A Royal Hunting Ground

The word ‘forest’ has come to mean a densely wooded area, but originally it meant simply an area set aside for hunting, by the King or by powerful nobles. The Normans had some 80 such forests, and protected hunting rights in them with ferocious forest laws.

Until the reign of Richard I (1189-99), who was more interested in crusading than in hunting, a man could be blinded merely for disturbing the royal deer.Forests such as Savernake in Wiltshire, Cranborne Chase and Poorstock in Dorset, have dwindled in size wince the days when they were the playgrounds of hunting kings. But Hampshire’s New Forest is till one of the largest areas of open land in the south of England, covering 145 square miles.

FOREST IMAGES

It is the oldest of the great forests of England; but for William the Conqueror it was literally a new forest. He cleared away much of the ancient forest, destroying 22 Saxon villages it is said, and in 1079 decreed that the New Forest should be a royal hunting preserve.T he New Forest is full of the fascinating oddities of history most of them arising from long-drawn-out disputes between the monarchs, intent on preserving hunting rights, and the commoners living in the forest. The commoners were forbidden by William to enclose land or to graze most animals for more than five months of the year; and for pigs the grazing season in the open forest was ( and remains) only two months.

By the 17th century the forest that was founded because of a king’s love of sport had taken on a new importance, as a source of timber for England's growing navy. But the old disputes about commoners’ rights continued, and it was not until the 19th century that parliament ended the monarch’s right to keep deer in the forest and allowed commoners’ cattle, ponies and donkeys to graze all year.

Three Acts of Parliament this century have kept up with the ways of the forest. The most recent Act in 1964, allowed camping sites and set aside land for the development of ornamental woods.

BRUSHER MILLS the snake catcher
THE ADDER and other creatures
This is a project being run by The Herpetological Conservation Trust (The HCT) aiming to collect information about the adder across Britain. We are looking at both new and old records, observations and anecdotes that help us understand where adders are and where they have been in the past.