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.
Tag Archives: hay
New Forest: haymaking in the sunshine
It’s been a busy week this week. I’ve been collecting bales of hay off the fields to be stored and used over the winter for my animals. Haymaking has been part of the farming calendar for over 6,000 years and … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest Commoner, New Forest pony
Tagged cattle, couchancy, deer, diet, harvest, hay, haymaking, Hocktide, levancy, Michealmas, New forest, oath, ponies, Saxon, winter heyning
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New Forest: autumn activity, tradition and festival
Autumn is always a busy season for farmer, smallholder and commoner alike. It is also a time of ritual, tradition, and festival that reminds us of our connection to the natural or, indeed, supernatural world. Michaelmas, which signals the end … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest customs, Pannage season
Tagged autumn, cereal, Christian, Christmas, Commoner, custom, dam, deer, drift, Equinox, famine, farmer, feast, festival, foal, fortune, gods, Halloween, harvest, Harvest Festival, hay, mare, Michaelmas, moon, natural, New forest, October, pagan, Pannage, pig, pony, pork, produce, round-up, season, September, smallholder, spirits, spring, straw, supernatural, Tradition, winter
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New Forest: every day is a school day
The Londoners came to visit again this weekend. These are family members who live in our nation’s capital and, every now and then, when their busy social or work schedules allow, will leave the hectic pace of city-life, traffic jams, … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged animals, botanist, chamomile, children, classroom, couch, day, entomologist, fescue, haunt, hay, learning, livestock, London, meadow, New forest, ornithologist, pimpernel, pollution, school, shade, sorrel, Timothy, traffic, wildflower, wildlife
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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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New Forest: outwitted by a greedy pony!
I went to visit a commoning friend of mine recently while they were feeding hay to the cows in one of their fields, and thought I could be of some assistance by opening and closing the gate for them. Ordinarily … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest cattle, New Forest pony
Tagged cattle, commoning, field, food, grass greener, greedy pony, hay, mare, meadow, New forest, Open Forest, other side, plans, pony, winter
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New Forest: city-dwellers set free to roam
This weekend I was busy with visitors. In the pre-Christmas round of get-togethers, relatives arrived from London for a few days in the country. My visitors and their children were amazed, when looking out of the kitchen windows, to see … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged animals, children, city dweller, hay, Labradors, London, New forest, ponies, rural, sheep, squirrels, trees, urban
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New Forest: the sweet smell of a job well done
This week has been one of hectic hay making activity. The hay was cut on Friday morning last week and tedded (spread for drying) several times during the weekend and rowed-up ready for baling during Monday morning. The smell from … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest Commoner
Tagged Agrostis capillaris, Anthoxanthum odoratum, aroma, bales, Buzzard, Common Bent, countryside, Crested Dog's-tail, Cynosurus cristatus, field mice, fox, grasses, hay, meadow, Phleum pratense, Sweet Vernal-grass, Tawny Owl, Timothy, voles
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New Forest: weather-lore and hay-making
Like most farmers at this time of year, I’ve got my eye on the weather watching for the omens that promise a period of uninterrupted productivity. The crop of hay that will feed my stock over the winter is still … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged catchment, ecosystem, England, environment, flash flood, flood, flooding, fodder, folk-wisdom, Fordingbridge, Hampshire, hay, livestock, lowland, Met Office, New forest, Ringwood, river, silage, water, weather, weather-lore
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Ragwort: friend or foe?
I’ve recently begun the task of checking for and clearing any ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) from my hay meadow and the paddocks that my field-kept ponies will be using during the summer. This is one of those essential jobs in pasture management … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna
Tagged biennial, Bugle, cattle, cirrhosis, Defa, hay, horse, liver, paddock, pasture, perennial, Plantlike, poison, ponies, Ragwort, Ragwort Act 2003, Senecio jacobaea, silage, toxic, Weeds Act 1959, Wildlife and Countryside Link
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New Forest: The Big Freeze 1963-1964
The rainy weather of late (January 2016) has meant that I’ve had to have a bit of a reorganisation in the hay barn to make room for a vehicle that doesn’t like starting in the wet and cold. I had thought … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest pony
Tagged 1963, 1964, Big Freeze, Deputy Surveyor, emergency, feeding, freezing temperatures, hay, keepers, New forest, pony, snow
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