For local government purposes Hampshire comprises a non-metropolitan county, with eleven districts, and two unitary authority areas: Portsmouth and Southampton.

The county's major rivers rise in these hills; the Loddon and Wey drain north, into the Thames, and the Itchen and Test flow south into Southampton Water, a large estuary.

Settled about 14,000 years ago, Hampshire's recorded history dates to Roman Britain, when its chief town was Venta Belgarum (now Winchester).

From the 12th century, the ports settlements grew due to increasing trade with the European mainland resulting from the wool and cloth, fishing, and shipbuilding industries.

[11] At that time sea levels were lower and Britain was still attached by a land bridge to the European continent and predominantly covered with deciduous woodland.

By that period the people of Britain predominantly spoke a Celtic language, and their culture shared much in common with the Celts described by classical writers.

During the later part of the Roman period most towns built defensive walls; a pottery industry based in the New Forest exported items widely across southern Britain.

Artefacts of a Germanic style have been found in burials, while there is also evidence of the presence of early Saxon settlement in southern England and the northern coasts of Gaul around Boulogne-sur-Mer and Bayeux.

[27][28][29] Two major Roman roads, Ermin Way and Port Way, cross the north of the county connecting Calleva Atrebatum with Corinium Dobunnorum, modern Cirencester, and Old Sarum respectively.

[30] Records are sparse for the next 300 years, but later chroniclers speak of an influx of Jutes[31] – an amalgam of Cimbri, Teutons, Gutones and Charudes called Eudoses,[32] Eotenas,[33] Iutae[34] or Euthiones[35] in other sources - and recorded by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People in the early eighth century: Those who came over were of the three most powerful nations of Germany—Saxons, Angles, and Jutes.

Various place-names identify locations as Jutish, including Bishopstoke (Ytingstoc), the River Itchen (Ytene) and the Meon Valley (Ytedene).

[b] Around this period, the administrative region of "Hampshire" seems to appear - the name is attested as Hamwic and "Hamtunscir" in 755 AD[42] - and suggests that control over the Solent was the motivating factor for establishment of the settlement.

Over several centuries, a series of castles and forts was constructed along the coast of the Solent to defend the harbours at Southampton and Portsmouth.

Southampton and Portsmouth remained important harbours when rivals, such as Poole and Bristol, declined, as they are amongst the few locations that combine shelter with deep water.

Other clashes included the Battle of Alton in 1643, where the commander of the Royalist forces was killed in the pulpit of the parish church,[48] and the Siege of Portsmouth in 1642.

In 1868, the number of people employed in manufacture exceeded those in agriculture, engaged in silk, paper, sugar and lace industries, ship building and salt works.

[51] On 16 October 1908, Samuel Franklin Cody made the first powered flight of 400 yd (370 m) in the United Kingdom at Farnborough, then home to the Army Balloon Factory.

Supermarine, the designers of the Spitfire and other military aircraft, were based in Southampton, which led to severe bombing of the city in World War II.

In 2005, a special exhibition was established at the Estate, with a video showing photographs from that era as well as voice recordings of former SOE trainers and agents.

The north and centre are the county's downlands: a gently folded succession of sedimentary rocks dating from the Cretaceous and Palaeogene periods.

Large areas of the New Forest are open common lands kept as a grassland plagioclimax by grazing animals, including domesticated cattle, pigs and horses, and several wild deer species.

[72] An unwelcome relative newcomer is the mink population, descended from animals that escaped or were deliberately released from fur farms since the 1950s, which cause havoc amongst native wildlife.

[75] In a valley on the downs is Selborne; the countryside surrounding the village was the location of Gilbert White's pioneering observations on natural history.

Hampshire lies outside the green belt area of restricted development around London, but has good railway and motorway links to the capital, and in common with the rest of the south-east has seen the growth of dormitory towns since the 1960s.

The county also includes several market towns: Alresford, Alton, Andover, Bishop's Waltham, Lymington, New Milton, Petersfield, Ringwood, Romsey and Whitchurch.

In the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, nearly 55% of Hampshire (including the Isle of Wight) voted in favour of Brexit.

[113] Cross-channel and cross-Solent ferries from Southampton, Portsmouth and Lymington link the county to the Isle of Wight, the Channel Islands and continental Europe.

[129] Hampshire's relatively safe waters have allowed the county to develop as one of the busiest sailing areas in the country, with many yacht clubs and several manufacturers on the Solent.

The Hamble, Beaulieu and Lymington rivers are major centres for both competitive and recreational sailing, along with Hythe and Ocean Village marinas.

[139] Hampshire also has many visual art connections, claiming the painter John Everett Millais as a native, and the cities and countryside have been the subject of paintings by L. S. Lowry and J. M. W. Turner.