The New Forest National Park

The New Forest is an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its unique mix of landscapes includes ancient woodlands, wetlands, and open heathland with free-roaming wild ponies, cows, and pannage pigs at different times of the year. It is home to many rare species of plants and wildlife found nowhere else on earth and the highest concentration of ancient trees in Europe.

Nova Foresta, Forest Law and Commoning

The New Forest was established by William the Conqueror in 1079 as his royal hunting ground, named ‘Nova Foresta’ or the ‘New Hunting Forest.’ At that time, the word 'forest' referred to an area of countryside set aside for royal hunting, not necessarily woodland.

The forest was subject to Forest Law, preserving it exclusively for the Crown and nobility and prohibiting local commoners from enclosing their land, which would prevent the “beasts of the chase” like boar and deer from running freely. Without fences, commoners, many of whom lived in simple dwellings in the Forest, were given rights for their animals to graze freely throughout the forest. This ancient tradition of commoning is still active today. The Forest is still owned by the Crown but managed by the Forestry Commission, Verderers, Agisters, and local commoners. The last royal to hunt here was King James II in the 1600s. Part of the specialness of this place is that it has been conserved as a natural landscape for over 1,000 years.

Settlements Over Time

Prior to the Norman conquest, the area of the New Forest was known as the Jutish kingdom of 'Ytene,' meaning 'of the Jutes.' Largely isolated, land was kept within kinship groups, and unique laws were passed down through generations.

Going further back in time, there are remains of about 200 Bronze Age burial mounds and barrows, Iron Age hill forts and Roman roads. Within sight of Rockford Farm, Bigsburn Hill (the slope to the west of Rockford Common) contains two barrows. These earthen funerary mounds from the Beaker and Early Bronze Age (2400 – 1500 BC) consist of a central burial, a mound, and an enclosing ditch. Medieval hunting lodges and airfields and operational bases used during the Second World War are also features of this area.

Today, there are 37 parishes and towns wholly or partly within the National Park, with over 34,000 people living within the Park boundaries. Only three settlements within the National Park have over 3,000 people, the largest being Brockenhurst with 3,400 people, followed by Sway and Lyndhurst.

Wildlife and Landscape

The New Forest is home to some of the oldest trees in the country. After the ice sheets began to withdraw around 12,000 years ago, native deciduous ancient and natural woodland was recolonized by birch and eventually beech and oak. According to Forestry England, the oldest trees you can visit are yews (Taxus baccata), some thought to be over 1,000 years old, oaks (Quercus robur), living up to 800 years, and beech (Fagus sylvatica) trees around 300 to 400 years old.

The New Forest has more than 1,000 ponds, over a dozen individual rivers, and countless streams. It has an extensive network of wetlands and boggy areas, or mires, which are some of the last left in Europe. Plant life and fungi are abundant. Common wildlife includes dragonflies and damselflies, great crested newts, many species of deer (not all native to the UK), and birds such as the nightjar, woodlark, woodpecker, short-eared owl, Dartford warbler, and the curlew. It is also possible to see birds of prey, including the European honey-buzzard, the hobby falcon, and the Eurasian goshawk circling in the sky at mealtimes.

Learn more about the New Forest.

Visiting the New Forest

The New Forest is open 365 days a year and stretches from woodland, heathland, and wetlands to the scenic southern coastline. There are many trails and places to picnic or explore with children. You are also welcome to walk dogs. You do not need to pay to enter the New Forest National Park.