Laverstoke Mill

Laverstoke ( LAV-ər-stohk) is a village in north west Hampshire, England. On the other side of the River Test there is the settlement at Freefolk which is included in the Laverstock census return. In the early 18th century, Laverstoke Mill was purchased by the Portals, a family of Huguenot immigrants from Languedoc who were establishing a successful paper making business. Henry de Portal was naturalised in 1711 and had the mill rebuilt in 1719. In 1724 he won the contract to make Bank of England notes and pioneered the use of the watermark in paper currency. Henry Portal's son Joseph went on to become High Sheriff of Hampshire and purchased the Laverstoke estate adjoining the mill. Following generations prospered further, becoming major land owners. By the 1790s they also owned the Manor at Freefolk Priors and Ashe Park House. Jane Austen and her family were acquainted with the Portals and two of her brother Edward's sons went on to marry members of the Portal family. In 1796 the Portals had the old Laverstoke House demolished and a new house erected in neo-classical style by John Bonomi. It is this house that still stands today (although no longer owned by the Portals and not open to the public). The Bombay Sapphire gin distillery has been located in the old paper mill since late 2014.

St Nicholas Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Freefolk, Hampshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands to the south of the B3400 road and the River Test, some 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Whitchurch.

St Mary's Church, Laverstoke is a parish church in the Church of England in Laverstoke, Hampshire. The church is to the east of Laverstoke village, near the small village of Freefolk. It was built in 1896 to designs of the architect John Loughborough Pearson. It was constructed in flint with Bath stone dressings. It has a steeple on the south side containing a chapel.Pevsner is fairly scathing about the design by Pearson, saying "not a church to do him much credit...Nothing is vaulted, and the only a little more than humdrum feature inside is the wall-passage or detached shafting in the chancel's wall."

Freefolk is a village in Hampshire, England. It lies to the west and almost directly alongside the village of Laverstoke; the two villages are separated by the River Test. It is about 1.5 miles (2 km) east of Whitchurch and 1 mile (2 km) west of Overton on the B3400 road between Basingstoke and Andover. In the village is an inn named the "Watership Down", known locally as "the jerry". Built in 1840, it was called the Freefolk Arms but was renamed in honour of local author Richard Adams and his book Watership Down, which took its name from the down about 5 miles (8 km) to the north of the village. The village name was brought to many people's attention by the "Forever Freefolk" garden at the 2016 Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by Brewin Dolphin and designed by Rosy Hardy of local nursery Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants. The garden highlighted the fragility of England's chalk streams, and won a silver medal.

Wells-in-the-Field is a hamlet in the civil parish of Laverstoke situated in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Whitchurch, which lies approximately 1.2 miles (1.9 km) south-west from the hamlet.

Bere Mill Meadows is a 10.3-hectare (25-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Whitchurch in Hampshire.These damp meadows in the flood plain of the River Test have a network of ditches with plants such as floating sweet-grass and lesser water-parsnip. The meadows have a rich variety of wet grassland herbs, including bogbean, ragged-robin, water avens, marsh valerian and southern marsh orchid.

Quidhampton is a hamlet within Overton civil parish in the borough of Basingstoke and Deane in Hampshire, England. It is located just to the north of the large village of Overton, on the north bank of the River Test. Overton railway station, on the West of England Main Line, is located in the hamlet.

Overton United Football Club is an English football club based in Overton, near Basingstoke in Hampshire. The club is affiliated to the Hampshire Football Association, and is an FA Charter Standard club. They currently play in the Hampshire Premier League Division One.They also have a reserve side, Overton United reserves play in the Basingstoke Saturday league, they also have a Veterans sunday side along with a Sunday side in the Basingstoke Sunday League.

Overton is a large village and parish in Hampshire, England located west of the town of Basingstoke, and east of Andover and Whitchurch. The village contains smaller hamlets of Southington, Northington, Ashe, Polhampton, and Quidhampton, the latter two lying to the north of the village. The River Test has its source 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east in Ashe. There is evidence of habitation since the Stone and Bronze Ages with finds and barrows located nearby.

Whitnal is a hamlet and small civil parish situated in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Whitchurch, which lies approximately 2.75 miles (4.4 km) south-west from the hamlet. The hamlet is made up of a handful of cottages and a farmhouse as well as having a grain store. Other towns which are close to Whitnal are Andover and Basingstoke.

Cole Henley is a hamlet in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Whitchurch, which lies approximately 3.1 miles (5.0 km) south-east from the hamlet, just off the A34 road.

Testbourne Community School in Whitchurch, Hampshire, England, has been a secondary school since the Victorian era and is a foundation school. It educates around 900 students aged 11–16. The Headteacher is currently Jon Beck, who was appointed in September 2017.