The National Park

  • The New Forest National Park was established in March 2005.
  • The Park covers an area of 56,651 hectares (just under 219 square miles) – the smallest national park in England.
  • More than 34,000 people live within the New Forest National Park, making it the most densely populated of English national parks.
  • There are 214 scheduled ancient monuments within the National Park.
  • There are around 614 listed buildings in the National Park.
  • The National Park Authority has 22 members – 12 appointed by county, district and borough councils (five from Hampshire County Council, four from New Forest District Council, one each from Salisbury District Council, Test Valley Borough Council and Wiltshire County Council), six appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and four by parish councils.
  • It was first suggested that the New Forest might be a national park just after the first was created at Yellowstone in the United States of America more than 100 years ago.
  • The New Forest is unusual among English national parks in having a predominantly lowland landscape; most are rugged upland landscapes.
  • National Park status gives the New Forest’s landscape the highest level of planning protection and means that major development can only be allowed in exceptional circumstances.
  • The New Forest has the highest proportion of land in public ownership of any British national park; the Crown owns nearly half of the land in the Forest (managed by the Forestry Commission).
  • The highest point in the New Forest National Park is near Bramshaw at 135 metres or 443 feet.
  • More than a third of the 60-mile long-distance path known as the Solent Way, which runs from Milford-on-Sea to Emsworth Harbour, is within the New Forest National Park.
  • Some unusual and interesting village names are found in the northern part of the New Forest National Park: Nomansland, Bohemia, Canada and Lover, for example.
  • There are around 300 ponds in the New Forest National Park.
  • There are 870 miles of road in the New Forest National Park.
  • National parks cover 10% of the land area of England and Wales while protected areas worldwide cover around 12% of the Earth’s surface.

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