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
New Forest: pannage season is for the pigs!
Here piggy, piggy! Pannage season is here! (14 September 2015). Just as the first sight of a swallow in the spring signals the start of summer, so too the sight of pigs loose in the New Forest heralds the beginning … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, Pannage season
Tagged acorns, autumn, Beech, cattle, colic, Common of Mast, Forestry Commission, New forest, oaks, Pannage, pannage season, piglets, pigs, poisonous, ponies, seed harvest, toxic, Verderers
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New Forest: autumn is here and the drifts are underway
Autumn has arrived. The heathland, woods and lawns wear a pale blanket of mist in the early mornings and the heathland is mantled in purple heather. The blackberries shine like jewels in the hedgerows and great quantities of sloes decorate … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest customs, New Forest pony, New Forest Pony Drift
Tagged Agister, Commoner, drift, galloping, New Forest pony, pound, round-up, traditional, Verderers of the New Forest, working forest
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The Spanish Armada and the equine invasion
In August 1588 Queen Elizabeth I delivered one of the most famous speeches of her reign in which she is said to have declared; ‘I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest pony
Tagged Asturcón, Calais, galleons, Gravelines, horses, invasion, Medina Sedonia, mules, New forest, North Sea, pony, Pottok, Queen Elizabeth I, Spanish Armada
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Facial expressions clue to horse talk
Researchers have recently (August, 2015) confirmed what many horse owners intuitively knew, that horses display complex emotions in their facial expressions. However, using a system known as EquiFACS (Equine Facial Action Coding Systems) the research team were able to use scientific methods … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest Commoner, New Forest pony
Tagged action units, body language, body talk, communication, domestic, emotion, EquiFACS, Equine Facial Action Coding Systems, facial expressions, feelings, horse, horse talk, New forest, pony, pony etiquette, predator, prey, social, wild
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Rufus the Red/King William II – death in the New Forest
On the 2nd August 1100 occurred an incident in the New Forest so controversial that nearly a thousand years later historians are still arguing about the conclusion – was it an accident or was it murder? The incident of course … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged 1100, 2 August, Abbott Serlo, Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Coronation Charter, coronation edict, Duke of Bernay, Henry I, hunting accident, King William II, Magna Carta, murder, New forest, Orderic Vitalis, Purkis, regicide, Rufus the Red, Walter Tirel, Walter Tyrrel, William of Malmesbury, William Rufus, William the Conqueror, Winchester Conqueror
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New Forest: that’s what pony friends are for!
If you have been out on the New Forest recently (July 2015) you may have noticed that the free-roaming ponies seem to be doing a lot of ‘mutual grooming’. Two ponies will stand next to one another and scratch or … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest pony
Tagged allogrooming, foals, friendship, herds, horses, instinct, mares, mutual grooming, New forest, ponies, social bond
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New Forest: encroachers and embezzlers
Visitors to the New Forest are often delighted with the Olde English charm of its cottages, farms and former labourers dwellings. With an abundance of thatched roofs and cottage garden planting schemes, the quaint and pretty villages are the semblance … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged Commissioners, embezzlers, Embezzling, encroachers, Forestry Commission, hovel, New forest, New Forest Act 1877, Office of Woods, Rural Rides, smuggler, squatter, thieves, vagrant, Verderer, William Cobbett, Woodgreen
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New Forest: hand fasting in a woodland glade
Recently I was invited to a hand fasting wedding ceremony that took place within a leafy glade in the New Forest*. The weather was perfect, as dappled sunlight showered through the canopy of beech, ash and oak trees. A gentle … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged Anglo Saxon, betrothal, Braveheart, bride, Celtic, ceremony, groom, hand fasting, Hollywood, Mel Gibson, Middle Ages, New forest, Oberon, Old Norse, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, Romantic Period, sylvan, tyng the knot, wedding, William Wallace
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New Forest: the celebrity snake catcher
July 1st marks the anniversary of the death of one of the New Forest’s most famous residents. Born in March 1840, in Emery Down, Lyndhurst, he was named Henry but in later life became more popularly known as Harry ‘Brusher’ … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged adder, Balmer Lawn, Brockenhurst, charcoal burner, Country Life, Emery Down, Harry Brusher Mills, London Zoo, New forest, Railway Inn, snake, Snakecatcher, Vipera berus berus
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New Forest: foals and fawns
Regular visitors to the New Forest will, hopefully, by now have had a chance to see some of the pony and donkey foals that are currently to be found roaming on the Open Forest. They are charming little additions to … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged baby deer, cattle, commonable animals, commoners, deer, donkeys, fallow deer, fawn, foal, Forestry Commission, muntjac deer, New forest, pigs, ponies, red deer, roe deer, royal hunting, sheep, sika deer, Verderers, wildlife
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