89-559: The New Forest Tour is an open-top bus service in the New Forest , running three circular routes around various towns, attractions and villages in the protected forest. It is run by morebus and Bluestar in partnership with Hampshire County Council, New Forest District Council and the New Forest National Park Authority. As part of the tour, passengers can hop on and off wherever they would like. They can either catch
178-553: A Ramsar Site ; it also has its own Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). The New Forest itself gives its name to the New Forest district of Hampshire , and the National Park area, of which it forms the core. The Forest itself is dominated by four larger 'defined' villages, Sway , Brockenhurst , Lyndhurst and Ashurst , with several smaller villages such as Burley , Beaulieu , Godshill , Fritham , Nomansland , and Minstead also lying within or immediately adjacent. Outside of
267-648: A minor injuries unit but no accident and emergency facility. The nearest are at Southampton General Hospital , 16 miles (26 km) away, and the Royal Bournemouth Hospital , 14.5 miles (23.3 km) away. The main Anglican parish church is St Thomas's in the High Street. Lymington Town Hall , in Avenue Road, was opened in 1966. The northern neighbourhoods of the town are Buckland and Lower Buckland,
356-454: A playground , a cricket ground and a sports field. The neighbourhood consists of a small southern triangle of residential and rural lanes, which include a manor house, church community hall, and All Saints' Church, Lymington. The church was built in 1909 by W. H. Romaine-Walker , architect of Danesfield House , Moreton Hall, Warwickshire , and the Tate Gallery extension , and a student of
445-541: A 1759 victory). From the early 19th century, Lymington had a thriving shipbuilding industry, particularly associated with Thomas Inman, builder of the schooner Alarm , which famously raced the American yacht America in the 1851 America's Cup . Much of the town centre is Victorian and Georgian , with narrow cobbled streets in the area of the quay. In 1859 the Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of Mercy and Saint Joseph
534-408: A Commoner qualifying for both schemes would receive over £8,000 a year, and more if they also put out pigs: net of marking fees, feed and veterinary costs this part-time level of involvement across a family is calculated to give an annual income in the thousands of pounds in most years. Whether those subsidies will survive Brexit is unclear. The BPS payment was based on the number of animals marked for
623-406: A benefiting house with paddock or farm. The Verderers and Commoners' Defence Association has fought back against these allied economic threats. The EU Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) helped some Commoners significantly. Commoners marking animals for grazing can claim about £200 per cow per year, and about £160 for a pony, and more if participating in the stewardship scheme. With 10 cattle and 40 ponies,
712-533: A circular clockwise direction, with the starting point being at the town of Lyndhurst . The route covers the other towns and villages of Burley , Ringwood , Fordingbridge , Cadnam and Ashurst with the total journey time being estimated at 2 hours. From the town of Lyndhurst, tourists can transfer onto the Green route and from the town of Burley, tourists can transfer onto the Blue route. New Forest The New Forest
801-461: A fixed number of animals, as is often the case on other commons. Instead a "marking fee" is paid for each animal each year by the owner. The marked animal's tail is trimmed by the local agister (verderers' official), with each of the four or five forest agisters using a different trimming pattern. Ponies are branded with the owner's brand mark; cattle may be branded, or nowadays may have the brand mark on an ear tag. Grazing of Commoners' ponies and cattle
890-423: A flourishing district to a wasteland; this account is thought dubious by most historians, as the poor soil in much of the area is believed to have been incapable of supporting large-scale agriculture, and significant areas appear to have always been uninhabited. Two of William's sons died in the forest: Prince Richard sometime between 1069 and 1075, and King William II (William Rufus) in 1100. Though many claim
979-510: A nine-hole golf course, a rowing club, a community centre, a library, St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery , two swimming pools (one the Lymington Open Air Sea Water Baths built in 1833), a sports centre, a small cinema/theatre, a Skatepark (for skateboards), several tennis courts, and some youth football pitches. There is also a pétanque terrain near St Thomas's church. Lymington Cricket Club was established in 1807 and plays in
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#17328522103201068-561: A number of Nature Conservation Review sites. It is a Special Area of Conservation , a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area . Copythorne Common is managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust , Kingston Great Common is a national nature reserve and New Forest Northern Commons is managed by the National Trust . Like much of England, the site of the New Forest
1157-544: A problem. During the Second World War, an area of the forest, Ashley Range , was used as a bombing range. The Beaulieu, Hampshire estate of Lord Montagu in the New Forest was the site of group B finishing schools for agents operated by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) between 1941 and 1945. (One of the trainers was Kim Philby who was later found to be part of a spy ring passing information to
1246-497: A profusion of rare wildlife, including the New Forest cicada Cicadetta montana , the only cicada native to Great Britain, although the last unconfirmed sighting was in 2000. The wet heaths are important for rare plants, such as marsh gentian ( Gentiana pneumonanthe ) and marsh clubmoss ( Lycopodiella inundata ) and other important species include the wild gladiolus ( Gladiolus illyricus ). Several species of sundew are found, as well as many unusual insect species, including
1335-435: A similar service to 2008. For the 2012 season new GPS commentary was added to the two tours (the red tour was introduced). For 2013 the tours ran between 29 June and 15 September that year. A new blue tour was introduced because of the popularity of the other two tours the previous year. This tour originally ran hourly, but Wilts & Dorset later figured out that they couldn't run it on time on an hourly basis, so they changed
1424-456: A single compact area. The New Forest was first recorded as Nova Foresta in Domesday Book in 1086, where a section devoted to it is interpolated between lands of the king's thegns and the town of Southampton ; it is the only forest that the book describes in detail. Twelfth-century chroniclers alleged that William had created the forest by evicting the inhabitants of 36 parishes, reducing
1513-465: A subsidy. Therefore, a tender exercise is currently being worked on by Hampshire County Council to determine the level of subsidy required. This will allow for any operator to bid for the tender. A number of options are being considered, such as continuing as in 2008, only operating between Wednesdays and Sundays, only operating on the weekend and only using one bus. The tour did return in 2009, between Saturday 20 June and Sunday 13 September 2009, running
1602-421: A way "appropriate for the New Forest destination". The same buses as used in 2006 were used on the tour this year, which by now Solent Blue Line had acquired from Wilts & Dorset, both being part of Go South Coast . As part of the new marketing, the vehicles were painted in a new green livery with ponies on the side, essentially a green version of Southern Vectis ' Island Breezers livery. The Tour's website
1691-574: Is Everton, about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the west of the town centre. Thanks to its coastal position, sunshine levels are high relative to the rest of Britain, and severe frost unusual. The lowest recorded temperature in 43 years of records was −11.1 °C (12.0 °F) in January 1963. The highest locally recorded temperature was 33.5 °C (92.3 °F) in June 1976. date=November 2011 date=November 2011 The town's leisure amenities include several parks,
1780-480: Is a local market, one of the New Forest producers' markets, held at the Masonic hall once a month in the game season. There are several marine outfitters in the cobbled street leading down to the quay. Lymington has a wide range of shops and a large street market in the High Street, as well as three supermarkets: Waitrose , a small Tesco in the High Street, and a Marks and Spencer Food Hall. Local campaigns resulted in
1869-426: Is a northern residential offshoot of Pennington, more rural in character, almost entirely surrounded by heath and farmland. Lymington yacht basin and mudflats make up the former docks area known as Waterford. Lower Pennington and Woodside lie adjacent to Woodside Park, a 20-hectare (49-acre) public park bequeathed to the people of Lymington in 1925 by Colonel Henry Douglas Rooke. The park includes formal gardens,
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#17328522103201958-425: Is an essential part of the management of the forest, helping to maintain the heathland, bog, grassland and wood-pasture habitats and their associated wildlife. Recently this ancient practice has come under pressure as houses that benefit from forest rights pass to owners with no interest in commoning. Existing families with a new generation heavily rely on inheritance of, rather than the (mostly expensive) purchase of,
2047-693: Is based in nearby Pennington. Lymington Cricket Club is an amateur cricket club that plays at the Sports Ground. The Third and Fourth XI play their home matches at Woodside Park. The club's first team compete in the Southern Premier Cricket League , which is the highest level of club cricket in Hampshire. Lymington has a rugby union club, Lymington Mariners RFC, whose two teams play at Woodside Park. It meets every Thursday evening for practice and most Saturday afternoons for tournament games in
2136-643: Is bounded by the Dorset Heaths and Dorset Downs to the west, the West Wiltshire Downs to the north and the South Hampshire Lowlands and South Coast Plain to the east. The New Forest is drained to the south by three rivers, Lymington River , Beaulieu River and Avon Water , and to the west by the Latchmore Brook , Dockens Water, Linford Brook and other streams. The highest point in
2225-546: Is named The Snakecatcher in his memory. All British snakes are now legally protected , and so the New Forest snakes are no longer caught. A programme to reintroduce the sand lizard ( Lacerta agilis ) started in 1989 and the great crested newt ( Triturus cristatus ) already breeds in many locations. Sand lizards in a captive breeding and reintroduction programme together with adders, grass snakes, smooth snakes , frogs and toads can be seen at The New Forest Reptile Centre about two miles east of Lyndhurst . The centre
2314-556: Is one of the indigenous horse breeds of the British Isles, and is one of the New Forest's most famous attractions – most of the Forest ponies are of this breed, but there are also some Shetlands and their crossbreeds . Cattle are of various breeds, most commonly Galloways and their crossbreeds, but also various other hardy types such as Highlands , Herefords , Dexters , Kerries and British whites . The pigs used for pannage , during
2403-618: Is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England , covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire . It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror , featuring in the Domesday Book . It is the home of the New Forest Commoners , whose ancient rights of common pasture are still recognised and exercised, enforced by official verderers and agisters . In
2492-566: Is sparse before Domesday (1086). Lymington itself began as an Anglo-Saxon village. The Jutes arrived in the area from the Isle of Wight in the 6th century and founded a settlement called Limentun . The Old English word tun means a farm or hamlet whilst limen is derived from the Ancient British word *lemanos meaning an elm tree. The town is recorded in Domesday as Lentune . About 1200,
2581-412: Is still an important part of the Forest's ecology. Pigs can eat acorns without problem, but for ponies and cattle, large quantities of acorns can be poisonous. Pannage always lasts at least 60 days, but the start date varies according to the weather – and when the acorns fall. The verderers decide when pannage will start each year. At other times the pigs must be taken in and kept on the owner's land, with
2670-700: 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, and concluded by endorsing the proposal with some detailed changes to the boundary of the area to be designated. On 28 June 2004, Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael confirmed
2759-596: The Hampshire region, and friendlies around the South of England. Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC South and ITV Meridian . Television signals are received from the Rowridge TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Solent on 96.1 FM, Heart South on 96.7 FM, Capital South on 103.2 FM, Easy Radio South Coast on 107.8 FM, Nation Radio South Coast on 106.0 FM and New Forest Hospital Radio, that broadcast local programming to patients from
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2848-460: The ITV children's show Worzel Gummidge was filmed in the town during the summer of that year. During filming a sudden wind blew the titanium dioxide that was being used as a replica of snow into homes, shops and businesses, causing damage and a large compensation bill for the producers, Southern Television . Lymington was occasionally featured in the 1980s BBC series Howards' Way . Lymington
2937-531: The Lymington River on the Solent , in the New Forest district of Hampshire , England. The town faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight , to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink . It is within the civil parish of Lymington and Pennington . The town has a large tourist industry, based on proximity to the New Forest and its harbour. It is a major yachting centre with three marinas . As of 2015,
3026-475: The New Forest local government district). As well as most of the New Forest district of Hampshire , it takes in the South Hampshire Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , a small corner of Test Valley district around the village of Canada and part of Wiltshire south-east of Redlynch . Lymington Lymington / ˈ l ɪ m ɪ ŋ t ən / is a port town on the west bank of
3115-524: The New Forest Hospital in the town. The Lymington Times and New Milton Advertiser is the town's local newspaper. Lymington bus depot is owned by Go South Coast . Numerous local services operate, as do routes to Bournemouth and Southampton . In the summer, the New Forest Tour serves the town with open-top buses. Lymington's two railway stations – Lymington Pier (the terminus ), on
3204-708: The Second Reform Act of 1867 , and it was subsumed into the New Forest Division under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 . Lymington was famous for salt-making from the Middle Ages up to the 19th century. There was an almost continuous belt of salt workings along the coast toward Hurst Spit . In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Lymington possessed a military depot that included a number of foreign troops – mostly artillery but also several militia regiments. At
3293-559: The 18th century, the New Forest became a source of timber for the Royal Navy . It remains a habitat for many rare birds and mammals . The boundaries of the forest have varied over time and depend on the purpose of delimiting them. It is a 28,924.5-hectare (71,474-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest . Several areas are Geological Conservation Review sites, including Mark Ash Wood, Shepherd’s Gutter, Cranes Moor, Studley Wood, and Wood Green. There are also
3382-461: The 19th century. Since 1990 they have been operated by Wightlink , succeeding the nationalised Sealink on the route. The current fleet comprises three car ferries, which entered service in 2009: Wight Light , Wight Sky and Wight Sun . The service runs about once an hour from a dock south-east of the old town on the far side of the Lymington River . Lymington features in The Children of
3471-472: The Bluestar website. The tour ran from 24 May to 31 August, and the connections to the tour were withdrawn. A professionally recorded commentary was added to the service. 2008 was the final year of the three year funding commitment. In the 2008 review, Bluestar stated that revenue from ticket sales alone do not cover the cost of the current operation. To continue the tour in the same format into 2009 would require
3560-663: The Forest they still also breed in many of the bogs and heaths respectively. Woodland birds include wood warbler ( Phylloscopus sibilatrix ), stock dove ( Columba oenas ), European honey buzzard ( Pernis apivorus ) and northern goshawk ( Accipiter gentilis ). Common buzzard ( Buteo buteo ) is very common and common raven ( Corvus corax ) is spreading. Birds seen more rarely include red kite ( Milvus milvus ), wintering great grey shrike ( Lanius exubitor ) and hen harrier ( Circus cyaneus ) and migrating ring ouzel ( Turdus torquatus ) and northern wheatear ( Oenanthe oenanthe ). All three British native species of snake inhabit
3649-402: The Forest to graze ( common pasture ), to gather fuel wood ( estovers ), to cut peat for fuel ( turbary ), to dig clay ( marl ), and to turn out pigs between September and November to eat fallen acorns and beechnuts ( pannage or mast ). There were also licences granted to gather bracken after Michaelmas Day (29 September) as litter for animals ( fern ). Along with grazing, pannage
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3738-628: The Forest, whether or not these are actually turned out. The livestock actually grazing the Forest are therefore considerably fewer than those marked. The New Forest National Park area covers 566 km (219 sq mi), and the New Forest SSSI covers almost 300 km (120 sq mi), making it the largest contiguous area of unsown vegetation in lowland Britain. It includes roughly: The New Forest has also been classed as National Character Area No. 131 by Natural England . The NCA covers an area of 738 km (285 sq mi) and
3827-573: The Forest. The adder ( Vipera berus ) is the most common, being found on open heath and grassland. The grass snake ( Natrix natrix ) prefers the damper environment of the valley mires. The rare smooth snake ( Coronella austriaca ) occurs on sandy hillsides with heather and gorse . It was mainly adders which were caught by Brusher Mills (1840–1905), the "New Forest Snake Catcher". He caught many thousands in his lifetime, sending some to London Zoo as food for their animals. A pub in Brockenhurst
3916-493: The High Victorian architect George Edmund Street . Normandy is a coastal hamlet by a very small dock , salterns and estuary . It includes the buildings Normandy Garth, Little Normandy and Normandy Farm. The last backs onto De La Warr House, an early 19th-century listed building . The high street has seen rapid change over the last few years, with an increasing presence of chain stores and coffee-shop franchises. There
4005-516: The Jutes". The Jutes were one of the early Anglo-Saxon tribal groups who colonised this area of southern Hampshire. Following the Norman Conquest , the New Forest was proclaimed a royal forest , in about 1079, by William the Conqueror . It was used for royal hunts, mainly of deer . It was created at the expense of more than 20 small hamlets and isolated farmsteads ; hence it was then 'new' as
4094-539: The King in chase Pursues the hart, just vengeance comes apace, And King pursues. Tirrell him seing not, Unwares him flew with dint of arrow shot. The common rights were confirmed by statute in 1698. The New Forest became a source of timber for the Royal Navy , and plantations were created in the 18th century for this purpose. During the Great Storm of 1703 , about 4,000 oak trees were lost. The naval plantations encroached on
4183-687: The National Park Area in New Forest District, several clusters of larger towns frame the area – Totton and the Waterside settlements ( Marchwood , Dibden , Hythe , Fawley ) to the East, Christchurch , New Milton , Milford on Sea , and Lymington to the South, and Fordingbridge and Ringwood to the West. Consultations on the possible designation of a National Park in the New Forest were commenced by
4272-580: The New Forest by Captain Marryat , in the historical novels of the local writer Warwick Collins ( The Rationalist and The Marriage of Souls ), and in The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd . In Tom Clancy 's Patriot Games , a Wightlink ferry heading from the Lymington ferry terminal is intercepted and a prisoner extracted in heavy seas. Several men on board the ferry are murdered. The 1980 Christmas special of
4361-459: 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. The designated area of the National Park covers 566 km (219 sq mi) and includes many existing SSSIs . It has a population of about 38,000 (it excludes most of the 170,256 people who live in
4450-604: The New Forest is Pipers Wait, near Nomansland . Its summit is 129 metres (423 feet) above sea level . The geology of the New Forest consists mainly of sedimentary rock, in the centre of a sedimentary basin known as the Hampshire Basin. The ecological value of the New Forest is enhanced by the relatively large areas of lowland habitats, lost elsewhere, which have survived. There are several kinds of important lowland habitat including valley bogs , alder carr , wet heaths , dry heaths and deciduous woodland . The area contains
4539-629: The New Forest is still owned by the Crown. The Crown lands have been managed by Forestry England since 1923 and most of the Crown lands now fall inside the new National Park. Felling of broadleaved trees, and their replacement by conifers , began during the First World War to meet the wartime demand for wood. Further encroachments were made during the Second World War. This process is today being reversed in places, with some plantations being returned to heathland or broadleaved woodland. Rhododendron remains
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#17328522103204628-543: The Southern Premier and Hampshire Cricket leagues. The proximity of the New Forest makes Lymington a popular base for walking, cycling and riding. Lymington is famous for its sailing history, and in recent years has been home to the world-famous regattas such as the Royal Lymington Cup, Etchells Worlds, Macnamara's Bowl, and Source Regatta. The strong tides make it a challenging race track, and together with
4717-568: The Soviets.) In 2005, a special exhibition was mounted at the estate, with a video showing photographs from that era as well as voice recordings of former SOE trainers and agents. Further 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
4806-599: The autumn months, are now of various breeds, but the New Forest was the original home of the Wessex Saddleback , now extinct in Britain. Numerous deer live in the Forest; they are usually rather shy and tend to stay out of sight when people are around, but are surprisingly bold at night, even when a car drives past. Fallow deer ( Dama dama ) are the most common, followed by roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ) and red deer ( Cervus elaphus ). There are also smaller populations of
4895-475: The carbon dioxide emissions of the New Forest District Council area were recorded as 928,000 tonnes. Forest laws were enacted to preserve the New Forest as a location for royal deer hunting , and interference with the king's deer and its forage was punished. The inhabitants of the area ( commoners ) had pre-existing rights of common : to turn horses and cattle (but only rarely sheep) out into
4984-529: The coast to the edge of Christchurch . The borough of Lymington was abolished on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972 , becoming an unparished area in the district of New Forest , with Charter Trustees . The area was subsequently divided into the four parishes of New Milton , Lymington and Pennington , Milford-on-Sea and Hordle . A new library was added in 2002. Due to changes in planning legislation, many older areas of
5073-550: The east side of the river near the ferry terminal, and Lymington Town – are connected to the national rail network by a branch line to Brockenhurst . Services twice an hour are operated by South Western Railway . The A337 road links Lymington to Lyndhurst and the M27 motorway to the north, and to New Milton and the South East Dorset conurbation to the west. Ferries have run between Lymington and Yarmouth, Isle of Wight , since
5162-462: The exception that pregnant sows, known as privileged sows , are always allowed out providing they are not a nuisance and return to the Commoner's holding at night (they must not be " levant and couchant " in the Forest, that is, they may not consecutively feed and sleep there). This last is an established practice rather than a formal right. The principle of levancy and couchancy applies generally to
5251-400: The frequency to every hour and 15 mins, still using two buses. The other two routes remained hourly. In the network there are three routes, with them all going under individual colour scheme branding for each individual route. The Green route runs approximately every hour and runs in a circular anticlockwise direction, with the starting point being at the town of Lyndhurst . The route covers
5340-455: 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. Forestry England retain their powers to manage the Crown land within the Park. The Verderers under
5429-464: The introduced sika deer ( Cervus nippon ) and muntjac ( Muntiacus reevesii ). The red squirrel ( Sciurus vulgaris ) survived in the Forest until the 1970s – longer than most places in lowland Britain (though it still occurs on the Isle of Wight and the nearby Brownsea Island ). It is now fully supplanted in the Forest by the introduced North American grey squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis ). The European polecat ( Mustela putorius ) has recolonised
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#17328522103205518-488: The latter adjoining the Lymington River. However, to avoid confusion with Buckland, Portsmouth , also in Hampshire, many people refer to themselves and their businesses here solely as Lymington. The poet Caroline Anne Bowles (1786–1854) was born at Buckland Manor and died at Buckland Cottage. Pennington is a village near Lymington, but is separated from the town by several schools with playing fields. Upper Pennington
5607-404: The latter is due to an inaccurate arrow shot from his hunting companion, local folklore asserted that this was punishment for the crimes committed by William when he created his New Forest; 17th-century writer Richard Blome provides detail: In this County [Hantshire] is New-Forest, formerly called Ytene, being about 30 miles in compass; in which said tract William the Conqueror (for the making of
5696-409: The lord of the manor, William de Redvers created the borough of New Lymington around the present quay and High Street, while Old Lymington comprised the rest of the parish. He gave the town its first charter and the right to hold a market. The town became a parliamentary borough in 1585, returning two MPs until 1832, when its electoral base was expanded. Its representation was reduced to one member under
5785-446: The next tour, or switch between the different routes with the same ticket. With audio commentary on the buses, passengers can hear the stories of the people, places and animals of the New Forest. Passengers can also track buses via live departure times, or visually on a map, by visiting the morebus or bluestar websites, or in the bluestar bus and morebus app. The tour was set up in 2004 by Solent Blue Line and City Sightseeing . The aim
5874-528: The only known inhumation site of the Early Iron Age and the only known Hallstatt culture burial place in Britain, though any bodies are likely decomposed beyond detection by the acidic soil. Following Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain, according to Florence of Worcester (d. 1118), the area became the site of the Jutish kingdom of Ytene ; this name was the genitive plural of Yt meaning "Jute", i.e. "of
5963-545: The parish of Lymington and Pennington had a population of 15,726. The earliest settlement in the Lymington area was around the Iron Age hill fort known today as Buckland Rings . The hill and ditches of the fort survive, and archaeological excavation of part of the walls was carried out in 1935. The fort has been dated to around the 6th century BC. There is another supposed Iron Age site at nearby Ampress Hole . However, evidence of later settlement there (as opposed to occupation)
6052-626: The past, there are control measures now in place to manage this. Specialist heathland birds are widespread, including Dartford warbler ( Curruca undata ), woodlark ( Lullula arborea ), northern lapwing ( Vanellus vanellus ), Eurasian curlew ( Numenius arquata ), European nightjar ( Caprimulgus europaeus ), Eurasian hobby ( Falco subbuteo ), European stonechat ( Saxicola rubecola ), common redstart ( Phoenicurus phoenicurus ) and tree pipit ( Anthus sylvestris ). As in much of Britain common snipe ( Gallinago gallinago ) and meadow pipit ( Anthus trivialis ) are common as wintering birds, but in
6141-491: The rejection of proposals for the opening of branches of the Argos retail outlet, and in 2010 of the J D Wetherspoon pub chain. However, a second proposal by Wetherspoons in 2012 was successful and a pub named The Six Bells opened in 2013. Lymington, like the rest of the South of England, has a maritime climate of warm summers and mild winters. The nearest official Met office weather station for which online records are available
6230-451: The right of pasture. Commoners must have backup land, outside the Forest, to accommodate these depastured animals when necessary, for example during a foot-and-mouth disease epidemic. Commons rights are attached to particular plots of land (or in the case of turbary, to particular hearths ), and different land has different rights – and some of this land is some distance from the Forest itself. Rights to graze ponies and cattle are not for
6319-609: The rights of the Commoners, but the Forest gained new protection under the New Forest Act 1877, which confirmed the historic rights of the Commoners and entrenched that the total of enclosures was henceforth not to exceed 65 km (25 sq mi) at any time. It also reconstituted the Court of Verderers as representatives of the Commoners (rather than the Crown). As of 2005 , roughly 90% of
6408-489: The said Forest a harbour for Wild-beasts for his Game) caused 36 Parish Churches, with all the Houses thereto belonging, to be pulled down, and the poor Inhabitants left succourless of house or home. But this wicked act did not long go unpunished, for his Sons felt the smart thereof; Richard being blasted with a pestilent Air; Rufus shot through with an Arrow; and Henry his Grand-child, by Robert his eldest son, as he pursued his Game,
6497-532: The shallow depth of the river has resulted in Lymington losing several regattas to the Central Solent, principally run from Cowes . Nevertheless, Thursday Evening Racing takes place with up to 100 boats registered to race every Thursday night during the summer, hosted by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club . Started in the 1990s, this has become increasingly popular. There are two active sailing clubs in
6586-627: The southern damselfly ( Coenagrion mercuriale ), large marsh grasshopper ( Stethophyma grossum ) and the mole cricket ( Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa ), all rare in Britain. In 2009, 500 adult southern damselflies were captured and released in the Venn Ottery nature reserve in Devon , which is owned and managed by the Devon Wildlife Trust . The Forest is an important stronghold for a rich variety of fungi , and although these have been heavily gathered in
6675-501: The starting point being at the town of Brockenhurst. The route covers the towns and villages of Burley , Bashley , New Milton , Barton-on-sea , Milford-on-sea and Lymington with the total journey time being estimated at 2 hours. From the town of Burley, tourists can transfer onto the Red route and from the towns of Brockenhurst and Lymington, tourists can transfer onto the Green route. The Red route runs approximately every hour and runs in
6764-557: The time of the Napoleonic Wars , the King's German Artillery was based near Portchester Castle and sent sick soldiers to Lymington or Eling Hospital. As well as Germans and Dutch, there were French émigrés and French regiments. They were raised to take part in the ill-fated Quiberon Invasion of France , from which few returned (contrast the Battle of Quiberon Bay , or Bataille des Cardinaux ,
6853-448: The town have been redeveloped. Houses have been demolished and replaced with blocks of flats and retirement homes. In a Channel 5 programme, Lymington received the accolade of "best town on the coast" in the UK for living (ahead of Sandbanks ), for scenery, transport links and low crime levels. Lymington New Forest Hospital opened in 2007, replacing the earlier Lymington Hospital . This has
6942-495: The town. The Royal Lymington Yacht Club, founded in the 1920s as Lymington River Sailing Club, has over 3,000 members and runs major keelboat and dinghy events. The Lymington Town Sailing Club, founded in 1946, hosts a popular Lymington Winter Series known as the Solent Circuit. Lymington has a non-League football club, Lymington Town F.C. , which plays at the sports ground. The children's football club, Lymington Sprites,
7031-436: The towns and villages of Brockenhurst , Lymington , Beaulieu , Exbury , Dibden Purlieu , Hythe and Applemore with the total journey time being estimated at 2 hours. From the town of Lyndhurst, tourists can transfer onto the Red route and from the towns of Brockenhurst and Lymington, tourists can transfer onto the Blue route. The Blue route runs approximately every hour and runs in a circular anticlockwise direction, with
7120-414: The western edge of the Forest in recent years. European otter ( Lutra lutra ) occurs along watercourses, as well as the introduced American mink ( Neogale vison ). In 2021 a population of Pine Martens was confirmed to be present. The New Forest is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), an EU Special Area of Conservation (SAC), a Special Protection Area for birds (SPA), and
7209-570: Was built to a design by Joseph Hansom . Lymington particularly promotes stories about its smuggling . There are unproven stories of smugglers' tunnels running from the old inns and under the High Street to the town quay. Lymington was among the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 . In 1932 it was extended to include Milton (previously an urban district), the parishes of Milford on Sea and Pennington , and parts of Lymington Rural District , so extending it along
7298-498: Was established in 1969 by Derek Thomson MBE , a Forestry England keeper, who was also involved in establishing the deer viewing platform at nearby Bolderwood . Commoners' cattle, ponies and donkeys roam throughout the open heath and much of the woodland, and it is largely their grazing that maintains the open character of the Forest. They are also frequently seen in the Forest villages, where home and shop owners must take care to keep them out of gardens and shops. The New Forest pony
7387-536: Was hanged among the boughs, and so dyed. This Forest at present affordeth great variety of Game, where his Majesty oft-times withdraws himself for his divertisement. The reputed spot of Rufus's death is marked with a stone known as the Rufus Stone . John White , Bishop of Winchester , said of the forest: From God and Saint King Rufus did Churches take, From Citizens town-court, and mercate place, From Farmer lands: New Forrest for to make, In Beaulew tract, where whiles
7476-474: Was launched, and 60,000 leaflets were distributed to over 300 places. An official guide was also launched, given to passengers as they boarded the tour. The buses no longer towed trailers, carrying bicycles on the lower deck instead. Prior to the 2008 service starting, Solent Blue Line renamed all of its services to run under the Bluestar name. The New Forest Tour remained a separate brand, but details now appear on
7565-461: Was once deciduous woodland, recolonised by birch and eventually beech and oak after the withdrawal of the ice sheets starting around 12,000 years ago. Some areas were cleared for cultivation from the Bronze Age onwards; the poor quality of the soil in the New Forest meant that the cleared areas turned into heathland "waste", which may have been used even then as grazing land for horses. There
7654-484: Was possible due to a £100,000 payment from Hampshire County Council. With an additional combined £30,000 funding every year for three years from the New Forest District Council and National Park Authority, the tour could run hourly instead of two hourly. In 2007, the association with City Sightseeing was dropped, the 2006 review concluding that marketing should be developed with core funding partners, in
7743-459: Was proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 1999, but UNESCO did not take up the nomination. It became a National Park on 1 March 2005, transferring a wide variety of planning and control decisions to the New Forest National Park Authority, who work alongside the local authorities, land owners and crown estates in managing the New Forest. A report in 2023 stated that the region will face hotter, drier summers and wetter winters. In 2019,
7832-510: Was still a significant amount of woodland in this part of Britain, but this was gradually reduced, particularly towards the end of the Middle Iron Age around 250–100 BC, and most importantly the 12th and 13th centuries , and of this essentially all that remains today is the New Forest. There are around 250 round barrows within its boundaries, and scattered boiling mounds , and it also includes about 150 scheduled monuments . One may be
7921-399: Was to get traffic off the roads in and around the New Forest . When started, Solent Blue Line used a Bristol VR on a circular tour around the forest with a bike trailer. In 2005, the tour continued in a similar form, except the route was reversed to today's anti-clockwise version. In 2006 Solent Blue Line operated the tour with two nearly-new open-top buses from Wilts & Dorset . This
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