91-655: South East Councils ( SEC ) is a voluntary association of council leaders from the 70 local authorities in the South East region of England. It is a regional grouping affiliated to the Local Government Association . It was established following the abolition of the South East England Regional Assembly in March 2009. From April 2009 to 2010 it had a statutory role in regional planning . From 2009
182-605: 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
273-408: 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
364-406: 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,
455-461: 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
546-721: A grammar school: 12%; the next highest is the South-West with 6%. The most-educated people ( NQF level 4 or above) in the region live in Elmbridge (51%), then Waverley, and Epsom and Ewell; 33% of people are at this level for the South-East, only second to London at 40%. New Forest National Park The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England , covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire . It
637-597: 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
728-497: 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
819-561: A prosperous economic hub with the largest economy of any region in the UK, after London . The region is home to Gatwick Airport , the UK's second-busiest airport, and Heathrow Airport (the UK's busiest airport) is located adjacent to the region's boundary with Greater London . The coastline along the English Channel provides numerous ferry crossings to mainland Europe . The region is known for its countryside, which includes two national parks:
910-549: 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 was once deciduous woodland, recolonised by birch and eventually beech and oak after
1001-682: Is a 144-ft beech at Devil's Dyke in Newtimber Woods in West Sussex. Until 1999, there was a south east Standard Statistical Region , which also included the counties of Bedfordshire , Greater London , Essex and Hertfordshire . The former south east Civil Defence Region covered the same area as the current official region. In unofficial usage, the South East can refer to a varying area – sometimes only to London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, and Surrey; but sometimes to an area corresponding to
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#17330938559721092-527: Is a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKJ", which is subdivided as follows: Buckinghamshire, Medway and Kent, and Slough have an almost completely selective education system – not just a few grammar schools as other English areas may have – with secondary modern schools as the alternative. Kent has 33 grammar schools, Buckinghamshire 13, Medway 6 and Slough 4. The other areas are comprehensive . The top thirty schools at A level are almost exclusively selective schools; one or two are sixth form colleges . However,
1183-425: 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,
1274-531: Is an official region for statistical and strategic planning purposes, but is not served by any directly elected regional government. From 1998 to 2010 local councils sent to the voluntary South East England Regional Assembly , based in Guildford . Delegates met six times a year and it was responsible for the South East England Development Agency , a project which oversaw investment projects in
1365-594: Is at the junction of the Varsity Line (between Oxford and Cambridge) and the West Coast Main Line . The Harwell computer (Dekatron), now at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley, was built in 1949 and is believed to be the oldest working digital computer in the world. John Wallis of Kent introduced the symbol for infinity and the standard notation for powers of numbers in 1656. Thomas Bayes
1456-643: 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
1547-546: 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
1638-556: 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
1729-843: Is one of the nine official regions of England in the United Kingdom at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of Berkshire , Buckinghamshire , East Sussex , Hampshire , the Isle of Wight , Kent , Oxfordshire , Surrey and West Sussex . Cities and towns in the region include Aldershot , Ashford , Aylesbury , Basingstoke , Bracknell , Brighton and Hove , Canterbury , Chichester , Crawley , Eastbourne , Farnborough , Gosport , Guildford , Hastings , High Wycombe , Margate , Maidstone , Medway , Milton Keynes , Newport , Oxford , Portsmouth , Ramsgate , Reading , Slough , Southampton , Winchester , Woking and Worthing . South East England
1820-412: 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
1911-627: Is strong support for other parties, for example, Oxford , Slough and Southampton Test for Labour and Brighton Pavilion which is held by the Green Party . Out of 84 parliamentary seats, the Conservatives hold 72. In the 2017 general election, the Conservatives won 54.8% of votes, Labour 28.6%, Liberal Democrats 10.6%, Greens 3.1%, and UKIP 2.2%. In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), South East England
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#17330938559722002-442: Is the third-largest region of England, with a land area of 19,072 square kilometres (7,364 sq mi), and is also the most populous with a total population of 9,379,833 in 2022. The region contains eight legally chartered cities : Brighton and Hove , Canterbury , Chichester , Milton Keynes , Oxford , Portsmouth , Southampton and Winchester . The region's close proximity to London has led to South East England becoming
2093-689: The A32 , is an example of a site where the Romano-British grew Roman grapes . Much of the Battle of Britain was fought in this region, especially in Kent. RAF Bomber Command was based at High Wycombe . RAF Medmenham at Danesfield House , west of Marlow in Buckinghamshire, was important for aerial reconnaissance . Operation Corona , based at RAF Kingsdown (at West Kingsdown next to Brands Hatch in Kent, between
2184-700: 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
2275-960: The New Forest and the South Downs , as well as the North Downs , the Chiltern Hills and part of the Cotswolds . The River Thames flows through the region and its basin is known as the Thames Valley . It is also the location of a number of internationally known places of interest, such as HMS Victory in Portsmouth, Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, Thorpe Park and RHS Wisley in Surrey, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Windsor Castle in Berkshire, Leeds Castle ,
2366-739: The White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, Brighton Palace Pier , and Hammerwood Park in East Sussex, and Wakehurst Place in West Sussex. The region has many universities; the University of Oxford is the oldest in the English-speaking world, and ranked among the best in the world. South East England is host to various sporting events, including the annual Henley Royal Regatta , Royal Ascot and The Derby , and sporting venues include Wentworth Golf Club and Brands Hatch . Some of
2457-462: The circulation of blood . The Lilly Research Centre in Windlesham, Berkshire, part of Eli Lilly , developed Olanzapine in 1996 (for bipolar disorder , selling around $ 5bn worldwide annually). Beecham Research Laboratories at Brockham Park in 1959 discovered meticillin (or methicillin), the first semi-synthetic penicillin ( beta-lactamase stable), deriving from their discovery in 1958 of 6-APA ,
2548-758: The flying tail or all-moving tail also known as a stabilator ; this would solve the problem of stability and aircraft control at supersonic speeds , and its design was taken wholesale into the American Bell X-1 , the first supersonic aircraft . The first Harrier aircraft XV738 flew on 28 December 1967; this was the first aircraft of the RAF to have a head-up display avionics system. The first two-seat Harrier XW174 flew on 24 April 1969, later crashing at Larkhill in June 1969. The British Aerospace Sea Harrier XZ450 first flew on 20 August 1978; on 4 May 1982 this aircraft
2639-572: The plan position indicator method of radar display as most commonly known ever since; the site became Plessey Radar in 1965, and currently is run by BAE Systems. Sperry Gyroscope in Bracknell produced the guidance systems for Britain's 1960s space rockets. The Wealden iron industry in the Weald was the site of the first blast furnace in Britain in 1491, and produced much of Britain's cast iron until
2730-533: The 1770s. Portsmouth Block Mills were the site of the world's first metal machine tools , built for the manufacture of wooden pulleys , invented by Henry Maudslay , and the site of the world's first industrial assembly line in 1803. South Foreland Lighthouse on 8 December 1858 was the world's first lighthouse with electric light, with the first type of industrial electrical generator made by Frederick Hale Holmes , from work he had carried out with Floris Nollet of Belgium, and 36 permanent magnets. By 1880, of
2821-474: The A20 and M20), was implemented to confuse German night fighters with native German-speakers, and coordinated by the RAF Y service . Bletchley Park in north Buckinghamshire was the principal Allied centre for codebreaking. The Colossus computer , arguably the world's first, began working on Lorentz codes on 5 February 1944, with Colossus 2 working from June 1944. The site was chosen, among other reasons, because it
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2912-574: The Conqueror (for the making of 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,
3003-663: 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
3094-402: 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
3185-628: 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
3276-573: 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
3367-591: 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
3458-515: The M40); on 13 March 1962, the first in-flight rocket-powered ejection took place by Peter Howard , an RAF doctor based at Farnborough's Institute of Aviation Medicine in Meteor WA364 at 250 ft over Chalgrove, with the rocket giving a maximum force of 16G. The Miles M.52 , designed at Woodley Aerodrome in Berkshire by Miles Aircraft , was an advanced design of aircraft which had the innovation of
3549-735: 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
3640-459: 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
3731-604: 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
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3822-629: 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
3913-478: 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 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
4004-654: The South East England Partnership Board of South East England Councils was responsible, in cooperation with the South East England Development Agency , for strategic planning in the region. This role as a local authority leaders' board was established by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 . This role ended in 2010 with the abolition of statutory regional planning in England . South East England South East England
4095-568: 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
4186-596: The UK was at Epsom telephone exchange from 18 May 1912. It was introduced as standard across the UK's 6,700 telephone exchanges in 1922, lasting for around 70 years; it could handle up to 500 lines. It used the Strowger design and was made by Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company of Liverpool. The world's first automatic telephone exchange had opened in La Porte, Indiana in November 1892. UK-Belgium 5 , laid in 1986 from Kent,
4277-427: The UK, at Farnborough; on 14 May 1909 he flew it for more than a mile. On 13 August 1909, his wife was the first woman in the UK to fly in a plane, also at Farnborough. The first human airborne ejection seat firing took place on 24 July 1946 over Chalgrove Airfield , Oxfordshire, in a Meteor , piloted by Bernard Lynch ; the first dummy ejection had been 10 May 1945 over RAF Oakley in west Buckinghamshire (today near
4368-554: 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 the Jutes". The Jutes were one of the early Anglo-Saxon tribal groups who colonised this area of southern Hampshire. Following the Norman Conquest ,
4459-569: The administrative capital of England some time in the 13th century as its influence waned while the City of London dominated commerce. The last monarch to be crowned at Winchester was Richard II in 1377, although the last monarch to be crowned by the Bishop of Winchester was Queen Mary I in 1553. The Meonhill Vineyard, near Old Winchester Hill in east Hampshire on the South Downs south of West Meon on
4550-412: The astronomer, from Kent, invented the term photography in 1839, meaning light writing . and discovered the first photographic fixer , sodium thiosulphate , known as hypo , also in 1839. GLEEP was Britain's first nuclear reactor, in August 1947 at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) at Harwell, it would stay operational until 1990. William Harvey of Folkestone, in Kent, discovered
4641-490: 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
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#17330938559724732-405: 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
4823-414: The conurbation known as the Greater London Urban Area . The South East has the highest percentage of people born outside of Britain other than London . According to the 2021 census, 78.8% of residents were White British , 7.1% Other White (inc. 0.8% Irish ), 7.0% British Asian , 2.8% Mixed Race , 2.4% Black British , and 1.4% of other groups . There was no census in 1941. South East England
4914-430: The core constituent; the team, led by Prof George Rolinson, won the Mullard Award in 1971. Bipyridine compounds (Paraquat-Gramoxone and Diquat) were discovered for herbicide use in 1954 by William Boon at ICI's Plant Protection division at Jealott's Hill, being released onto the market in 1958. AZT/Retrovir ( zidovudine ) was first manufactured by Wellcome in 1987 in Kent; they also introduced Zovirax ( aciclovir ), and
5005-434: The early 1960s. Donald Watts Davies invented packet switching in the late 1960s at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington . Packet-switching was taken up by the Americans to form the ARPANET , the precursor to the Internet. Surrey's Alec Reeves invented pulse-code modulation (PCM) in 1937 (at ITT 's research laboratories in Paris), the standard for digital audio recordings. Sir John Herschel , son of
5096-510: 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 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
5187-469: The events of the 2012 Summer Olympics were held in the south east, including the rowing at Eton Dorney and part of the cycling road race in the Surrey Hills . In medieval times , South East England included much of the Kingdom of Wessex , which was the precursor to the modern state of England . Winchester was the capital of England after unification of the various states, including the kingdoms of Kent , Sussex and Mercia . Winchester stopped being
5278-411: 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
5369-439: The first point of sale terminal in Europe - the NCR 280 in 1973. The National Fruit Collection is the largest collection of fruit trees in the world, at Brogdale , and is next to the M2 at the A251 junction in Ospringe . Scalextric was invented by Fred Francis in 1956, who founded Minimodels in Havant; initially the model cars had been clockwork ; it was made from 1967 at Triang in Margate. The world's first Mars Bar
5460-405: The first to assign the correct atomic number to elements in periodic table ; he did not receive any Nobel Prize as it is not awarded posthumously (he was killed in 1915 at Gallipoli with the Royal Engineers). Carbon fibre was invented in 1963 at the RAE in Farnborough by a team led by William Watt. The Apollo LCG space-suit cooling system originated mostly from work done at RAE Farnborough in
5551-402: 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 a number of Nature Conservation Review sites. It
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#17330938559725642-497: The forest: Prince Richard sometime between 1069 and 1075, and King William II (William Rufus) in 1100. Though many claim 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
5733-414: The former Standard Statistical Region. The South East is also occasionally used as a synonym for the home counties . The population of the region at the 2011 census was 8,634,750 making it the most populous English region. The major conurbations of the region include South Hampshire (855,000), Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (474,000) and Reading (318,000). Settlements closer to London are part of
5824-408: 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
5915-464: 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
6006-530: 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 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
6097-421: The naturally occurring digoxin , a cardiac glycoside . After a plane crashed near his house in Oxford in 1940, Sir Peter Medawar helped the injured pilot, and in the process discovered homograft rejection , leading to organ transplantation using azathioprine . Viagra ( Sildenafil ) was synthesized at Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent. Sir Francis Pettit Smith of Kent invented the screw propeller . On 3 May 1830
6188-626: 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
6279-409: The region are at state secondary schools (the highest in England) with 101,000 in Kent (the highest in England for a county and completely selective) then 70,000 in Hampshire, 60,000 in Surrey, 45,000 in West Sussex, 36,000 in Oxfordshire, 35,000 in Buckinghamsire. The lowest is 6,000 at Bracknell Forest, then Reading with about 6,000. Of all regions, the South-East has the greatest percentage that attend
6370-565: The region is the chimney of Grain Power Station at 801 ft; it is the second-tallest chimney in the UK after Drax power station . George Albert Smith developed the first colour film process, known as Kinemacolor , in 1906 at Southwick, West Sussex . George E. Davis from Slough, is the founding father of chemical engineering. Wiggins Teape, later ARJO Wiggins Fine Papers , had the largest paper research centre in Europe at Butlers Court in Beaconsfield; built in 1891 and vacated in 2009. Bentalls in Bracknell (now Fenwick since 2017) had
6461-452: The region. It was abolished on 31 March 2009 and replaced with South East England Councils in Kingston upon Thames . The region is divided into several local council areas, most composed of two-tiered councils (the tiers are county councils and district councils) and unitary authorities : The South East of England is the most Conservative voting region of Britain in terms of both seats and votes. The area also has some seats where there
6552-537: The results for each county as a whole are not always directly related to the number of grammar schools, as Kent and Medway perform below average at A-level. The King's School, Canterbury claims to be oldest in England: 597 AD. Herschel Grammar School in Slough is the most oversubscribed school in England, with 14 people per place, Langley Grammar School in Slough is next with 13 per place, then Burnham Grammar School. 508,000 in
6643-451: 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
6734-609: 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
6825-627: 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
6916-519: The ten lighthouses with electric light, five were in the UK. From the lighthouse in 1899, the first international radio broadcast to France was made. Zénobe Gramme of Belgium made a much better design in 1870 with self-excitation of magnets, and the first modern dynamo . North Foreland Lighthouse was the UK's last-staffed lighthouse until 1998. Portland cement was developed in Northfleet, Kent, by William Aspdin, son of Joseph Aspdin . The development
7007-414: 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
7098-489: 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 was still a significant amount of woodland in this part of Britain, but this was gradually reduced, particularly towards
7189-597: The world's first bus service was by Eastbourne Buses from Eastbourne railway station to Meads . The world's first submarine telephone cable was laid between England and France in 1891 by HMTS Monarch, enabling London-Paris calls from April 1891. On 3 December 1992, Neil Papworth of Reading, an engineer from Sema Group Telecoms at Vodafone in Newbury, sent the world's first text message from his computer to an Orbitel 901 handset of Richard Jarvis, Vodafone's technical director. The first public automatic telephone exchange in
7280-484: The world's first multi-channel flight data recorders in 1965. Although the Comet is generally accepted as the world's first production-run jet airliner, the first jet airliner ever built (individual) was a Nene -powered Vickers VC.1 Viking on 6 April 1948 from Wisley Airfield ; the world's first turboprop airliner would fly from there on 16 July 1948 by Mutt Summers . In 1939 at Cowes ( Northwood ) John Godeck invented
7371-572: The world's first passenger train service, the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway (6 miles or 10 km) began. It was built by George Stephenson and hauled by the locomotive Invicta . It introduced the world's first railway season ticket in 1834. Maidenhead Railway Bridge , known for its flat arch, was built in 1839 with 39-metre spans. The Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment , in Chertsey, developed Chobham armour . On 12 April 1903,
7462-547: Was an important statistician from Tunbridge Wells; his theorem (of probability theory ) is used for spam filters and Google's search . Sir David N. Payne at the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre invented the erbium-doped fibre amplifier , a type of optical amplifier , in the mid-1980s, which became essential for the internet. Henry Moseley at Oxford in 1913 discovered his Moseley's law of X-ray spectra of chemical elements that enabled him to be
7553-687: Was built in 1986. This is the world's highest-capacity submarine HVDC cable; it goes from France and lands near Folkestone, with the large transformer station (built by GEC) squeezed between the CTRL and the M20 in Aldington and Smeeth , made of eight 270 kV cables. On 16 October 1908 the British Army Aeroplane No 1 , flown by the American Samuel Franklin Cody , was the first aircraft flown in
7644-498: 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
7735-536: 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
7826-635: Was hit by anti-aircraft fire at Goose Green , killing the pilot with 800 Naval Air Squadron from HMS Hermes ; the aircraft had no radar warning receiver (RWR), due to testing the Sea Eagle , so could not detect the Skyguard radar had locked on to it. It was destroyed with the Oerlikon GDF (35mm) of GADA 601 ; it was the first Sea Harrier lost in the Falklands campaign. Royston Instruments of Byfleet developed
7917-726: Was made in Slough in 1932; it was modelled on the Milky Way , popular at the time in the USA. Twix was introduced at Slough in 1967, with production moving to eastern France (Mars Chocolat France at Haguenau in Alsace ) in 2005. The Ford GT40 was developed by Ford Advanced Vehicles at Slough in the mid-1960s. The highest point is Walbury Hill in Berkshire at 297 m (974 ft). Britain's tallest native tree, according to The Tree Register in April 2015,
8008-487: 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 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
8099-536: 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,
8190-575: Was the world's first optical fibre submarine cable, and is 36 miles long. ThrustSSC , the fastest car in the world in 1997, was built in Aldingbourne , West Sussex, by G-Force Engineering, designed by Ron Ayers , with further work done by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency at Farnborough. The BritNed 1000MW power-supply submarine cable from Isle of Grain to Rotterdam, was built in 2009. The HVDC Cross-Channel (2000MW) submarine cable
8281-497: Was to heat the ingredients to around 1450 °C, producing clinker . Previously, temperatures were taken to only 800 °C, which was not enough. The first ever cement kiln is still in Northfleet today in a cardboard factory. In the late 1800s, the rotary kiln made the process much more efficient. Concrete, effectively human-made stone, is the most widespread human-made material. 5% of all carbon emissions worldwide are from concrete production. The tallest freestanding structure in
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