CROWN LAND
The fact that the New Forest still stands on 93,000 acres of prime development land on the south coast is largely due to an event stretching back over 900 years. It was established as a Royal Forest in 1079 when, following the Norman invasion of 1066, William the Conqueror designated the area his Nova Foresta. In those days, the word forest had a different meaning to that of today. It specifically referred to an area of land set aside exclusively for the monarch and his companions to hunt ‘beasts of the chase’, which were primarily deer and wild boar. These areas would typically contain varied areas of wood, open lawns and heathland, and were subject to special forest laws. There were penalties for any transgressions by the population of commoners, who were not of the nobility or priesthood, living in them. These were severe, and included death. The area became Crown land, and today, almost 1,000 years later, the central heart of the forest still is Crown land. All of this has been crucial to the forest’s ecological history and longevity, because the legal status conferred on it meant that the expansion and development of early settlements was severely restrained. It also resulted in the forest being governed by a complex judicial and legal system that still persists today. Since 1924, the Forestry Commission has acted as manager of the ongoing Crown interest, with the verderers as managers of the commoners and their rights. Verderer is a title which comes from the Norman word vert, meaning green and referring to woodland. They are also ‘guardians of the forest’, investigating minor offences in the forest at their special court in Lyndhurst. In March 2005, following the granting of National Park status, a third party was added to the management of the forest: the National Park Authority. What this means is that, although the arrangement is complex and multi-layered, and the different factions rarely entirely agree on all matters, the forest is triple-protected.
“Far as these wilds extend. He levell’d down Their little cottages, he bade their fields Lie barren, so that o’er the forest waste He might most royally pursue his sports!“Robert Southey, ‘For a Monument in the New Forest’