Mona Reinhardt- The New Forest

History of the New Forest

Homy RidgeThe New Forest was named Nova Foresta following the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Forest originally covered a larger area than today, stretching from Salisbury to Bournemouth and Southampton Water to the east. The Forest is divided between woodland, open heathland and land set aside for agricultural purposes.
The forest was privatly used by William the Conqueror in 1079 for hauting wild animals. With this, William removed the law which said that nobody was allowed to kill animals and a strict Forest Law was introduced. Forest Law, among other things, inflicted severe punishments for anyone found interfering with the deer in the Forest, with the penalty of death for killing one.
The peasants were given the right to allow their livestock to roam free on the Forest as a trade off for being prohibted from erecting fences. Fences would have disturbed the King by his hunting party.
With domestic animals allowed to roam free of wild deer in the Forest, saplings were damaged and because of such an extent the new growth of vegetation was hindered. The growing demand for wood, the first Inclosure Act was passed in 1482. To create new woodlands the people closed large parts of the Forest and the Forest had changed from the hunting ground of the eleventh century to an important source of timber. As hunting became less important the large numbers of Deer were deemed unnecessary. because they caused damage to the vegetation. In 1851, the Deer Removal Act was introduced to get the deer out of the Forest.

Conifers push out the oak
Up until the late eighteenth century the Oak was dominant in the Forest. This was to change with the introduction of faster growing softwood conifers.
In the eigthteenth and nineteenth centuries the strengh and quality led the New Forest Oak to be used in the construction of naval ships at Buckler´s Hard.

The Verderers
The Court of the Verderers was created around the twelth century to provide officials to deal with offences in the forest. It still sits in the Verderers' Hall, Queen's house, Lyndhurst. The name Verderers comes from the Norman 'vert' which means green. Today it consists of one official, five elected and four appointed verderers.

Quelle:
http://www.thenewforest.com/history_of_the_forest.php

by Mona Reinhardt