Aldershot, Portsmouth, and Farnborough have 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 traditionally part of the county, but was removed in 1974 to form a county of itself. Bournemouth was ceded to Dorset at that time.
Since 1997, the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton have been removed from Hampshire, and are administered as unitary authorities. The 1974 boundaries are still used for geographic purposes.
Hampshire is divided into a number of districts - 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.
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Hampshire is also a village in the State of Illinois in the United States of America; see Hampshire, Illinois.Cities, towns, and villages
Places of interest
External link