Hampshire

Hampshire is a County on the south coast of England. Major settlements include Southampton, Bournemouth, Winchester, Basingstoke, Andover, Aldershot, Portsmouth, and Farnborough. The latter three have strong military associations with the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force respectively.

The county has in the past been called "Southamptonshire" and appears as such on some Victorian maps. The short form of the name, often used in postal addresses, is Hants. Hampshire County Council is based in Winchester, a historic city that was once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Wessex. Southampton and Portsmouth are both major ports. There is an international airport with its own rail station between Southampton and Eastleigh. Hampshire is a popular holiday area, with tourist attractions including its many seaside resorts, the maritime area in Portsmouth, and the motor museum at Beaulieu. The New Forest lies within the borders, as does a large chunk of the South Downs - there are plans to make both of these areas into national parks.

The Isle of Wight is part of the County, even though since 1974 it has been administered as a separate administrative county for local government purposes. At the same time the administrative county border with Dorset was changed so that Bournemouth was administered by Dorset County Council rather than Hampshire. Since 1997, the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton have been administered as unitary authorities rather than by Hampshire County Council, and are no longer part of the administrative area of Hampshire, although they dom of course, remain part of the County. Residents still refer to the historic County borders, which are used for postal addresses, sports teams etc., and not those used for administrative purpose.

Hampshire is divided into a number of districts for the purposes of local goverment, and these are Basingstoke and Deane, East Hampshire, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, Hart, Havant, New Forest, Rushmoor, Test Valley and Winchester.

The 2001 census gave the population of rump Hampshire (as of 1997) as 1.24 million; the population including Portsmouth and Southampton was around 1.6 million.

New Hampshire is named after Hampshire.

Table of contents

1 Cities, towns, and villages 2 Places of interest 3 External link

Cities, towns, and villages

• Aldershot, Alresford, Alton, Andover, Ansty
• Barton on Sea, Basingstoke, Beaulieu, Bishop's Waltham, Bordon, Brockenhurst
• Dibden Purlieu
• East End, Lymington, Hampshire, East End, Petersfield, Hampshire, Eastleigh, Easton, Emsworth, Exton
• Fareham, Farnborough, Fawley, Fleet, Fordingbridge, Fyfield
• Gosport, Greatham
• Hambledon, Havant, Hayling Island, Highcliffe, Holt End, Hook, Hursley, Hythe
• Langley, Lee-on-the-Solent, Liphook, Liss, Little London, Andover, Hampshire, Little London (Tadley), Long Common, Lymington, Lyndhurst
• Martin, Milford on Sea, Mount Pleasant
• Netherton, New Alresford, Newbridge, New Milton
• Nursling
• Odiham
• Petersfield, Portsmouth
• Ringwood, Romsey
• Shirrell Heath, Southampton, Stockbridge, Southsea
• Tadley, Totton, Turgis Green, Twyford
• Waterlooville, Whitchurch, Wickham, Winchester
• Yateley

Places of interest

• Beaulieu Abbey and the National Motor Museum
• HMS Victory
• Mottisfont Abbey
• New Forest Museum
• River Avon
• River Hamble
• River Meon
• River Test
• Silchester
• Southampton Water
• South Downs Way, a long distance footpath

External link

• Hampshire County Council

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Hampshire is also a village in the State of Illinois in the United States of America; see Hampshire, Illinois.