The South Hampshire Lowlands form a natural landscape in south, central England within the county of Hampshire.
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England. The county town, with city status, is Winchester, a frequent seat of the Royal Court before any fixed capital, in late Anglo-Saxon England. After the metropolitan counties and Greater London, Hampshire is the most populous ceremonial county 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.
The UK Government's advisors on the natural environment, Natural England, have named the South Hampshire Lowlands as one of their National Character Areas (No. 125). This covers 38,635 hectares of countryside running from Totton and Southampton in the west to Havant in the east. It excludes the coastal strip containing Fareham and Portsmouth, however. [1]
Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved. It also has a responsibility to help people enjoy, understand and access the natural environment.
Southampton is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England. It is 69 miles (111 km) south-west of London and 15 miles (24 km) west north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest. It lies at the northernmost point of Southampton Water at the confluence of the Rivers Test and Itchen, with the River Hamble joining to the south of the urban area. The city, which is a unitary authority, has an estimated population of 253,651. The city's name is sometimes abbreviated in writing to "So'ton" or "Soton", and a resident of Southampton is called a Sotonian.
Havant is a town in the south east corner of Hampshire, England approximately midway between Portsmouth and Chichester. Its borough comprises the town and its suburbs including the resort of Hayling Island as well as Rowland's Castle, the smaller town of Waterlooville and Langstone Harbour. Housing and population more than doubled under either definition of Havant in the 20 years following World War II, a period of major conversion of land from agriculture and woodland to housing across the region following the incendiary bombing of Portsmouth and the Blitz.
The area consists of low-lying land between the chalk outcrops of the South Downs and Hampshire Downs and the coast of the Solent and English Channel. To the west The highest point within the South Hampshire Lowlands is Portsdown Hill at 123 metres (404 ft) above sea level. [1]
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about 260 square miles (670 km2) across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. The Downs are bounded on the northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose crest there are extensive views northwards across the Weald. The South Downs National Park forms a much larger area than the chalk range of the South Downs and includes large parts of the Weald.
The Hampshire Downs form a large area of downland in central, southern England, mainly in the county of Hampshire. They are part of a belt of chalk downland that extends from the South Downs in the southeast, north to the Berkshire and Marlborough Downs, and west to the Dorset Downs.
The South Coast Plain is a natural region in England running along the central south coast in the counties of East and West Sussex and Hampshire.
The major settlements of the South Hampshire Lowlands are Romsey, Eastleigh, Bishops Waltham, Havant and, of course, the city of Southampton itself. [1]
Romsey is a market town in the county of Hampshire, England.
Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester in South Hampshire. It was originally developed as a railway town by the London and South-Western Railway.
