Andover is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is on the River Anton, a major tributary of the Test, and lies alongside the major A303 trunk road at the eastern end of Salisbury Plain, 18 miles (29 km) west of the town of Basingstoke. It is 14 miles (23 km) from Winchester, 35 miles (56 km) north of Southampton and 65 miles (105 km) from London.

An ancient borough was a historic unit of lower-tier local government in England and Wales. The ancient boroughs covered only important towns and were established by charters granted at different times by the monarchy. Their history is largely concerned with the origin of such towns and how they gained the right of self-government. Ancient boroughs were reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which introduced directly elected corporations and allowed the incorporation of new industrial towns. Municipal boroughs ceased to be used for the purposes of local government in 1974, with borough status retained as an honorific title granted to some post-1974 local government districts by the Crown.