Welcome to Aldershot

Aldershot is located on the Basingstoke Canal, in the county of Hampshire, approximately 40 miles south-west of London and 8 miles west of Guildford.

The town has a population of around 51,000 with the Borough of Rushmoor, of which Aldershot is a part together with Farnborough, covering an area of approximately 39 sq kms.

Only established since the middle of 19th-century the town, which is surrounded by unspoilt heathland countryside, is renowned as the home of the British Army.

The town's history dates from 1854 when the government's War Department bought 10,000 acres of heathland around the quiet village of Aldershot to establish a camp. This subsequently became home to the British Army with the area undergoing a major population explosion. Settlement here, though, dates back to Anglo-Saxon times when it appeared as Alreshete.

Mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) the name Aldershot probably derives from 'Alder', indicating that it was a boggy place.