Hampshire Postcodes — England (ENG)

Hampshire

Located in Southeastern England, Hampshire borders the English Channel. Even though Southampton is the namesake of the county, Winchester is the county seat. Southampton and Portsmouth, the county's two largest cities, are each managed by their own independent unitary authority, while the remaining areas are overseen by the Hampshire County Council and non-metropolitan district councils.

As a region, Hampshire has a recorded history dating back to Roman Britain, when its principal town, Winchester (then known as Venta Belgarum), was founded. This city was populated around 14,000 years ago. Domesday Book, compiled in the 11th century, listed the county, which was then organized into 44 hundreds. Trade with the continent, the production of wool and cloth, fishing, and large shipbuilding industries all contributed to the ports' rise to prominence beginning in the 12th century. Southampton's population surpassed Winchester's by the 16th century. Population had doubled to 219,210 by the middle of the 19th century, with over 86,000 homes occupied by its residents. Ten percent of the county was still forested, and agriculture was the main source of income. During both wars, Hampshire served as an important military hub. The Local Government Act of 1972 established the current boundaries of the ceremonial county (enacted 1974). While Bournemouth and Christchurch were administered as part of the ceremonial county of Dorset, the towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch were historically part of the county of Hampshire.

The county has a wide range of terrain, including south-flowing rivers and upland that reaches a height of 286 meters (938 feet). Fourty-five percent of Hampshire is made up of natural features like downland and marsh, as well as two national parks (the New Forest and a portion of the South Downs).

Hampshire has an unemployment rate that is significantly lower than the national average, making it a wealthy county. Major corporations, the sea, farming, and tourism are the mainstays of its economy. Seaside hotels, national parks, the National Motor Museum, and the Southampton Boat Show are all popular destinations for vacationers. It was here that authors Charles Dickens and Jane Austen grew up and wrote some of their most famous works. Both Florence Nightingale and Isambard Kingdom Brunel had their beginnings in Hampshire.

Geography

The counties of Dorset and Wiltshire to the north-west, Berkshire to the north, Surrey to the north-east, and West Sussex to the east surround Hampshire. The coastline of the English Channel and the Solent, opposite the Isle of Wight, forms the southern boundary. Despite losing more area than any other English county in all recent boundary revisions, it is still the third largest shire county in the United Kingdom and the largest in the South East of the country. Hampshire was the fifth-largest county in England at its peak size in 1890. Its current dimensions are around 86 kilometers (53 miles) in length east-west and 76 kilometers (47 miles) in width north-south, for a total area of about 3,700 kilometers squared (1,400 square miles).

There are two main types of geology in Hampshire. The southern coast is known as the "Hampshire Basin," and it is comprised of erodible clays and gravels from the Eocene and Oligocene epochs that are shielded from the sea by the barrier islands of Purbeck, Dorset, and the Isle of Wight. Several thousand square miles of the New Forest are located on these low, flat areas, which are home to heathland and woodland habitats. The New Forest is home to a wide variety of plants and animals due to its patchwork of heathland, grassland, coniferous, and deciduous woods. To preserve the natural environment and its inhabitants, the forest has been designated a national park, which prohibits or severely restricts most forms of development and agricultural activity inside its boundaries. Grazing animals, including domesticated cattle, pigs, and horses, as well as numerous kinds of wild deer, keep large swaths of the New Forest in a grassland plagioclimax state. The 16 km (9.9 mi) long Southampton Water and the massive, winding Portsmouth Harbour are just two of the many estuaries and rias formed out by erosion of the weak rock and sea level change flooding the low land. The Isle of Wight is located in the Solent, which was formed when erosion wore away the weaker rock along the Hampshire coast, leaving behind the island.

According to a study conducted in 2014, Hampshire and its surrounding counties have shale oil reserves totaling 4.4 billion barrels of oil. At the time, Business and Energy Minister Michael Fallon said that these reserves "will bring jobs and business opportunities" and would go a long way toward ensuring the United Kingdom's energy independence. These goals necessitate fracking in the region, which is controversial because it has been opposed by environmentalists.

Economy

Excluding Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire has a GDP of £29 billion, making it one of the most prosperous counties in the UK. A GDP per capita of £22,100 in 2018 places Hampshire on par with the rest of the United Kingdom.

The county's biggest concentration of jobs is in Portsmouth and Winchester, with 38% of Portsmouth's workforce making the trip into the city for work in 2011. High levels of traffic both into and out of Southampton are a result of its large employment base. As of February 2018, the county's unemployment rate was 1.3%, compared to the national average of 2.1%. Three-quarters of them work for major corporations. High tech employment in Hampshire is significantly greater than the national norm, whereas knowledge-based industrial employment is almost at the national rate. Around a quarter of the workforce is comprised of people employed by the government. Approximately 9 percent, or 60,000, of the county's workforce is directly or indirectly related to the tourism industry.

IBM, one of the leading firms in the high tech sector, maintains its UK headquarters in Cosham and its research & development centers in nearby Hursley.

Although agriculture was once a major job and generator of income in Hampshire's rural areas, it has lost much of its luster since the first half of the twentieth century and now only employs 1.32 percent of the rural population.

The primary commodities of the extractive industry are sand, gravel, clay, and hydrocarbons. Aside from the three operational oilfields, one of Hampshire's natural gas storage facilities also stores natural gas. These can be found in the Wessex Basin to the west of the county. However, the eastern Weald Basin, which contains shale oil reserves but is not being actively mined at the moment, is a missed opportunity.

Since much of the New Forest is protected as a national park, tourism has been an important source of revenue for the region, which saw 7.4 million tourists in 1992 alone. In addition to its proximity to London, the South Downs and the cities of Portsmouth, Southampton, and Winchester also draw visitors to the county. As one of the largest annual events in the county, the Southampton Boat Show draws crowds from all over the country. There were 31 million day trips to the county in 2003, with another 4.2 million overnight stays.

Each city's port is important, although Portsmouth Harbour is home to one of the Royal Navy's principal bases and a terminal for cross-channel ferries to France and Spain, while Southampton Docks handles a big amount of the national container freight business and serves as a major base for cruise liners. While the docks have long been a major source of employment in these cities, the rise of automation in the cargo handling industry has reduced the demand for human labor.