What are New Forest Commoners and Foresters?

The restrictive Forest laws set out by William the Conqueror and his son, Rufus, were too harsh - the Commoners and Foresters were struggling to make a living from the New Forest - (perhaps that is why Rufus ended up slain by an arrow)?

A system of rights was established to enable Forest people to survive and these rights remain today.

A Commoner is a person occupying land to which common rights are attached. A Forester is a New Forest pony born on the forest from forest stock.

A Forester can also be someone who earns his/her living from the forest, but not necessarily has Commoners rights.

Around 800 houses and smallholdings in the forest have such rights, but not everyone exercises their rights.

I've just found out I've got Commoners Rights!

Find out my Commoners Rights

He loves to get his thick winter coat off by scratching himself on my fence and by the time he is looking sleek and handsome in his summer coat my fence panels need some attention!

Who could complain at that?

There are several distinct Commoners rights.

• Common of Pasture
• This is the right to graze animals on the open forest.
• You may see it described as "de-pasture"
• Common of Turbary
• The right to cut peat or turf to burn as fuel.
• It is required that for every turf cut two are left so that the grass can regrow to cover the gap.
• Common of Estovers
• The right to take wood as fuel
• As part of the ongoing forest maintenance,
• Foresters cut branchwood into lengths known as cords.
• According to their rights Commoners may take a number of cords each year as fuel for their fires.

• Common of Mast
• The right to turn out pigs during a season known as Pannage.
• The start date of Pannage is decided by the Verderers but it always lasts for 60 days.

The Verderers announce the start of pannage when the acorns begin to fall in autumn.

Pigs eat green acorns and beech nuts, which would otherwise be poisonous to ponies.

• Common of Marl
• Marl is a clay which can be used as a dressing for soil.
• It is alkaline and acts to neutralise the otherwise acidic forest topsoil.
• Some Commoners have the right to dig marl for this purpose.
• Common of Pasture
• This is for sheep and was mainly used in the past by the monks
• at Beaulieu Abbey and at Godshill, near Fordingbridge
• This is the specific right to allow sheep to graze on New Forest land.

There are very few areas where this is allowed and it is unusual to see sheep on the open forest.

Hopefully you know a little bit more about the New Forest Commoners and Foresters (both human and ponies)now.

Look out for pigs and pannage usually around October, but it does depend on whether it is very windy and how the acorns are developing.

If you want to search New Forest Life.com without using the navigation bars on the left, then here's a really useful Google tool. Just put your search details e.g. pigs in the search box and hit Search and you can choose to search my site or go onto the Web and come back to NewForest-Life.com.

Custom Search