To the north of Fareham can be found the Forest of Bere which is an area that has a unique and fascinating history. The original name when the Saxons lived here was the Forest of Baer which derives from old English for 'swine pasture' as in the far off days this would have been a favourite site to graze your animals, the area though would have appeared as the New Forest appears today due to the livestock grazing there the trees would have grown in an open pasture type of landscape dotted with small farmsteads. In the 11th century the Normans invaded and the Lords and the well off decided that they would build Royal Forests as they had on the European mainland where they would spend their leisure time hunting deer and wild boar. These Royal Forests covered large areas of what was once open ground and they provided suitable places for the king or the lords of the manors to hunt the wild beasts that roamed in them. And so Baer as it was known became the Forest of Bere. People have a misconception of the meaning of Forest, it does not mean trees and in fact in Bere today there are more trees now than there was when it was a Royal Forest. The word meant land that was designated for the hunting of game and was managed with its own legal boundaries and its own laws, in fact it was a legal term.
The Forest of Bere (photo courtesy of David Packmam Hampshire Cam)

This came into force in 1088, and in 1306 the Keepers, Rangers or Verderers were formed to patrol the forests and protect the king's beasts from poachers and heavy penalties were enforced if you were caught with any evidence of having been poaching. Like the New Forest it had its own court of Verderers and they enforced the letter of the law rigidly and often a man would be hanged for just being found in possession of a weapon of any kind.

The Forest of Bere was not a popular forest with the king who preferred to go elsewhere and pieces of land were granted to local noblemen and the management became disorganised and the poaching increased. The only route to the South Downs through Bere was the old A3 road to London and it was just a dirt track just wide enough to get the mail coach through, subsequently it became a favourite haunt for highwaymen.

The last monarch to hunt here was Charles I in 1628

Over the years the Royal Forest were run down and the land sold off to local farmers and noblemen and the wildlife began to disappear as the woodland was cleared for agricultural use. But Bere did last a lot longer than some of the other Royal Forests and it was soon the last Royal Forest left in the country and in 1810 it was broken up though some of the old habitats still remain the plants are still thriving and hedgerows are still a familiar site with the odd full sized tree in the middle of them, heather still thrives and covers the ground

Up until the  1600s it was popular for its timber and this was fast disappearing with the acreage reduced for its 8 mile width and 11 mile length to just 25 square miles. Being close to Portsmouth it was a good spot for the supply of wood for the shipbuilding there. The Forestry Commission took over the management of the Forest of Bere in 1919 but the original forest stretched from King's Somborne in the west and via Hursley, Eastleigh and Bishops Waltham to  Denmead in the east and then on to Rowlands Castle

VISIT THE FOREST OF BERE
DENMEAD VILLAGE WEBSITE