[2] It has a foot in the South Downs National Park and is located at the midpoint of a long-established route between Winchester and Portsmouth.

It is home to the ruins of Bishop's Waltham Palace, a Scheduled Ancient Monument under English Heritage management, and a well-preserved high street with many listed buildings which now house independent shops.

Bishop's Waltham's long history includes a roll call of Medieval and Tudor kings and queens who visited the town to stay at the palace.

[3] Modern day Bishop's Waltham has a population of over 6,723[4] and is the largest settlement in the Winchester district outside the city itself.

William of Wykeham died in the town, while after the Battle of Trafalgar, some 200 French officers including Admiral Villeneuve were imprisoned there.

The town retains a unique character, with a number of small local businesses (such as a butchers, bakery and fishmonger) including an off-licence which was established in 1617 (Bakers Wine Merchants).

Bishop's Waltham was home to Gunner and Company, which was the last provincial private bank in the United Kingdom.

The works, sited west of the town centre across the former palace's fishponds, was on a highly geologically suitable site: both the major clay types of the Hampshire Basin – the London Clay and Reading Formation beds – were present at different but easily accessible levels.

Blanchard terracotta made at Bishop's Waltham became world-famous for its even bright red colour and rare combination of hard, smooth external texture and great strength.

Blanchard continued to produce various types of brick and tile at Bishops Waltham as well, which were used extensively on railway construction and other civil engineering projects in the county.

They continued to run the business throughout the inter-war period but the relatively small scale of the Bishop's Waltham works, the lack of room for expansion and the dwindling amount of viable clay deposits on the site caused a decline in fortunes.

The site received major bomb damage during the Second World War and Elliotts closed the Bishop Waltham works (still widely known as 'Blanchards') in 1957.

[9] It is a nationally significant tract of alkaline wetland and open waters located south of the Chalk outcrop in southern Hampshire at the head of River Hamble displaying a good diversity of habitat types, plant and animal communities and rare species.

The 'Sand Boils' is an area at the head of the West Stream in which upwelling spring water creates swirling sandy patches in the gravelly streambed.

The Moors comprises the wetland area fed by springs and surface watercourses within the SSSI and adjacent land and which discharge into the Waltham Mill Pond.

[13] There is a large youth development club called Bishop's Waltham Dynamos who use the facilities at Priory Park.

[16] The Priory, a large red-brick house at Newtown, Bishop's Waltham, was built in the 1860s for an infirmary, the land being given by Sir Arthur Helps, a benefactor to the neighbourhood.

The Act, passed in 1723, made it a felony to "appear armed, disguised or with a blackened face, being so designed to kill deer, rob a warren or to steal fish".

Founded in 1809, it served as the primary provincial bank for Bishop's Waltham and the Meon Valley throughout much of the nineteenth century.

This was a 17th-century coaching inn that was initially known as The White Hart; however, it was renamed after the 217-day siege of Mafeking, in South Africa, had been relieved in 1900.

Formerly a popular country pub with open fires, run for many years by Arthur & Carol Noot and before them Len Broom The Priory Inn, Winchester Road Bishop's Waltham.

The Kings Head St Georges Square, This pub closed c.1914 and became Franck Stubbs estate agents and is now a Chinese restaurant The Brewery Tap was situated on Brook Street.

This pub was present in 1911 and is now partly used as a betting shop The Brewery Arms was situated on Bank Street.

It was situated on the corner of Free Street and is now called Old Wheatsheaf Cottage [17] Abbey Mill, Station Road, Bishops Waltham was built in 1862.