Hadrian Cook’s new account of the New Forest in southern England, provides an historical narrative of the occupation and use of a vast area that was, for centuries, important as a Royal Hunting Forest and subject to many contentious laws and regulations, but which includes much economically marginal land. Four critical themes are explored through time: the shaping of the natural environment into human prehistory; human intervention through natural resource management; governance and management of the forest over time, stressing pressures on resources and attempts at exclusion of certain social groups; and policies and designations to conserve the New Forest. Cook aims to reflect a complicated narrative around the evolution caused by changing management and economic objectives reflecting governance arrangements at different times. Once the domain of kings, the New Forest is today, in effect, open-access, largely state-owned land, famous for its pretty villages, mosaic of moorland and woodland, roaming horses and cattle, diverse wildlife and miles of open countryside. But this tranquility belies a complex and contested history.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary of Historic Terms
• 1 A New Book on the New Forest
  • Into the forest
  • Legal reforms and management changes
  • Previous accounts
  • Characteristics of the New Forest
  • An approach
  • Summary
• 2 Under the Greenwood Tree
  • Landscape ecology, function and value
  • Geology, climate and soils
  • Stability and change
  • Values placed in trees
  • New Forest landscapes
  • Summary
• 3 A Hungry Land (10,000 BC–AD 1066)
  • Early human activity and the landscape
  • Agriculture and the Neolithic (c.4000–2400 BC)
  • Bronze Age (c.2400–700 BC)
  • Iron Age (c.700 BC–AD 43)
  • The coming of the Romans
  • Romano-British settlement
  • Roman roads
  • Roman industry
  • Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes and the hunt
  • Anglo-Saxons and Normans in transition
  • Conclusions
• 4 The Medieval Forest (1066–1500)
  • The Normans at work and at play
  • Feudalism, economy and the law
  • Within the perambulation
  • Economic development
  • Settlements and enclosures
  • Conclusions
• 5 Forest Governance in Medieval Times
  • Officers of the forest
  • The forest laws
  • The forest courts
  • Governance and reform
  • Charter of the Forest
  • Dwellers within the forest
  • Conclusions
• 6 The Increase and Preservation of Timber (1500–1700)
  • Henry VIII heralds a new regime?
  • Re-organisation and the rise of auditing
  • The end of monastic interests
  • Coppicing: a New Forest experiment?
  • Manwood and Norden
  • The rise of silviculture
  • Grazing
  • Seventeenth century pressure on land
  • Conclusions
• 7 Decline of the Old Ways (1660–1900)
  • Planting and counting the hearts of oak
  • The ‘Drivers’, their map and the General Surveyor
  • Office of Woods and the arrival of big government?
  • The New Forest Association, commoning and inclosure
  • Encroachment, enclosure and property rights
  • Romany population
  • Extent of encroachment
  • Nomansland
  • East Boldre
  • In the villages
  • Conclusions
• 8 The Search for the Workable (1900–1980)
  • Conservation to the Second World War
  • A new land fit for heroes,1945–1949?
  • Misfits
  • Redeeming the New Forest?
  • Conclusions
• 9 The Rise of the National Park (1980–Present)
  • New Forest National Park (NFNP)
  • Boundaries again
  • Modern commoners
  • Agri-environment payments
  • Who needs another layer of bureaucracy anyway?
  • Evolving governance and its dissenters
  • Economic and governance challenges
  • New partnerships in hydrological projects? A case example
  • Conclusions
• Bibliography