Contributor: Nfknowledge

New Forest Knowledge, your gateway to information – Abstract

The following paper was presented at the New Forest Knowledge Conference 2017 entitled: New Forest Historical Research and Archaeology: who’s doing it? Below you will find the abstract of the paper and a video of the paper given if permission to film it was given by the speaker.

Speaker:

James Miles, Archaeovision,

James Brown, New Forest National Park Authority

Kath Walker, New Forest Centre

Abstract:

Are you interested in the past, present and future of the New Forest?

New Forest Knowledge seeks to ensure that its unique cultural heritage is available to all. It provides access to New Forest information held in catalogues, databases, maps and repositories both locally and nationally, and we are working to add more every day.

As well as providing access to information, New Forest Knowledge has been set up as a community portal where individuals and groups, of all abilities and interests, can add their own research, articles and photographs to expand our New Forest cultural heritage story.

New Forest Knowledge is a partnership between two projects within the Heritage Lottery Funded programme Our Past, Our Future Landscape Partnership: Ecademy, led by the New Forest Centre, and Heritage on my Doorstep, led by the New Forest National Park Authority. Ecademy seeks to promote information exchange and integration through the creation of an online resource; Heritage on my Doorstep seeks to engage the local community in researching and sharing the history and archaeology of the New Forest.

New Forest Mummers

New Forest Mummers have been keeping the folk tradition of mumming alive in the New Forest every Christmas for the past 54 years, always collecting money for different charities in the area. The plays follow a pattern and usually consist of a duel where one of them is killed but later, miraculously revived by a Doctor. All is overseen by Old Father Christmas.

Mummers at the Balmer Lawn Hotel in Brockenhurst in 1983

Image from ‘A New Forest Christmas’ Georgina Babey, 2000: https://nfknowledge.org/record/nfc-160750/

New Forest Romany Gypsies

Although first officially recorded in Scotland, it may be likely that the New Forest area was the ‘first landing site’ for many Gypsies travelling across from the continent, first recorded in the area in 1556.

The Romanies called the New Forest Nevi-Wesh (Romani for ‘New Forest’). Although renowned for their nomadic nature, the Gypsies of the New Forest found themselves much at home here, the isolation of the woods and moors giving the New Forest Romanies freedom, resources, and privacy. Sites were chosen strategically for supplies, but there was perhaps a little more to it than that. The witch and author Doreen Valiente wrote that certain sites were important in a spiritual way, the ‘feel’ of the land – a sense that particular places in the Forest were significant, or fortuitous places to live.

As well as selling their wares, Romany women offered fortune telling door to door and at the old Forest gates before the introduction of cattle grids in the1960’s. Many fortune-telling Romanies were also considered as having the power to curse and cure, the chovihanic (witch).

– Vikki Bramshaw, author of the book ‘New Forest Folklore, Traditions & Charms’

What3Words Address: ///beak.last.cheerily

New Forest Squatters’ Settlements in the Eighteenth Century’ – Abstract

The following paper was presented at the New Forest Knowledge Conference 2017 entitled: New Forest Historical Research and Archaeology: who’s doing it? Below you will find the abstract of the paper and a video of the paper given if permission to film it was given by the speaker.

Speaker:

Sylvia Crocker, New Forest History and Archaeology Group

Abstract:

This paper is concerned with the migration of people into the New Forest who settled as squatters on waste land – a long-established activity that had been tolerated for generations, but which became perceived as a major problem in the eighteenth century. Then in the nineteenth century it became a criminal act, enforced by legislation and liable to prosecution. This paper attempts to explain who these migrants were, when they came to settle in the New Forest, where they settled and why they came. It also analyses the issues – why migration became such a big issue in the eighteenth century, what the migrants were accused of, who were making the allegations and why. Lastly, it examines what action the government took and how it was finally resolved.  A study of contemporary documents has revealed a fascinating story of illicit activity, corroboration, corruption, and scapegoating, all uncovered in an official investigation, resulting in wide-reaching legislation and prosecutions, but with surprising results.

Pony Branding Irons

Each owner who has ponies on the Forest has a unique symbol of ownership which is crafted into a ‘brand’, a practice which is momentarily uncomfortable for the pony but ensures its ownership (and therefore care) is secured. The branding irons often hold a special superstition in the hearts of those living in the cottages where the brand was originally registered, kept above the fireplace in memory of the properties’ commoning rights and branded onto cottage or stable doors. Whilst today many of these branding marks are the owner’s initials, in the past a whole host of symbols were used and had their own personal significance. In other rural parts of Britain there is a firm belief in protective chimney spirits, such as Old Clim of East Anglia, and it’s possible that a similar belief was held by people of the New Forest. Given the New Forest’s relationship with horses, Clim’s connections to the blacksmith trade make this particularly feasible and the spirit of Clim could be tied to a particular property with brand marks made by the occupier.

Some of these old commoner cottages come with their own fire charms which should not be removed from the house – such as commoner branding irons, or bends of leather branded with the symbols of the family. In the Green Dragon pub in Brook, there still remains such bends of leather.

– Vikki Bramshaw, author of the book ‘New Forest Folklore, Traditions & Charms’

Public Benefit and Private Greed: The Politics of Improvement and Enclosure in the New Forest – Abstract & Video

This paper was presented at the New Forest Knowledge Conference 2018 entitled: The Role of Commoning in the Maintenance of Landscape and Ecology: A New Forest, National and Global Perspective.

Speaker:

Gale Gould, University of Southampton

Abstract

Since the reign of George III, when Parliament rather than the monarch became responsible for administering the Crown lands, the New Forest has increasingly been regarded as a political and financial resource, rather than necessarily as a natural one. Indeed, from the late eighteenth-century several attempts, using the narrative of ‘public good’ and ‘national benefit’, have been made to enclose parts of the New Forest and dispose of the remainder by public-sale. While factional in-fighting among politicians has defeated some proposals; an ever vigilant commoning community, their supporters, and the general public have resisted other attempts to privatise what, for the present, remains a national asset.

The Talk

Springs and Wells

Wells and springs in the New Forest were considered not only a source of water but also sacred, with cleansing and healing properties. The Abbots Well in Frogham was just one of these sacred wells, considered particularly auspicious due to its vantage point over Latchmore Brook beneath, which has its own rather sinister folklore.

This ancient dipping well was first recorded in 1215, although the natural spring that feeds the well is of course much older than even this. It emerges here on the plateau at Frogham, one of the highest points in the New Forest and is known for its ice-cold water that has ‘the cold feel of the deep rock within it‘. There are also a number of bronze-age burial mounds (locally known as butts) in the surrounding Forest, indicating this area was also anciently of spiritual importance.

Underground springs were also sometimes found in the New Forest by dowsing. Lt Col. Gerald Goff, an amateur historian, accounts how a ‘divining rod man‘…’a water wizard‘ named Mr A Berrow visited the village of Hale in 1888 to dowse. With the use of dowsing rods, he divined that an underwater spring ran through a particular field and explained that any well that was built there would never dry up.

– Vikki Bramshaw, author of the book ‘New Forest Folklore, Traditions & Charms’

What3Words Address: ///nicer.thousands.rebel

The Ecology of Pastoralism; or why the New Forest is so Good for Wildlife – Abstract & Video

This paper was presented at the New Forest Knowledge Conference 2018 entitled: The Role of Commoning in the Maintenance of Landscape and Ecology: A New Forest, National and Global Perspective.

Speaker:

Clive Chatters, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust

Abstract

The commoning economy of the New Forest derives from medieval pastoralism whilst being an integral part of the modern world. The persistence of numerous livestock enterprises that are reliant on exercising of common rights supports one of the richest suites of habitats in the lowlands of north-west Europe. In this introduction to the Forest I will explore the ecological consequences of commoning and will celebrate some of the species which make it special.

The Talk