Local Area Info
The county of Hampshire is situated in the far south of
England, roughly half-way between the east and west ends
of the South Coast. It is bordered to the west by Dorset
and Wiltshire, to the north by Berkshire and to the east
by Surrey and West Sussex. Most of Hampshire's southern
coastline is on the Solent, the strait separating mainland
Britain from the Isle of Wight.
Most of the county is within 1-2 hours' reach of London
by main-line railway and motorway links. With a population
of 1,240,032 (2001 census) and covering an area of
367,860 hectares (excluding Southampton and Portsmouth),
Hampshire is one of the largest non-metropolitan or
"shire" counties in England. Hampshire is one of
the traditional counties of England, with a recorded
history dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, over 1,000
years. "Hampshire" is often abbreviated in
written form to "Hants" and which sometimes
gives rise to puzzlement. The abbreviated form is derived
from the Old English Hantum plus Scir
(meaning a district governed from the settlement now known
as Southampton) and the Anglo-Saxons called it Hamtunschire.
At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) this was
compressed to Hantescire.
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