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: New forest
New Forest: harvesting holly for Christmas.
Last month (posted December 2015), as I made my way into the New Forest to check on my free-roaming ponies, I came across several contractors harvesting holly for the Christmas trade. This winter activity has long been a legitimate part … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest customs, New Forest pony
Tagged butcher, Christmas, Evergreen, harvesting, holly, ivy, Lymington, Lyndhurst, New forest, pony, railway, seagull, Victorian, Workhouse
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New Forest: the bully-boy Conqueror, hunting and warfare.
William the Conqueror is a source of fascination to me. As the man who created the New Forest, his motives and actions also continue to be debated by many historians and scholars. For some he was the first medieval conservationist, … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest
Tagged 1066, 1079, boars, bully, England, Guinness World Records, hart, hind, horses, hunting, martial skills, Medieval, New forest, Queen Matilda, red deer, royal hunting, stag, unenclosed, warfare, William Conqueror
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New Forest: ‘animal aware’ road users.
In 1903 at Brook occurred the first death of a New Forest animal, a pony, caused by a motor vehicle. Since then livestock injuries and fatalities have become a sad but regular statistic. Information about road traffic incidents, involving commonable … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest Animal Road Traffic Accidents, New Forest pony
Tagged animal aware, animals, cattle, donkeys, florescent, Forestry Commission, Hampshire Constabulary, Hampshire County Council, high-viz, luminous paint, New forest, New Forest District Council, New Forest Trust, ponies, reflective, road deaths, traffic incidents, Verderers
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New Forest ponies: search and find or hide and seek?
The New Forest has taken on a completely different look and feel since the onset of late autumn. Many of the birds that were regularly encountered over the summer months have, like the tourists, migrated elsewhere. The atmosphere is tranquil … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest, New Forest flora & fauna, New Forest pony, Uncategorized
Tagged Commoner, Cow, deer, Fallow, fawn, find, foal, genes, New forest, pony, search, trees
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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: 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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