h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Home to the beautiful city of Winchester, the New Forest and long-time home of classic novelist Jane Austen, Hampshire has a lot to offer. Who can write an entry about this lovely county for us?

Paully

I can provide information on naval history, living in a Navy town

On and if we're going to be pedantic, the Isle of Wight is not a seperate county it's part of Hampshire.

Yeah, there are a few instances of places around the UK that are supposed to be part of one county, but which probably deserve a listing of their own - for example, Rutland is sometimes a county on its own, sometimes it isn't!

P

Do we have any researchers on the IOW or am I the nearest? I can see Ryde from my window at work

Well we've got absolutely LOADS of entries about the IOW already in the guide, so I'm fairly sure we must have had at least one IOW-based researcher around in the past...!

P

Well you can have this link to my home town http://www.mygosport.org/ and you can have this too A3865890

I can certainly help anyone who feels up to writing any entries for this area. I've lived in Hampshire for most of my life. However I just don't have time or energy to give my whole to writing an entry right now. Around Christmas however I might get my together enough to certainly do an entry on Hillhead, maybe one on Lee-On-The-Solent, then perhaps start thinking about Fareham, Reef knows Gosport stuff, oh Pinwheel Pearl lives in Fareham, and then there's that massive monster, The New Forest

So yeah basically if anyone starts writing any Hampshire entries then I will be VERY happy to help in any way I can

Kat

Well 3 of us can cover 10 square miles, I wonder if anyone can do the rest

I can do a short piece on Haslar (Not just the spookier parts)

Hmm I should give Excelsior a poke, he could cover Romsey and that area

Okay okay...well we can club together to do Portsmouth and Southampton probably. And...sigh I always like to pretend that the whole of Hampshire just revolves around us and the New Forest

I think the idea is that you post your bit on this thread and it gets collated into a grande entry

Absolutely - although we'd be utterly delighted to receive entries about specific towns and areas, the entries that we're hoping to get from this project are one single project about each of the UK's counties and regions. We're not really expecting a huge ream of ideas and information either - rather a fairly top-level overview of the country, key towns and moments in history, main industries, that kind of thing. If, after these have been done, it points out areas that REALLY need an entry of their own, then that's brilliant too!

Paully

Right, I'll do everything you need to know about Gosport and wish you didn't

1) did you know that when Queen Victoria's body was moved from Osbourne House to London, the boat docked at Clarance Dockyard, her coffin was put on the royal train and the route was lined by the local children, there was a re-creation in 2001 which included my daughter.

I promise I won't mention the Ghost's of Haslar

I hate Hallowe'en

My post from http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F150575?thread=1159613&latest=1 moved here, as suggested... I'm from Hampshire originally, and I still call it 'home' - even though I live in Cardiff (which county that's in has changed from Glamorgan to South-Glamorgan to just CARDIFF-CARDIFF {so good they named it twice? -er?) Anyway. Hampshire is one of those old counties that hasn't been messed with too much over the years - it lost Christchurch in the 1972 reshuffle (it's now in Dorset) and the Isle of Wight (which is now, and should be a county in it's own right.) The main cities are Southampton, Portsmouth and Winchester (which was the capital of England, or at least Wessex a thousand years ago.) Also, The so called "New Forest" is in Hampshire - it's actually getting on for a thousand years old too - maybe older. The main rivers? The River Test, Itchen and Hamble - all of which meet at the Southampton Water and flow into the Solent.

So does anyone else have any thoughts or ideas about what should go into an entry on Hampshire?

Come on, there must be some *fascinating* facts and figures about the county that you're dying to share with the rest of the world!

Paully

well today (probably past now) they're bringing the bow and the Anchor of the Mary Rose to the surface.

Gosport was where they billited Naval officers, the Ratings lived in Portsmouth. Roger Black was born in Alverstoke. The Titanic left Southampton, there's a memorial in the Post office to 2 telegraph engineers who stayed at their post until the end. The Falkland Veterans HQ is in Gosport and the Vets have the Freedom of the Borough. Portsmouth and Gosport have waved goodbye to at least 3 Naval 'Taskforces' in the last 100 years. Gosport was the home of the Submarine Fleet until they moved to Scotland. The Gosport and Isle of Wight ferries were commendeered to aid the evacuation from Dunkirk. The oldest Hospital in Hampshire is RH Haslar it's 252 years old (Rumours say that experiments were carried out on Turkish Prisoners and their remains are kept in the cellars)

Will that keep you going for a while, I'll ask my Mum to help she's got a load of Hampshire history

I've got some pics of the Trafalgar 200 celebrations

Oh and Browndown camp is where they film Bad Lads Army and yes it REALLY does look like that

That's all top-notch stuff, Reefgirl!

Paully

Glad I could be of help