It is the largest town of the Hart District, and has many large technology business areas, fast rail links to London, and is well connected to the M3.

Local landmarks include Fleet Pond, the largest freshwater lake in Hampshire, and a High Street with many Victorian and Edwardian buildings.

This north-east corner of Hampshire had shallow and sandy, slightly acidic soil, much of it boggy or covered in gorse and bracken (see Bagshot Formation).

It held little use for agriculture compared to the long-grazed chalk lands and belts of alluvial areas of the rest of the county.

[4] Areas and suburbs of Fleet town are Pondtail, Ancells Park and Elvetham Heath.

Immediately surrounding towns and villages include Winchfield, Dogmersfield, Crondall, Ewshot, and Hartley Wintney.

The Fleet Pond nature reserve is a beauty spot on the northern edge of the town.

Being very shallow, Fleet Pond is actively managed and needs regular dredging to avoid it silting up.

Being located in South East England, Fleet has a temperate climate which is generally drier and warmer than the rest of the country.

Apart from the Farnham to Reading road, the site remained largely undeveloped until the construction of the London and South Western Railway, which opened in 1840.

[9] By 1860, Charles Lefroy, a local squire, commissioned All Saints' Church – in the Blue Triangle area, in memory of his wife who had died in 1857.

[14] In addition, a small area of Minley with Hawley, that consequently became the modern development of Ancells Farm, was also transferred to the expanded Fleet Urban District.

[15] Fleet expanded over the decades, with new residential areas being built at Ancells Farm, Zebon Copse (Church Crookham, Crookham Village and Dogmersfield are included in the built-up area, as per the Government Statistical Service[16]) and Elvetham Heath.

By the early twentieth century, the canal had fallen into disrepair; the section between the Wey Navigation and the Greywell Tunnel has since been restored by volunteers and is maintained as a leisure facility.

The committee also arrange food festivals, attracting stands run by local restaurants and talks and demonstrations held in large marquees.

In the BBC television sitcom Motherland, it is revealed that the mother of one of the main characters, Kevin Brady, lives in Fleet.