Things you didn't know about... Hampshire

The county has only been known as Hampshire since April 1,1959—prior to that it was called Southamptonshire.

Since the 18th century, Hampshire natives have sometimes been known as Hampshire hogs, due to the county's long association with pigs and boars.

The capital of the ancient kingdom of Wessex and England during the 10th and 11th centuries, Winchester is now the county town of Hampshire and the burial place for many Saxon kings.

Hanging in the Great Hall at Hampshire's Winchester Castle is the mysterious Round Table. Its fame hails from the belief that it was King Arthur's Round Table and on it are scribed the names of 24 knights. It is now known that the table actually dates from the 13th century, centuries after Arthur's death, was originally unpainted, and that it was repainted for King Henry VIII in 1522. The table is 5.5m in diameter and weighs 1,200kg.

The Supermarine factory, where Spitfires and other planes were made, was based in Southampton, and proved to be a great draw for the German bombers in World War II. As a result, the city suffered severe bombing.

Jane Austen spent much of her life in Hampshire—her father was rector at Steventon in Hampshire. The house where she lived in Hampshire's Chawton, and where she wrote many of her classics, is now a museum. And Charles Dickens was born in Hampshire, in Landport.

Funny men Peter Sellers and Benny Hill were both born in Hampshire. Benny Hill was born in Southampton and once worked as a milkman in Eastleigh—surely the inspiration for his 1971 Christmas number-one hit single, Ernie (the fastest milkman in the West).

Nicknamed Pompey, which is also the nickname for the city, Portsmouth's football club reached the First Division in the 1927-28 season. They struggled in the highest echelon, and lost 10-0 to Leicester City the following season, but reached the FA Cup final for the first time—only to lose to Bolton Wanderers.

Hampshire is the traditional home of English watercress production—it is grown in green waterbeds fed by the River Itchen around the town of Alresferd. As well as an annual watercress festival, there is a steam train on the local "Watercress Line" that is popular with families and tourists.