Old Basing & the Candovers

Old Basing sits beside the River Loddon and centres on the ruins of Basing House, the Tudor mansion whose earthworks and brickwork remain within a sheltering park. The village retains a parish church, a small high street of local shops and pubs, and a pattern of lanes that follow older field boundaries. Visitors can walk the ramparts and see masonry scars from the sieges of the 17th century; the site is interpreted on information panels close to the remains.
The Candovers lie to the north in the Candover Valley, a cluster of parishes including Brown, Chilton and Preston Candover. The valley is shaped by the Candover Brook, a chalk stream that runs through wet meadows and past flint and brick farmhouses. Narrow lanes and a network of public footpaths link hamlets and parish churches, while farmland and hedgerows record long-established field systems. Seasonal flows in the brook and stone stiles across ridge routes are part of local character.