Rhubarb Cottage, The Custards, Lyndhurst, Hampshire

The New Forest

The New Forest is Britain's newest national park in Hampshire, in the south of England, UK. It is over 900 years old, having been created in 1079 by William I (William the Conqueror) as an area in which to hunt deer.

The Forest is some 93,000 acres (145 square miles) in area and is the largest unenclosed area in Southern England. The New Forest consists of a mixture of native deciduous and coniferous woodland, heaths, bogs, streams and estuaries. Ponies, cattle and pigs are allowed to roam freely, but are privately owned.

Images of The New Forest, courtesy

of Graham Cooper

The New Forest History
(by kind permirssion of New Forest Tourism Guide)

Until the Bronze Age the New Forest was covered in trees. This was the time of change when clearings were formed for pasture and cereals. With the deterioration of the soil the land was only fit for coarse grasses, bracken and heather so man introduced domestic animals.
The Romans added a couple of forts, a pottery industry and one or two straight roads.

The New Forest was born in about 1079 A.D. When William I created it as a royal hunting preserve. The Assize of Woodstock (1184) set out penalties for interfering with royal sport, poaching could mean death. These penalties were in force until 1217 when the Charter of the Forest replaced them with fines, bringing revenue to the Forest. Royal hunting in the New Forest lasted until the late 17th Century.
The 15th Century brought the conservation of larger trees for Crown timber with more areas being enclosed to stop the animals harming the trees. The first act was in 1483 with many more to follow.

The port of Bucklers Hard was built on Beaulieu river by John, 2nd Duke of Montagu, to land his sugar from the West Indies. 50 ships were built there from New Forest oak for Nelson's navy, including Agamemnon in 1781.
The rising food prices of the early 19th Century saw the onset of smuggling and highway robberies. The numerous natural creeks and inlets around the coastline made life easy for the smugglers to get their contraband into the secrecy of the Forest. The most popular routes were along the glen at Chewton Bunny, near New Milton, and up the Beaulieu river. However, if caught both smugglers and highwaymen would be hanged from the Naked Man, an oak tree , part of which still stands today at Markway on the A35.
In 1847, the railway link from Southampton to Dorchester brought the first visitors to the New Forest. It also brought Queen Victoria's army to the area, needing more room for manoeuvres.

W.W.I. brought the harvest of many of the New Forest trees for much needed timber and areas were used for food production. At Beaulieu Heath, the New Forest Flying School was taken over by the military. Calshot was one of the coastal stations which helped to defend the Channel. Many pilots learned to fly at Calshot with an excellent war record.

In 1920, RAF Calshot became a training unit for flying boats and, in 1929, Britain won the Schneider Cup with one million people watching from the Solent coastline.
W.W.II. brought the building of airfields in the New Forest such as Stoney Cross, Fritham, Beaulieu Heath and Holmsley. Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery took over the Balmer Lawn hotel as their operations headquarters for the invasion of Europe in 1944. Anti-aircraft emplacements were dug and Hurst Castle was a good observation post for any invasion from across the Channel. Once again, the Forest provided thousands of tons of timber for the war effort and crops were grown to help with food production.

After the war, the increase of motor cars meant that there were more road accidents involving Forest ponies and cattle so the main Bournemouth road was fenced off. More traffic meant more visitors and more visitors meant more damage to the vegetation. To lessen this damage, car parks and picnic areas were set up and designated camping sites were formed. The New Forest today is comprised of 1/3 timber enclosures and 2/3 heathland.

As more people moved into the New Forest area to live the towns and villages grew, providing more amenities for the growing number of visitors. By the end of the 20th Century, the New Forest saw more than 10 million visitors each year.

The true origins of the New Forest ponies are a mystery but legends say that they swam ashore from a wrecked Spanish galleon.