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 flora & fauna
Sparrow starvers and the Great Manure Crisis of 1894
I had to drive to west London recently. The journey was without incident until I found myself in a slow procession of cars queuing alongside Gunnersby Park, on the North Circular Road. I was waiting in stationary traffic when my … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged Great Manuare Crisis, Henry Ford, horse-drawn, Karl Benz, licensed cabs, London, manure, motorcar, New forest, nineteeth century, ornithologist, RSPB, sparrow, sparrow starvers, transport, twentieth century
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New Forest: when gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of season
The recent holiday period has given me plenty of opportunity to visit the Forest and walk through the woods and across the heathland. The working week gives me little chance to explore the places my ponies haunt (i,e., their territory), … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged alternative medicine, furze, fuzz-toppers, fyrs, gorse, gorst, homeopathy, medicine, New forest, nutrition, optimism, pagan, symbol of hope, Ulex europaeus
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New Forest: kitchen/office turns into bird-hide
I’ve been spending a lot of time working from home recently. I’ve turned a corner of the kitchen into an impromptu office and the end of the kitchen table has become my desk. This is a perfect spot and, because … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged avian, bird watching, birds, blackbird, blue tit, bullfinch, Buzzard, cavity, chaffinch, coal tit, dove, feeder, garden, goldfinch, great tit, greater spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, greenfinch, jay, long tailed tit, magpie, mistle thrush, nest box, nesting, New forest, nuthatch, owl, peanut, pheasant, pied wagtail, pigeon, robin, siskin, squirrel, starling, sunflower, tawny, trees, wildlife, wren
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New Forest: get the picture?
Autumn in the New Forest is a spectacular time of year. The warm colours of orange, russet, and red that are on display in the canopies of the trees and over the heathland contrast with the wintry temperatures on clear … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged behaviour, bucks, coitus, dama dama, deer, does, Forestry Commission, get the picture, mating, New forest, orange, photographers, red, rewilding, Royal Photographic Society, RSPB, russet, rut, stags, wildlife harassment
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New Forest: trees – our natural and cultural assets
Without a doubt, the free-roaming animals of the New Forest are an asset to the local economy and, as ‘architects of the Forest’, are one of the most important bio-forces that sustain the ecology and environmental constituency of the landscape. … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged A3, ancient, animals, Ash, Beech, cedar, chestnut, common, deer, Elm, Forest, Henry VIII, King, Knightwood Oak, landmark, landscape, legacy, M25, New forest, Oak, Queen, RHS Wisley, Royal Horticultural Society, Sheffield, species, tree
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New Forest: ‘modern Vandalism’ in the C19th
In 1871 George Briscoe Eyre, the owner of the Bramshaw (or Warren’s) Estate, wrote that’ although a nation of tourists, the English are strangely apt to overlook the claims of their own country upon their attention and its exceptional variety … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged Beech, biodiversity, Bradshaw, Briscoe Eyre, C19th, Commissioners, Common Rights, Commoner, Crown, English, National Park, nature, New forest, New Forest Act 1877, nineteenth, Oak, plantation, scotch pine, surveyor, tourists, trees, woods
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New Forest: the sad story of the strange fish
While the New Forest is renown for its exquisite landscape of heathland, valley mires and Ancient and Ornamental woodlands, its 42km (26 miles) of coastal habitats are often overlooked. The New Forest coastline is a mixture of wildlife-rich shingle, saltmarsh, lagoons … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged beaked, bottle, carbine, cetacean, coast, continental, dolphin, Dragoon, English Channel, fish, fishermen, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Itchen, Marchwood, New forest, porpoise, Sea, Solent, strange, Tursiops truncatus, water, whale
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New Forest: spring-time musings
I was going through my diary to see what I was doing this time last year. I was wondering when I had moved the home-kept ponies off their winter grazing and into their spring paddocks. When did I begin to … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged Africa, British Trust for Ornithology, BTO, cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, fields, Gilbert White, grazing, Hampshire Ornithological Trust, harvest, hay, haymaking, herald, Hirundo rustica, HOS, martin, New forest, NORAD, poached, ponies, pony, Santa, Selborne, spring, swallow, Wet!
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