Featured (front page)

1. The History of The Lyndhurst Scarecrow Trail

Written by Hannah from Lyndhurst PTA 06/10/2024

It first started in 2021 as a way to raise some money for the local infant school St Michael & All Angels in a way that was covid friendly as it was still a little bit like that at the time. The first year we had around 50 scarecrows and raised £1273 for the school. The event blew us away in how popular it was. We had 250 maps printed for it which sold out the first day and we spent a manic Saturday night trying to beg anyone local with a colour printer to print us some copies. During and after the trail there was growing feeling in the village that we simply HAD to make it an annual event. Due to people coming into Lyndhurst to hunt down the scarecrows there was a real boost in trade for all the local businesses on the high street too which was an unexpected bonus. The winner of our first year was ‘Gru and his Minions’ which was an epic creation on display in Haskells Close.

The 2nd year we had 85 scarecrows and raised £1800. The worthy winners of the 2022 trail were King Charles, Camilla and Paddington who were on display on the green in Forest Gardens. The residents of this street club [came] together to create their entry and also sold homemade cakes and marmalade to raise additional funds for the school. The community spirit was really out in full force this year.

It returned again in 2023 with 80 scarecrows and  the addition of the Barn Dance held at The Stag, Lyndhurst. On the Saturday night of the trail weekend they had a traditional Ceilidh band and this saw villagers old and young all come together to dance and have fun, it was a great night that raised over £200 for the trail. Forest Gardens did us proud again and held a Mad Hatters Tea Party. Along with their amazing scarecrows of Alice and friends they served sandwiches, cakes, drinks and more to raise an incredible £837.50 for the school! The total raised for the 2023 trail was an amazing £3144 and the winner was ‘The Lyndhurst Tug of War’ featuring no less than 9 scarecrows!

The donations we have raised have contributed to an outside library for the children at St Michael’s, funded much needed new iPads for the school, a new reading scheme, paid for pantos and discos put on for the children and more. This year the 20 year old tricycles are in desperate need of replacing as they are not fit for use so we hope to use the money from the trail to pay for them.

2. Charles Burrard

The following contribution was written by New Forest Heritage Centre volunteer Chris Blake.

The grave of ‘Admiral Sir Charles Burrard’ at St Michael & All Angels in Lyndhurst was recently restored by the Napoleonic and Revolutionary War Graves Charity. This is part of an initiative to ensure stories like his are not forgotten. Fortunately, Admiral Sir Charles Burrard and his family preserved their story in sketchbooks, held in the New Forest Heritage Centre.

Charles Burrard was born into a military family in 1793, third in line to inherit the baronetcy of Lymington. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 11 , in 1805. By 1806 he was aboard HMS London as a Midshipman. This was during the Napoleonic Wars, months after the Battle of Trafalgar. In the morning darkness of the 13th March, French commerce raiders mistook the ships of his squadron for merchantmen. Before the French surrender, 10 men had been killed and 22 wounded aboard HMS London during hours of thunderous gunfire. Burrard later painted this event from a removed third-person viewpoint.

Shortly afterwards, Charles was transferred to HMS Victory. In January 1809, the Victory escorted transport ships to La Coruña, to evacuate British troops following their desperate retreat to the coast of Northern Spain. Charles’ eldest brother was ashore, serving as Aide de Camp to Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore. During the battle to defend the port and the possibility of evacuation, Charles’ brother was killed. It is likely that Charles was in the harbour at the time.

That October, his surviving older brother (also a Midshipman in the Navy) was drowned after his boat capsized near Weymouth. Charles was now unexpectedly first in line to inherit, aged about 16, having lost his older brothers. As the eldest son of a Baronet, he was entitled to a knighthood. Sir Charles was promoted to Lieutenant after three years and served in actions around the Mediterranean.

Sir Charles’ father died in 1813, apparently from a heart broken by the news of his other son’s death at the Siege of San Sebastian. Charles was now 2nd Baronet Lymington.

The following years saw his first commands, and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He rose through the ranks of the Navy, and was often in the Mediterranean. There he met his future wife, Louisa Lushington, daughter of the British Consul-General in Naples. They married in 1826, returning to England in 1827.

Sir Charles was then pensioned out of the Navy aged 34, as a ‘Superannuated Captain’. A naval officer promoted to Captain was entitled to lifelong promotion in strict order of seniority, regardless of functional demand for higher-ranking officers. Sir Charles Burrard was promoted for the rest of his life, eventually becoming an Admiral.

He spent the rest of his life in and around the New Forest raising a large family, though he was ultimately the last Baronet Lymington. He and his wife likely helped teach their children to paint and draw. They dedicated these decades of peace to the Church, and the creation of an extraordinary painted archive of rural nineteenth century Hampshire.

Sources:

‘The Naval Chronicle for 1809’ (1809), Volume XXI, London : J. Gold, pg. 60-61
https://archive.org/details/navalchronicleco21londiala/page/60/mode/2up?view=theater

Marshall (1823) Royal Naval Biography, pg. 378-379
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Royal_Naval_Biography/Burrard,_Charles

NRWGC (2023) Grave Clean: Admiral Sir Charles Burrard,
https://www.nrwgc.com/post/grave-clean-admiral-charles-burrard

O’Brien (1849) A Naval Biographical Dictionary 1849, pg. 149. https://archive.org/details/cu31924027921372/page/148/mode/2up?q=burrard

Pasmore, A. (2019) New Forest Notes March 2019, https://www.newforesthistoryandarchaeology.org.uk/nf_notes/notes_mar19.pdf

Slothlouber, L. (2017) ‘Journal of Louisa Lushington (1821-1822)’, Alton: Chawton House Press
https://nfknowledge.org/record/nfc-159428/

Woodman, R. (1998) The Victory of Seapower, pg. 63

3. Félicité Hardcastle

The following contribution was written by New Forest Heritage Centre volunteer Chris Blake.

Born in 1902, Félicité Hardcastle grew up in Oxfordshire but had moved to Burley by the time she was 18. She lived there until she died in 1988, by which time she had become an established local historian and amateur botanist, and had been awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the community. The award citation described her as the ‘grand old lady of the New Forest’, but she immersed herself in village life in Burley before she was 20. She was particularly involved in the Scout movement as a longstanding Cubmaster and eventually Assistant District Commissioner. During WW2 she volunteered as a telephonist in Burley, assisting with the running of nearby military bases.

She was involved in numerous local clubs and societies, taught in the Sunday School, became a School Governor, and served on the Parish Council. Whilst on the Council she was particularly active in protecting Rights of Way. She recorded her detailed historical research in a book titled Records of Burley, and was involved in many archaeological excavations within the New Forest. Her passion was the accessible preservation of heritage for local communities, and the encouragement of young people. As a result, she lectured widely on local history and natural science at village events and Avon Tyrell youth centre. Her research notes, photographs, and letters were made publicly accessible at Hampshire Record Office after she died. These are now kept at Christopher Tower Reference Library in Lyndhurst, and act as testament to “Miss Hardcastle’s” dedication to her community and the heritage of the New Forest.

Sources:

Assorted Newspaper Articles: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/38363179/miss-hardcastle-of-burley-royhodgescouk

Hardcastle, F. (1987). Records of Burley: Aspects of a New Forest Village. Spalding: Chameleon International.

Hampshire Record Office, Biography of Félicité Hardcastle, in ‘Hardcastle Collection Catalogue’.

4. LGBT+ History in the New Forest

The following contribution was written by New Forest Heritage Centre volunteer Chris Blake.

LGBT+ history has until recently been quite biased towards public figures whose lives were subject to greater public scrutiny, and whose private correspondence was archived. Most people in the New Forest have not historically lived such public, well-recorded lives. Irrespective of fame, many people in the past and present alike would prefer privacy from stigma and scrutiny, or would have chosen to focus their lives on different legacies within their local community. Unfortunately, before the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships in 1957, secrecy was also a very real imperative. Sometimes this literally involved burning diaries and letters. It is unsurprising that these details of people’s private lives have often not been preserved.

As a result, there are few openly LGBT+ life stories recorded in the New Forest Heritage centre archives. The late Lord Montagu of Beaulieu is largely represented by his contributions to the local community and the study of local heritage. However, the decriminalisation of homosexuality owes a lot to the inquiry that resulted from public response to his trial in the 1950s.

Thanks to that decriminalisation, LGBT+ people now have greater choice as to how they live those aspects of their lives. Stigma is still a persistent challenge, but that is after all why these stories must be told.

Sources:

Dr Clifford Williams (2019) A Queer A-Z of Hampshire, Cuthbert Creme Books: Andover. Available at: https://nfknowledge.org/record/nfc-165455/
Lord Montagu of Beaulieu (2000) Wheels within Wheels: An Unconventional Life. Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd. Available at: https://nfknowledge.org/record/nfc-152861/