County in England

Hampshire

Hampshire is home to Nelson's flagship, Jane Austen's novels, the Spitfire and a county nickname that honours the pig: the Hampshire Hog.

Key information

County: Hampshire
Nation: England
Population: about 1.4 million (2021 Census, county excluding Portsmouth and Southampton)
Known for: HMS Victory, the New Forest, Winchester Cathedral, Jane Austen, the Spitfire
What locals are called: Hampshire folk; historically 'Hampshire Hogs'
Famous people: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale, Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Football clubs: Southampton, Portsmouth, Aldershot Town, Eastleigh

About Hampshire

Why Hampshire folk are called 'hogs'

Hampshire's best-known nickname is the Hampshire Hog, and it isn't an insult. The county has long been associated with pigs, and with good reason: the New Forest and other woodlands were for centuries used for 'pannage', when pigs were turned out in autumn to feast on fallen acorns and beechmast. The tradition survives in the New Forest, where pannage still runs every autumn and pigs snuffle about under the oaks. Hampshire bacon and Hampshire pork have a reputation to match, and the county even gave its name to a breed, the Hampshire pig. The hog lives on in the name of the Hampshire Hogs Cricket Club, so the animal is a source of local pride rather than teasing.

The forest that William the Conqueror claimed

The New Forest is not particularly new. William the Conqueror declared it a royal hunting ground around 1079, and the name stuck. Today it is a national park where ponies, cattle, donkeys and pigs roam freely, and drivers learn quickly to stop for them. The right to graze animals here belongs to local commoners, a system that has survived for centuries. Each year the ponies are rounded up in 'drifts' and checked by their owners, a tradition that still shapes the forest's look. The forest also holds one of Hampshire's grimmest royal stories: William II, known as William Rufus, died here in 1100, killed by an arrow while hunting. The Rufus Stone near Minstead marks the spot traditionally linked to his death.

England's first capital, more or less

Winchester was the capital of Alfred the Great's kingdom of Wessex and, for a time, the centre of Anglo-Saxon England. Alfred's statue still stands in the city, and his burial place was one of the great royal sites of the early medieval kingdom. Winchester Cathedral has one of the longest medieval naves in Europe. Jane Austen is buried inside it, having died in the city in 1817. The cathedral also holds the tomb of Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler, and the Winchester Bible, a magnificent twelfth-century manuscript. Just outside the cathedral stands Winchester College, founded in 1382 and still going. Its motto, 'Manners makyth man', is one of the best-known in English education. In the Great Hall of Winchester Castle hangs a huge round table painted with King Arthur and his knights. It is much younger than the legend, dating from the medieval period and repainted for Henry VIII.

The county that built the navy's reputation

Portsmouth is home to the Royal Navy's most famous ship, HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar in 1805. Built at Chatham Dockyard in Kent and launched in 1765, she is still in commission and sits in the Historic Dockyard alongside the Tudor warship Mary Rose, raised from the Solent in 1982 after sinking in 1545. Millions watched the lift live on television. Portsmouth is also where Charles Dickens was born, in 1812, and the city has one of the most densely populated islands in Britain, Portsea Island. Southampton, meanwhile, was where the Mayflower set out from in 1620, sailing with the Speedwell. Leaks aboard the Speedwell forced both ships into Dartmouth, and further leaks led to another stop at Plymouth, from which the Mayflower finally sailed alone for America. Southampton was also where the Titanic sailed from on 10 April 1912. Many of her crew came from the city, which felt the loss deeply. The Solent and Southampton Water have made Hampshire one of Britain's great sailing waters, and the Isle of Wight lies just across the water.

Spitfires, novels and first flights

The Spitfire was designed by R. J. Mitchell and built at Supermarine in Woolston, Southampton. The famous fighter first flew in 1936 from Eastleigh airfield, and the plane became an emblem of the Battle of Britain. Aldershot, the 'Home of the British Army', has been a military town since the 1850s. It is also where the first British powered flight took place in 1908, when Samuel Cody flew a machine at nearby Farnborough. Farnborough International Airshow, held every two years, still carries on that tradition. Hampshire's literary credentials are formidable. Jane Austen was born in Steventon and spent her last productive years at Chawton, where her house is now a museum. Florence Nightingale was raised at Embley Park near Romsey, and Arthur Conan Doyle practised as a doctor in Southsea, where he wrote the first Sherlock Holmes story. The county's chalk streams, including the Test and the Itchen, are among the finest trout rivers in the world. Fly-fishing here has been refined into an art form.

Watercress, ale and sporting firsts

The Hampshire town of Alresford is the centre of English watercress growing, and the Watercress Line, a heritage railway, once carried the crop to London. Today steam trains run along the route between Alresford and Alton. Hampshire also has a place in sporting history. Hambledon in the eighteenth century is often called the cradle of cricket, thanks to the Hambledon Club, which set early standards for the game. The Rose Bowl, now home to Hampshire Cricket, is one of the county's modern grounds. On the football pitch, the rivalry between Southampton and Portsmouth is among the fiercest on the south coast, and the two clubs have been meeting for well over a century in what locals call the South Coast Derby.

Jane Austen

Published 02 October 2026

Jane Austen never put her name on a novel in her lifetime, wrote at a tiny table in a busy sitting room, and now stares out from the £10 note.

People

Florence Nightingale