Historically Hampshire has been known as the County of Southampton, Southamptonshire, Hamptonshire and it is a county that still exists on the south coast of England. The county shares its borders with Berkshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, West Sussex and Surrey. The county is spread over an area of 1,455 square miles or 3,769 km².



Its widest points is most probably 55 miles or 90 km from east to west and 40 miles or 65 km from north to south. Its county town is Winchester. It is a ceremonial county with cities like that of Portsmouth and Southampton, which in fact is administratively free. Bournemouth and Christchurch which used to be in its boundaries went to the county of Dorset in 1974.

Hampshire is a famous UK holiday destination, which attracts the tourists to its several seaside resorts, the naval area in Portsmouth, and the motor museum in Beaulieu. New Forest National Park shares the space with a large area of the South Downs, which will become a National Park very soon.

It has a long Naval history and two very significant and large ports of England. This county also is the birth place of renowned writers like Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Hampshire has wildlife that is similar to the rest of the island of Great Britain. One exclusive feature of Hampshire wildlife is a large free strolling herd of Red Deer, it also includes more than a thousand stags in busy seasons. The stags were saved and protected by the government and hunting is strictly banned.

The Geology of Hampshire is varied and in the south, along the sea shore is the Hampshire Basin, an area of Eocene and Oligocene clays and gravels which are defended and saved from sea water erosions at Dorset, the Isle of Purbeck and the Isle of Wight. This area is low and flat in elevation and has lands that favour woodland habitats, a huge area of which forms the part of the New Forest. The New Forest has a fine picture of heathland, grassland, evergreen and seasonal green woodland habitats that has a very distinctive wildlife.

The forest is appointed as a national park, restricting progress and agricultural use to save wildlife and its landscape. Large areas of the New Forest are common and open lands that is kept as a grassland for grazing animals, which includes domestic animals like cattle, horses, pigs and many wild deer species.

So you can now see why Hampshire is well worth a visit.