Hampshire Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated Hants) is a county on the southern coast of England. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, the former capital of England. After the metropolitan counties and Greater London, Hampshire is the most populous ceremonial county (1.84 million in 2017) in the United Kingdom. Its two largest settlements, Southampton and Portsmouth, are administered separately as unitary authorities and the rest of the area forms the administrative county, which is governed by Hampshire County Council. First settled about 14,000 years ago, Hampshire's recorded history dates back to Roman times, when its capital was Winchester. When the
Fleet, Hampshire Fleet, Hampshire Fleet is a town and civil parish in the Hart district of Hampshire, England, located 36 miles (58 km) southwest of London and 10 miles (16 km) east of Basingstoke. It is part of and is the major town of Hart District, which is one of the richest and least deprived areas in England. The 2011 population (ONS census) for Fleet was 38,726. In 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and again in 2017 Hart, of which Fleet is the main town, was voted the best place to live in the UK by the Halifax Quality of Life study,