The New Forest is a special area by the south coast of England. It was named the New Forest almost a thousand years ago, and the name has stuck ever since. It is one of the few places in Britain where ‘commoners’ have a legal right to let their animals graze on the open countryside.
The landscape of the Forest has a special quality hardly found anywhere else- large areas grazed flat by the commoners’ animals. These are the ‘lawns’ of the Forest, and give the impression of carefully tended parkland on a grand scale.
Loving the Forest
Bert Stride has been a commoner for as long as he can remember. As a small boy he used to herd pigs on the Forest. Hear him explain how he feels about commoning and the New Forest.