A Note from the New Forest
Nov 2023 - One of my priorities since returning from Azerbaijan, where I lived for eight years and travelled widely, has been to discover in depth my own country, the UK, from big cities to far-flung villages and places of great cultural and natural heritage. I hope to share my experiences on this blog, which I hereby open with a report of a recent day trip down to the New Forest in late November.
Contrary to its name, the New Forest is in fact a most ancient area of outstanding natural beauty, having been designated a royal hunting ground by William the Conqueror way back in 1079. Now protected by the New Forest National Park and crisscrossed by many meandering roads and walking paths, it’s a glorious mix of woodlands, heathlands, wetlands, marshes and bogs that offers the visitor a glimpse of how the English landscape might have looked before people began to settle in it, and provides many pristine habitats for rare and interesting British flora and fauna.
The New Forest is home to “the highest concentration of ancient woodland in Western Europe” according to the New Forest National Park website, where you can read more about the particular species, including oak, beech, ash, yew, silver birch and hawthorn. There are yews that have been around for over a thousand years - just imagine! - while many of the others are several hundred years old. Regarding wildlife, the area is notably inhabited by over 120 bird species, several types of deer and rarities such as the large marsh grasshopper and the sand lizard, which has been brought back from the verge of extinction.
New Forest pony, Nov 2023.
One of the first things that struck me when I arrived mid-morning by car were the many ponies roaming freely everywhere - a quintessential scene of the New Forest. Many of them belong to a special New Forest pony breed and their freedom to roam was evidence of a local practice dating back to medieval times known as “commoning,” whereby local residents, or “commoners,” exercise their right to graze their livestock (ponies, donkeys and cattle) freely and in common with their fellow foresters on the open landscape.
The weather that day was extremely foggy which at first I deemed a stroke of bad luck since it made it very difficult to see much, but gradually I realised that it was actually quite good because it lent all the impressive autumnal trees and pottering ponies a somewhat mystical, fairytale atmosphere. Sprinkled amongst this timeless landscape are lots of laid-back, old-world villages, and as I cruised through several of them I pondered how lovely it must be to live in this part of England. For several hours I simply drove from village to village along winding rural roads snaking through enchanting woods and open heathland. And if I spied something visually striking, I would stop and take a few photos, such as in the case of the picture attached to this post - of a white pony grazing before a charismatic tree in the background.
In Brockenhurst I passed a pub called The Snakecatcher, which I had read about online prior to my trip, and which is named, as suggested, in honour of a local snake catcher. I was baffled by the existence of such a job in England, a country known for its almost completely benevolent wildlife. Well, in fairness, of the three snake species found in the UK one of them, the adder, is mildly poisonous, and the others would surely be unwelcome visitors to New Forest houses; the New Forest is known for harbouring all six native species of reptiles in the UK, and I can imagine that snakes were much more abundant in the 19th century. Nowadays you can learn about the UK’s reptiles at the New Forest Reptile Centre (sadly closed on the day of my visit). Anyway, the name of the guy who lived in a forest shack and made his living catching snakes is Buster Mills and there are plenty of online articles where you can read more about him.
Meanwhile in Lyndhurst, the New Forest capital, an early Christmas fair seemed to be underway, as a few food and crafts stalls had been set up along the main High Street, which otherwise hosts mostly cafes and antique shops. As I ambled up it I briefly admired across the road a juggler on a monocycle being photographed by passers-by, before being overtaken myself by a red-headed elf on enormous stilts. Having reached the top of the slope I then turned back at the St Michael and All Angels Church, famous for housing the grave of Alice Hargreaves (née Liddell), the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In Lyndhurst I also browsed the small but enlightening museum in the New Forest Heritage Centre.
The New Forest National Park extends all the way down to the south coast, and by late afternoon, the light now beginning to fade, I had made my way down to the sleepy village of Milford-on-Sea, where I parked up and strolled down to the eerily empty seafront and then jogged back to the village centre, set around a large green decorated already with Christmas lights, in time to photograph the silhouettes of people passing through a haunting twilight mist in front of flashing car headlights.
Milford-on-Sea, Nov 2023.
Inspired by all I had seen during the day, when I got home that evening I watched a fantastic BBC documentary charting the peculiar lifestyle and traditions of the New Forest and tracking the changes to its varied habitats and wildlife through the seasons. And certainly I was left eager to come back and explore more of this natural heritage site at different times of the year.