The Gallery
Learning about and practising commoning on the New Forest.
In medieval times a forest meant an area preserved for royal hunting, and not a wooded area as it does today.
The Agisiter ensures welfare standards of the free-roaming animals are maintained.
The ‘architects’ of the New Forest.
The New Forest landscape supports many species of plants, insects, birds and mammals. It should be valued as a reserve for nature.
One of many gatherings where Commoners can exchange news, information and knowledge.
Pannage season is part of the ancient commoning rights and a popular tradition.
Traditional management practices, particularly commoning, have conserved the ecological diversity of the Forest.
Category Archives: New Forest
Why did the New Forest pony cross the road?
When travelling across the New Forest have you ever wondered why the free-roaming ponies will cross the road in front of you, even if they have seen you coming? Their hearing is excellent and they have good all-round binocular vision, … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest pony
Tagged brain size, cross, equine, foal, free-roaming, Hampshire, horse, instinct, learning, logic, memory, New forest, pony, predator, prey, road, Wild horses, wolf, wolves
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New Forest: mucky talk!
Being a commoner enables me to practice a method of farming that pre-dates recorded history. The ancient commoner would have orally passed on his or her learning and wisdom to the next generation. This ensured that the chain of folk-knowledge, … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest pony
Tagged Agister, droppings, dung, dung beetle, dung fly, excrement, ivermectin, mucky talk, Nail Fungus, New forest, parasites, pony, toilet, wild horse, wild pony, wildlife, wormer, worming
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New Forest: the truth about the ‘wild’ ponies.
Without doubt one of the best things about visiting the New Forest is seeing the ponies that inhabit the heathland, woods and lawns wandering freely about. Although the New Forest ponies are often referred to as ‘wild’ this is not, … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest Commoner, New Forest pony
Tagged Common Rights, Commoner, domestic, horse owner, horse rustler, horse thief, New Forest pony, owned, semi-feral, thieves, truth, wild pony
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New Forest: tales of the unexpected
As most people know, All Hallows’ Eve or Halloween celebrations have their origins in a festival for the dead that involved rituals to remember and pay respects to dearly departed loved ones, saints or martyrs. These rituals included observances such … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged All Hallows, Beaulieu Abbey, free traders, ghost, graves, Halloween, highwayman, Holmesley Enclosure, New forest, occult, smuggler, spectre, supernatural, tales of the unexpected, undead, zombies
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New Forest: racing the cows
Being a commoner is never dull. My commoning friends not only share their adventures with me but also, on occasion, provide me with opportunities to have a few of my own! I was visiting a friend and fellow commoner recently … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest cattle, New Forest Commoner
Tagged Commoner, cows, galloping, New forest, ponies, racing
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New Forest: the model township of 1709
In the summer of 1709 boats packed with refugees began to arrive in England. These ‘Poor Palatines’, as they became known, were the first of over 10,000 Germans to arrive between May and November of that year. Displaced by war, … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged 1709, Attorney, Black Death, colony, Court of Claims, cultivation, Daniel Defoe, Foreign and Protestants Naturalization Act 1708, German, Government, Great Plague, husbandry, immigrant crisis, Lyndhurst, model township, naturalisation, New forest, Poor Palatines, protestant, Rhine, shilling, Solicitor General, township, xenophobia
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The blind man who saved the New Forest.
In the market square of Salisbury stands the statue of Henry Fawcett. Ask most people passing by who he was or what he did to be memorialised in this way and they probably wouldn’t be able to tell you. But … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged 1871 Act, 1877 Act, blind, commoners, Commons Preservation Society, dissaforestation, Forestry Commission, Hansard, Henry Fawcett, John Stuart Mill, New forest, Octavia Hill, Office of Woods, Open Spaces Society, Parliament, post office, public park, Salisbury, Victorian, Welfare State, William Wordsworth
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New Forest: winter is coming
The warm weather of late (September 2015) has been a welcome accompaniment as I perform the last of the autumn harvesting. Most of the vegetables from the raised beds have been picked and preserved ready for use over the winter. The … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest pony, New Forest Pony Drift
Tagged blackberries, bylaws, cobnut, commoning, drift, elderberries, glut, good condition, harvest, largesse, Lucifer, New forest, Old Michaelmas, rosehips, round-up, sloes, squirrels, sweet chestnut, winter
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New Forest: colt pixeys, elf shot and hag stones.
I recently visited the house of a fellow commoner and noticed that outside the front door dangling from a cord was a collection of flint stones. Each stone had a hole in it through which the cord was threaded. Upon … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest customs
Tagged Anglo Saxon, Bald's Leech Book, colt pixey, elf shot, elves, Fairies, fairy, hag stone, holey stone, Laurence, Mary Dore, New forest, ponies, Puck, sprites, witchcraft, witches
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New Forest: poachers, smugglers and amorous donkeys!
During a trip to the New Forest recently I happened to pass through a village where a cricket match was taking place. All the players were dressed in white and the pitch was a manicured village green that was surrounded … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest pony
Tagged Agister, amorous, bandits, Boldre, burglars, cattle, civilised, courtship, cricket, donkeys, East Boldre, immoral, J W Gunning, jack, jenny, John R Wise, lawlessness, New forest, pony, smugglers, stallion, thieves, vagabonds, Verderers, vicar, William Gilpin
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