Fareham
Lying ten miles across the harbour from Portsmouth, the town and borough of Fareham is home to the Royal Armouries Museum, based in the imposing Fort Nelson which was built in the mid-nineteenth century to protect Portsmouth Dockyards from a perceived French threat. Other attractions in the area include the impressive Titchfield Abbey in which some of Shakespeare’s plays were reputedly first performed, and Westbury Manor Museum, a converted seventeenth century farmhouse which now focuses on local history. The nearby Forest of Bere provides a rural counterpoint to the townscape, though little of the original forest remains.