shows homes of 1,299 to 3,479 square feet, median 2,654, with three bedrooms in five of the eight, four in two, two in one, and one of the eight recorded sales is single story.

Upper Lake Road and Stafford Road carry two of the eight sales each; Thorsby Road, Hereford Road and Lower Lake Road one each, with one sale on an unnamed private road. The lots run from about 10,000 to 22,100 square feet, median about 12,400, on a slope where the view down to the lake and the access up from the road are what separate the sales.

The first reason is the lake behind the guard gates without a tract fee: a hillside above the water for the price of the lake association alone. The second is the lots, a quarter to half an acre on a slope with the view. The third is the range, from a cabin to rebuild at $2,000,000 to a finished house at $3,500,000. The fourth is the character: the oldest roads at the lake, with the cabins and the trees the newer tracts do not have.

Listings report the fee at $1,554 a year. The lake association fee carries the private lake, its docks, picnic areas and security. There is no tract association, and the roads sit behind the Sherwood Country Club Estates guard gates; the constraint on an owner is the county permit process rather than an architectural committee, and the title report says what attaches to the specific parcel.

What the association covers and what the CC&Rs restrict is not confirmed in any source Gary Jacobs has been able to verify. Take the budget, the reserve study, the insurance certificate and the CC&Rs from the seller’s disclosure package, read the minutes for any special assessment or litigation, and confirm the current fee with the manager before removing a contingency.

Lake Sherwood is unincorporated Ventura County in the Conejo Valley Unified district: Westlake Elementary or Westlake Hills Elementary, Colina Middle School and Westlake High School are the assignments listings give. Confirm the exact address with the district locator; the drive to any school is east on Potrero Road.

The lake is below the roads, with the Sherwood Lake Club on the water for members, and the country club is a few minutes east for its own members. Lake Sherwood runs on the lake and the club: the private lake with its docks, the Sherwood Country Club and its Jack Nicklaus course for members, the Sherwood Lake Club on the water, and the Potrero Road drive east to Westlake Boulevard for everything else. The shops at Westlake Boulevard and Agoura Road are about ten minutes, the Ventura Freeway fifteen, and the drive to the Westside is the same forty minutes to ninety it is from anywhere in the Conejo Valley, plus the ten minutes in from the gate.

Potrero Road runs east to Westlake Boulevard in about twelve minutes and to the Ventura Freeway in about seventeen; Thistleberry is at the far end of the lake from the gate. Errands are at Westlake Boulevard and Agoura Road; the Westside is forty minutes on a good day and ninety on a bad one, plus the drive in from the lake.

The figures in this section were current when this guide was last reviewed. The sale record in the facts above and the listings below are drawn live from the MLS each time the page loads.

In the two years through August 2026, 5 homes in the tract sold through the MLS, at prices from $2,205,000 to $3,850,000 and a median of $3,250,000. The top of the record is $3,850,000 on Stafford Road in January 2026 for a 4,248-square-foot four-bedroom from 2002; then $3,474,000 on Stafford Road in February 2025 for a 3,126-square-foot four-bedroom; $3,250,000 on Stafford Road in February 2025 for a 3,089-square-foot four-bedroom. The bottom is $2,000,000 on Lower Lake Road in February 2026; $1,275,000 on Thorsby Road in July 2020. Single-story homes account for one of the eight sales, at a median of $2,205,000.

Eight sales in six years across houses this different is a set of individual transactions rather than a trend. What the record supports is a floor near $2,000,000 for an original cabin on a good lot, which is close to the value of the lot alone, and a top near $3,500,000 for a rebuilt house of 3,000 square feet with the view. Gary Jacobs keeps the full sale-by-sale history and can say where a given house sits in it.

No lease is recorded in the MLS sources this guide draws on, so it does not quote a rent. Lake leasing here is occasional and private.

These homes date from 1952 to 2016, and the inspection carries the late-1960s list: original galvanised supply lines, original electrical panels of brands insurers now flag, single-pane aluminum windows where not replaced, original furnaces and ductwork, and roofs and sewer laterals at or past end of life. Slope lots add drainage and retaining-wall questions that a general inspector will flag but a geotechnical engineer should answer; pools of this age often have original equipment and plaster. None of this is unusual; all of it is negotiable if it is found before the contingency comes off rather than after.

In a tract of this era the remodels that return their cost are the ones that bring a 1950s plan to the way people live now: the kitchen opened to the family room, the primary bath and closet, the floors and the glass, and, on the right lot, the pool. What does not return its cost is the addition that pushes the house past what the street will support; the record shows the top sales are renovated versions of the original plans on the better lots, not the biggest houses.

The comparison is the other older sections of the lake and the gated tracts. The Lake Sherwood lakeside streets, the shore roads outside the club, trade at a median of $4,150,000 with the water as the premium. Upson, the oldest section on the north shore, has one sale in the period, a 1932 cabin at $909,000. Trentwood, the gated townhomes on the shore, trades at a median of $2,625,000. Sherwood North Shore, 1993 to 2008, is gated houses at a median of $2,500,000. Thistleberry trades with the North Shore and Trentwood at the median, without a tract fee, and with the widest range of houses of any of them.

Start with the parcel: the title report for the lake rights, access easements and any private-road agreements, the county for fire mapping, septic and slope, and an insurance quote early, because hillside cabins price differently. Then the house, individually built and individually inspected, briefed for its own year, which may be 1952 or 2016, with a geotechnical engineer on the slope and the permit history of every rebuild pulled from the county. Then the access, since some parcels are reached by steep drives or private roads. Then patience: eight sales in six years.

Lake buyers first, who want the water and the view behind the gates without the club. Renovators and builders second, for the original cabins on the best lots, which the record shows are worth close to their lot value. Buyers relocating third, for whom a hillside house above a private lake is the brief.

For a buyer, start with the title report for the lake rights, the access and every easement, and brief the inspector for the house’s own year. Pull the permit history of the house and every rebuild from the county, and confirm the septic or sewer status of the parcel. Confirm the school assignment for the exact address.

For a seller, there is no plan comparable; the comparable is the lot, the view and the house together, and the top of the record — $3,850,000 in January 2026 — is a 4,248-square-foot house from 2002, with $3,474,000 paid for a rebuilt house of 3,000 square feet with the view. Price to the lot and the age of the house, say the view, the lake rights and the access in the first lines of the listing, and let the condition argue for the top of the band.