The New Forest National Park

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About The New Forest National Park

Welcome to The New Forest National Park Group. I love the forest and I want to share that with other users and allow other users to share what they love about it aswell.

Users can post up to ten photos a day and can be anything from town and village life in the forest, the forest coast line and of course the wildlife and scenery.

Please Add the following link to images viewed on this site:

<b>I saw this image In </b>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/thenewforest/"><img src=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1011/562141111_ca0c80b5aa_s.jpg></a><b> The New Forest National Park.</b>
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--------------It should look like this----------------

I saw this image In
The New Forest National Park.
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Check these sites out

www.hants.org.uk/newforest/

www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/

www.thenewforest.co.uk/

The following is from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Forest)

The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and old-growth forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. The contiguous New Forest habitat covers south west Hampshire and some of south Wiltshire and east Dorset. As a National Park the New Forest is mainly in Hampshire, but also covering some of Wiltshire. Additionally the New Forest local government district is a subdivision of Hampshire which covers most of the forest, and some nearby areas. There are many small villages dotted arond the area

The highest point in the New Forest is Piper's Wait, just west of Bramshaw. Its summit is at over four hundred feet.

History

Like much of England, the New Forest was originally forested, but parts were cleared for cultivation from the Stone Age and into the Bronze Age. However, the poor quality of the soil in the new forest meant that the cleared areas turned into heathland "waste". There are around 250 round barrows[1] within its boundaries, and scattered boiling mounds, and it also includes about 150 scheduled ancient monuments. [2]

The New Forest was created as a royal forest in 1079[3] by William the Conqueror for the hunting of (mainly) deer. It was first recorded as "Nova Foresta" in the Domesday Book in 1086. The inhabitants of thirty-six parishes were evicted. William's successor, William Rufus was killed in a suspicious accident while hunting in the New Forest in 1100. The reputed spot of the king's death is marked with a stone known as the Rufus Stone.

The Rufus Stone MemorialAs of 2005, roughly 90% of the New Forest is still owned by the Crown. The Crown lands have been managed by the Forestry Commission since 1923. Around 50% of the Crown lands fall inside the new National Park.

Formal commons rights were established in the 16th century. Over time, the New Forest became an important source of wood for the Royal Navy, and plantations were begun to replace the felled trees. In the Great Storm of 1703, about 4,000 oak trees were lost in the New Forest.

The naval plantations encroached on the rights of the Commoners, but the Forest gained new protection under an Act of Parliament in 1877. The New Forest Act 1877 confirmed the historic rights of the Commoners and prohibited the enclosure of more than 16,000 acres (61 km²) at any time. It also reconstituted the Court of Verderers as representatives of the Commoners (rather than the Crown).

Felling of broadleaf trees, and replacement by conifers, began during the First World War to meet the wartime demand for wood. Further encroachments were made in the Second World War. This process is today being reversed in places, with some plantations being returned to heathland or broadleaf woodland.

WW2 remains at IbsleyFurther New Forest Acts followed in 1949, 1964 and 1970. The New Forest became a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1971, and was granted special status as the "New Forest Heritage Area" in 1985, with additional planning controls added in 1992. The New Forest was proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 1999,[4] and it became a National Park in 2005.[5]

New Forest National Park

Consultations on the possible designation of a National Park in the New Forest were commenced by the Countryside Agency in 1999. An order to create the park was made by the Agency on 24 January 2002 and submitted to the Secretary of State for confirmation in February 2002. Following objections from seven local authorities and others, a Public Inquiry was held from 8 October 2002 to 10 April 2003, concluding with that the proposal should be endorsed with some detailed changes to the boundary of the area to be designated.

On 28 June 2004, Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael confirmed the government's intention to designate the area as a National Park, with further detailed boundary adjustments. The area was formally designated as such on 1 March 2005. A National Park Authority for the New Forest was established on 1 April 2005 and assumed its full statutory powers on 1 April 2006.[7] The Forestry Commission retain their powers to manage the Crown land within the Park, and the Verderers under the New Forest Acts also retain their responsibilities, and the Park Authority is expected to co-operate with these bodies, the local authorities, English Nature and other interested parties.

National Park area in green; pink area shows the county of Hampshire for comparisonThe designated area of the National Park covers 571km² (141097 acres) and includes many existing SSSIs. It has a population of approximately 38,000 (excluding most of the 170,256 people who live in the New Forest local government district). As well as most of the New Forest district of Hampshire, it takes in a small corner of Test Valley district around the village of Canada, and part of the Salisbury district in Wiltshire south-east of Redlynch.

However, the area covered by the park does not include all the areas which were initially proposed; excluding most of the valley of the River Avon to the west of the forest and Dibden Bay to the east. Two challenges were made to the designation order, by Meyrick Estate Management Ltd in relation to the inclusion of Hinton Admiral Park, and by RWE NPower Plc to the inclusion of Fawley power station. The second challenge was settled out of court, with the power station being excluded.[8] The High Court upheld the first challenge;[9] as of April 2006, it is expected that an appeal against the decision will be heard by the Court of Appeal in Autumn 2006.[10]

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