New Forest Notes: Spree of destruction at historical sites
Wrecking the Forest’s historical sites
In the first few weeks of 2025, the Forest has undergone a spree of destruction of its historical sites, unparalleled in my lifetime. The perpetrator of this damage is not some careless builder who might be expected to act no better, but the government agency responsible for the management and protection of the Forest – Forestry England. It is a distressing story of inadequate planning and continual disregard of warnings, which has built up over recent years. To understand it fully, one needs to know a little of the archaeological treasures for which the New Forest is an unrivalled reserve in southern England.
The Crown lands of the Forest contain no great stone-built fortresses, ruined abbeys, Roman villas with gleaming mosaics or fabulous treasure sites such as the Sutton Hoo burial. Instead, our archaeology is, except for burial mounds and other earthworks, largely hidden under the ground, but it is of no less importance because of that. Moreover, since in modern times the Forest has not been farmed beyond the light touch of the commoners’ grazing animals, historic sites have survived here to a remarkable extent. For example, it was the home of a thriving pottery production industry towards the end of the Roman occupation. Beautiful pottery vessels were made here and traded throughout the south of England. The settlements and kiln sites which produced them remained untouched for 1,700 years. Then, many were destroyed by treasure hunters in the 19th century. It was treatment not equalled until the ravages of metal detector operators and other thieves in today’s Forest. Several kilns were carefully excavated a hundred years later by experts such as Heywood Sumner and Professor Mike Fulford. The few surviving undamaged kilns include those which have been the most recent victims of Forestry England’s activities.
If the Roman occupation seems distant to most of us, the much older Bronze Age has left far greater evidence of human occupation in both life and death, perhaps three to four thousand years ago. The great burial mounds (barrows) of the period are plain for all to see in places such as Beaulieu Heath, but the fascinating water-heating sites are more numerous than even the barrows and their purpose is still little understood. These sites too have been particular victims of Forestry England’s repeated failure to commission accurate and complete field research in advance of undertaking major engineering works.
Until about 20 years ago the protection of the Forest’s archaeology was acknowledged by the Forestry Commission as being an important part of its land management. When potentially destructive works were planned, careful surveys were undertaken in advance and historic sites were marked clearly so that damage could be prevented. In those days really thorough fieldwork was carried out for the Commission by the local survey team of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society. Of course there were occasional mistakes, but overall the system worked well. Then, after about 2010, things started to fall apart. The work areas were no longer properly searched or reported on. Such reports as were commissioned were (and continue to this day) largely inaccurate and incomplete. Whenever possible, local experts have still tried to check and correct the errors, but usually the reports are not even made available until after the engineering works commence and damage has started. A series of important Bronze Age and other archaeological features in Denny Inclosure was destroyed in this way in 2023. All this could have been prevented if the inadequate reports had been made available for checking on the ground before works started.
So what has happened this year that has resulted in such damage? In July 2023 it became clear that major felling was commencing in an inclosure near Fordingbridge, around a place called Pitchers Knowl. The area was known to contain important Roman sites, all of them published, but FE’s surveyors seemed unable to recognise or to report on most of them, and damage started. In an effort to retrieve the situation, a very detailed report and plan was provided by the New Forest History and Archaeology Group, correcting all the errors and omissions. It was then assumed, wrongly, that the sites had been saved. At about the beginning of this year, huge machines equipped with root forks moved in levelling many acres of land, obliterating earthworks and wrecking most Roman sites in the affected area. Not content with this, the machines also attacked a further Roman kiln site in an adjoining inclosure at Lower Hat. Here the damage did not follow tree felling, but the deliberate filling of a small stream, on the banks of which a kiln site was discovered 60 years ago. Nothing seems to have survived there now. This site too had been omitted from the FE’s archaeological report, but again it was a published feature and should have been identified with ease simply by study in an office. As at Pitchers Knowl, there can again be no excuse for its destruction.
The photographs here show the fragile remains of a Roman pottery kiln in the Forest excavated by Professor Fulford 50 years ago and examples of New Forest fine ware (mostly pieces of wine flagons and drinking vessels) from a site dug in the early 19th century by the Rev J Pemberton Bartlett. The sites destroyed this year seem to have concentrated on the production of larger pots, effectively the kitchen ware of the period.
An excellent burning year
This March at last broke the long run of wet and humid conditions which have for several years made near impossible the annual programme of controlled burning in the Forest. Throughout the month conditions were near perfect with few days when FE’s two teams were not kept very busy.
Burning is the traditional and most effective method of clearing coarse vegetation in the Forest. In other parts of the country, it is often called swailing. Today much of the open Forest is burnt on rotation in blocks averaging about five acres and seldom more than 10 acres. Particularly targeted are the areas of old gorse which, if left untreated, can become decrepit and eventually die out. Under the right weather conditions, the old stems are killed, but the roots are protected by the wet soil beneath and quickly put up vigorous new growth to replace the old bushes over the next couple of years. Surprising as it may seem, gorse is a significant food source for the ponies in winter and the new softer growth is particularly important for them. Some mares learn to pound the gorse with their fore feet before consuming it and this habit is often handed down through the generations.
Today’s burning is a very carefully planned and managed operation, often with “traces” (firebreaks) cut around the areas to be burnt and with careful regard to roads and nearby thatched houses. I can remember when blocks of 30 acres or more were the rule and that must have been much easier work than the small patches allowed today.
Although the welfare of Forest livestock is the primary objective of the burning programme, it has an important secondary role in fire prevention. When hundreds of acres are left unmanaged, they become potentially vulnerable to uncontrolled wild fires during the hot summer months. Then heathland vegetation may be destroyed, rather than simply managed as in the spring burning. It is years since we have had serious fires of that sort in the Forest and that is due in part to the planned small clearances.
Of course burning is not uncontroversial. There are objections that it is ugly and so it is for a few months after the fire, but new growth soon takes over and the old singed stems dry out and eventually fall over. In the old days, Forest residents were encouraged to collect ‘black jacks’ (burnt gorse stems) for fuel. It was not uncommon to see elderly people collecting them, often in old perambulators. Nowadays I don’t suppose anyone bothers. The other objection to burning is that it is damaging to wildlife. The permitted season finishes at the end of March and, while some early nests may be destroyed, I suppose it is a matter of balancing the needs of one species against another. Since the committee supervising the burning programme is dominated by ecologists, with commoners in a small minority, perhaps the fears of damage are overstated. It has been argued that all burning should cease and be replaced by machine cutting. Cutting leaves a thick carpet of twigs and other debris which impede grazing and probably also suppress regrowth. Finally, demands for late autumn and winter burning are impractical because high levels of moisture in the vegetation make fires difficult and the results unsatisfactory.
The verderers’ office opening arrangements
Following the retirement of the clerk to the verderers at the end of 2024, I have been asked several times about the opening arrangements for the office now that staff numbers are, at least temporarily, reduced. As in the past, the office can be contacted by telephone (023 8028 2052) between 9am and 5pm from Monday to Friday. However, it will be open to visitors on only three mornings a week – Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 10am and 1pm. That means that business which requires the presence of the clerk’s assistant, such as inspections of the atlas of Forest rights or the registration of brands will be restricted to those times. It is very helpful to the office if visitors for these purposes make telephone appointments in advance.
