New Forest History

New Forest History need never be dull!

When considering the History of the New Forest, there's always something of interest or intrigue to see, to puzzle over, investigate, and try to understand.

Whether walking, cycling or simply sitting below the spreading branches of aged oak or beech, pause to ponder what has gone before. For with increasing knowledge, will come deeper appreciation of this magnificent old hunting ground.
 
Look out across the heath and observe the upturned pudding-basin Barrows marked on modern maps as Tumulus or Tumuli for below, Bronze Age warriors or their ashes were placed, waiting to be called from rest.

Climb up Castle Hill, near Burley, just as did the Iron Age people, toiling to reach their fort high on the summit. Tread tracks little changed since the 11th century when William the Conqueror fresh from Normandy hunted in his very own New Forest.

Visit the Rufus Stone, the very spot where the Conqueror’s second son, William Rufus, was slain on a fateful day in 1100 AD by an arrow from the bow of Walter Tyrrell. Killed by accident or on purpose? Nobody knows for sure.

Watch large dogs running free, fortunate to live today rather than in times past when beasts big enough to threaten the King’s deer were cruelly maimed.

	New Forest History: Burley Old Inclosure

Notice, too, the old, broad-leaved woodland inclosures whose aged oaks were originally planted to supply Navy timber, some for use in the construction of ships that might do battle at Trafalgar.

See the ancient wood-bank now eroded and encrusted with a carpet of moss, and the overgrown, straggling hazel coppice within. Consider that the bank may have been constructed in medieval times to prevent access by commoners’ stock, and deer.

Imagine past generations of local people out in the wilder landscapes, gathering firewood from the open, pasture woods, or in the bogs, cutting peat similarly to fuel the fire.

Watch autumnal pigs snuffling amongst the leaves, fattening on acorns and beech mast, just as they have done since time immemorial, and pass beside logs of broad-leaved trees stacked neatly by the ride-side, awaiting collection by New Forest commoners’ who still enjoy the centuries-old common right of Fuelwood.

See the gorse in spring ablaze with colour, and reflect that lowland heathland such as this, now so scarce in Britain, was once the common ‘waste’, attached to almost every village in the land.

	New Forest History: military officers at breakfast in the New Forest

Think again of Britain’s military past, and ponder the use of the New Forest’s open spaces for military manoeuvres when thousands of men came here to prepare for Boer and First World Wars.

Consider, too, the New Forest’s role in World War Two, the build-up of troops deep in the woods, the airfields, experimental munitions station and bombing range, the field hospitals and planning centres.

But most of all, imagine the processions of characters across this landscape. Enjoy their past presence, and appreciate the New Forest for what it is: a magnificent, historically rich area of international importance to which all are privileged to have access.