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Learning about and practising commoning on the New Forest. -
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Tag Archives: New forest
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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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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