The southern most part of the parish extends down to Langstone Harbour and nearly as far as the South Hayling farm, and includes the four islands, Baker's Island, Long Island and North and South Binness. A small portion of the town of Havant lies within its boundaries and the London Brighton and South Coast Railway passes through the village.

Near to the church there is a cluster of low houses which forms the older part of the village and inns, shops and houses lying along both sides of the high road from Portsmouth to Havant and separated from the church by a wide meadow marks the modern part.

The first stagecoach inn out of Portsmouth was the Golden Lion and it has the reputation that even today it has its own ghost.

Schools were built here in 1868 and five years later were enlarged and then again in 1895 due to the growth of the village.

The rectory lies opposite the church and is a large white house and Bedbury House is also here. The area around the church is known as Lower Bedhampton. The manor house can be found on higher ground directly North-west of the church and overlooks Bedbury Mead.

The village is the source of many springs and they have become quite famous for their properties, one of them St Chad's Well is near the manor house and is reputed to possess the most health given virtues. There is a stream running parallel with the main village street near to the Post Office and to the north of the church on high ground is the hamlet of Belmont, and Belmont Park  covers an area of some 20 acres.

King Egbert granted the manor of Bedhampton to the cathedral church of Winchester in the early part of the 19th century and by the time Edward the Confessor came to the throne it had passed to Hyde Abbey. By the time of the Domesday Survey it was held by Hugh de Port. The manor lost its value around 1086 due to Viking raids when the Norsemen sailed into what is now Portsmouth Harbour and ransacked the surrounding land including the abbeys. The Manor is now a home for elderly residents and is now run by a charitable trust set up in 1967.

The Upper Mill was reputed to have provide flour to make the biscuits for the army in the Crimean War, and it was then in the possession of John Snook.

The Old Mill House is believed to have given shelter to the poet John Keats who in 1819 with master baker John Snook, mentioned above, and his wife stayed there. It was here  where Keats finished his poem, The Eve of St Agnes and also where his last nigh in England was spent due to all ships being confined to harbour because of a severe storm. It was in Naples that he died in 1821

Another local residence is The Elms which is a turreted house that was built in the 18th century and purchased by Sir John Theophilus Lee, who was  a friend of the Duke of Wellington . Lee named one of the rooms in the house The Waterloo Room in honour of the Duke who is believed to have dined there.

Smuggling was also rife in this area, as Langstone Harbour was the favourite haunt in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Cat and Fiddle on Bedhampton Hill was the favourite meeting place.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ST THOMAS