Bishop's Waltham Palace was one of the principal residences of the bishops of Winchester from the 12thc. to 17thc. The site, now ruinous, is in the care of English Heritage. It is located on the S side of the town of Bishop's Waltham, approximately half way between Winchester and Portsmouth.

Standing remains of the 12thc. bishop's palace - much remodelled in later periods - are concentrated in the SW corner of the rectangular inner court, which is surrounded by a moat. The W side of the court is dominated by a five-bay hall with service rooms and a kitchen at its N end. The hall was refenestrated and reroofed in the 14thc., but traces of a 12thc. blind arcade (stripped of ashlar) may be seen in the S (dais) wall.

A first-floor window (probably originally round headed) survives in the outer wall of the range running S from the hall. It does not retain any sculptural ornamentation, but the bullnosed profile of the external outer order is paralleled in other Hampshire sites of c.1200. It may have lit a great chamber.

The SW corner tower is thought to have contained the private apartments of Bishop Henry of Blois. It was heightened and refenestrated in the late 14thc. and early 15thc. A structure or range attached to the E side of the tower incorporates a blocked round-headed opening at first-floor level. English Heritage identifies this as the bishop's great chamber.

The foundations of a cloister and two chapels, including a 12thc. apsidal chapel, survive to the E of the residential buildings. The E range (bakehouse and brewhouse) and N range (lodgings) date from the late 14thc. and 15thc. respectively.

Although there is no in situ Romanesque sculpture at Bishop's Waltham Palace, several 12thc. fragments of worked stone are displayed in the museum, located in a 17thc. farmhouse in the NE corner of the site. A few of these have carved decoration.

Bishop's Waltham palace was begun by Bishop Henry of Blois, King Stephen's brother, in the late 1130s. After Henry went into exile in 1154, King Henry II ordered the destruction of his properties. However, after returning in 1158, Henry of Blois rebuilt the palace. It hosted royal councils in 1182 and 1194.

The palace was extensively remodelled by the mason William Wynford for Bishop William of Wykeham from 1378. Cardinal Beaufort heightened the W tower c.1408. He also built a new chapel and added a NW gatehouse and N lodging range.

The palace was besieged and badly damaged during the Civil War (1642-1649). Like ruined Wolvesey Palace in Winchester, it was subsequently abandoned. It was transferred to the Ministry of Works by Lord Cunningham in 1952. Several archaeological excavations have been carried out since the late 19thc.

The chevron voussoir is assumed, reasonably, by English Heritage to have come from a doorway. It must date from one of the mid-12thc. building campaigns of Bishop Henry of Blois, either after 1138 or after 1158.

The large voluted or crocketed capitals are from the cylindrical piers of the chapel crypt or undercroft which was excavated in 1891 (Portsmouth Evening News, 13 April 1891, 2). They suggest that the chapel was rebuilt c.1200. However, O'Brien et al. have attributed the capitals to Henry of Blois (d.1171). The chapel was superseded by a new buildng erected further E (but overlapping the apse) by Cardinal Beaufort in the early 15thc.

The smaller Purbeck marble capitals and shafts probably belong to the end of the 12thc. O'Brien et al. suggest they come from the chapel. The cloister does not seem to have been built before the 14thc.