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: 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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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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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: modern tools and ancient practices
Commoning is an agrarian system that has been practiced on the New Forest since before the Norman Conquest in 1066 and is one of the most ancient forms of agriculture known to man. The basic principles, of farming by using … Continue reading
Posted in New Forest Commoner, New Forest pony, New Forest Pony Drift, Pannage season
Tagged access, Agister, commoning, Customs, drifts, emergency services, Forestry Commission, gateway, heritage, horsemen, illegal parking, New forest, Norman conquest, Pannage, point to point, traditions, Verderer, working forest
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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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