History

• The New Forest has its own section in the Domesday Book, first recorded in 1086.
• Originally the term ‘forest’ did not refer to a group of trees as we understand it today but to King William I’s designated hunting ground subject to Forest law.
• Beaulieu was originally a Cistercian Abbey founded in 1204.
• Because of the strength and straightness of New Forest conifers they were imported by Middle Eastern countries as masts for their dhows.
• The mainly Norman Church of St Nicholas in Brockenhurst is the oldest in the New Forest; English kings worshipped there when they were hunting.
• The traditional New Forest building material of mixed clay and straw was known as cob.
• Smuggling used to be rife in the New Forest with routes from the coast criss-crossing through the area to village pubs and churches.
• Some of Nelson’s Battle of Trafalgar fleet was built at Buckler’s Hard.
• Parts of the Mulberry Harbours for the D-Day landings during World War II were built at Buckler’s Hard.
• The land speed record-breaking Bluebird is one of 250 vehicles on display at Beaulieu’s National Motor Museum.
• The first cattle-grids were installed in the New Forest in 1964.
• The New Forest became Sherwood Forest in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner.

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