Hampshire is a large
county in the southern part of England.
It includes the port
cities of Southampton and Portsmouth as well as the county town and
cathedral city of Winchester. (Note: Portsmouth is also a Roman
Catholic cathedral city.) Nearer to London, you also have the city of
Basingstoke, sort of the last major train stop before reaching
Greater London.
Having lived there
(from 1997 to 2004), I was surprised to learn that the county was
called the County of Southampton (and sometimes Southamptonshire)
from 1889 to 1959! I'd never seen any evidence of such! Apparently
the city name came first, but I'll cover that more when I talk about
Southampton itself.
Climate
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| (From Wikipedia) |
Hampshire is warmer
and drier than many parts of the UK. When I was trying to equate the
coastal climate to my native Oregon, I eventually concluded that
Southampton's climate was akin to Brookings, Oregon – as far north
as fuchsias are evergreen. (Incidentally, even in Wiltshire, where I
lived another 7 years, the fuchsia was not evergreen, so it's a fine
line.)
Natural Beauty
Hampshire has many
natural attractions including the “national parks” of the South
Downs and the New Forest as well as many “country parks.”
Several rivers run
through the county including the Test and the Itchen on either side
of Southampton and the Hamble further East.
Additionally, the
Solent with it's unique four-daily high tides, draws all sorts of
sea-lovers whether you prefer to enjoy it from the shoreline
(including some nice beaches in Portsmouth) or on the water. The
Solent is a very busy channel, filled with commercial freighters,
luxury cruise ships, ferries to the Isle of Wight, France or Spain,
and a myriad of private boats of all shapes and sizes. Nearer to
Portsmouth, there are naval vessels as well.
In addition to the
natural features, there are plenty of manmade landmarks.
As the region is
believed to have been continuously occupied since the end of the last
Ice Age, it is unsurprising that there is much evidence of these
earlier peoples including the Danebury
Rings hillfort and Roman ruins (especially in Silchester).
There are also many picturesque historical buildings and ruins.
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| Hampshire Sheep (Oklahoma State) |
Agriculture
Hampshire has a long
history of agriculture originating from when it was brought over from
mainland Europe.
Therefore, it should
not be surprising to learn that a couple of modern livestock breeds
originated in Hampshire. There's the Hampshire sheep which is popular
among US 4-Hers. Then there is the Hampshire pig which is not only
popular in the US, but even has a commemorative statue in Winchester,
Hampshire.
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| Hampshire Pig (Oklahoma State) |
Famous things and people
Jane
Austen spent most of her life in Hampshire. Here's a virtual tour
of her house in Chawton.
The
famous ship, Titanic sailed from Southampton on her
fateful maiden voyage.
There is plenty more
to read about Hampshire on Wikipedia.
Touristy things on the Web...
Beaulieu
(pronounced Bew-lee) – with its famous car museum – has an
excellent virtual tour.
Marwell
Zoo has a good presence on the internet from a Flicker
photo gallery to webcams
to videos,
you can see what they have to offer.
Then, we have the
many Country
Parks of the county.
From Manor Farm to
Royal Victoria to Lepe (pronounced “leap”) there are many
family-friendly places to enjoy nature and play.
Here's a really cool
“living history” museum. Lots of pictures of the various exhibits
at Milestones
near Basingstoke.
Even places which
don't have the greatest web pages are probably easily viewed via
Google Street View once you know where to look. Google have
thoroughly covered most of the UK, so you should have no trouble
being a static tourist.
Other Towns
(This list will be
incomplete as I'm only including the ones where I quickly found a
tourist website – I may add more at a later date.)
Don't miss any of
the great places in Hampshire – check out the Visit
Hampshire site for details on each of the cities, towns and
villages as well as many of the places to see.
(I will do separate
pages on Southampton, Portsmouth and Winchester... mainly because
I've spent the most time there – and they are interesting places to
me.)
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