Watership Down publishers before Collings accepted it, it won the annual Carnegie Medal, annual Guardian Prize, and other book awards. It was adapted into an animated feature film in 1978, and later a television series which ran from 1999 to 2001. Later, a miniseries of the story was made and aired in the UK in 2018. Adams completed a sequel almost 25 years later, "Tales from Watership Down" (Random House, 1996; Hutchinson and Alfred A. Knopf imprints). It is a collection of 19 short stories about El-ahrairah and the rabbits of the Watership Down warren, with "Notes on Pronunciation" and "Lapine Glossary".
Kingsclere and its sign proclaims it a "15th C. Rooming Inn". The nearby Watership Down is the setting for the 1972 novel of the same name by Richard Adams. Watership Down was also the site of the 1982 World Field Archery Championship put on by the Overton Black Arrows archery club from the nearby village of Overton. The actress Lavinia Fenton, most famous for her role as the first Polly Peachum in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, was lover and then wife of Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton of the parish. Their eldest son, Rev. Charles Powlett, was briefly vicar