Work

Keeping animals on the  Forest isn’t just a case of letting them loose. They need to be looked-after, the same as any farm animal. And on the Forest that can be complicated- just finding  your animals takes time.

And for most, commoning didn’t bring in enough money, so they had to have other work too. Some commoners worked in forestry- hard work in the days before chainsaws and tractors. Click here for more.

Finding The Cows

Tom Penny

Not that long ago there were small dairies all over the Forest, and commoners would need to bring in their cows twice a day to be milked.

Tom Penny remembers helping out as a boy, and wandering the Forest at 4 in the morning to find the family’s cows.