Coastal heritage

Coastal Heritage Project leaflet

A wealth of information about human development and changing landscapes can be found where the land meets the sheltered waterway of the Solent. You’ll find a wide range of environments including open water, extensive mudflat and saltmarsh, offshore sandbanks and tidal estuaries. All of these have been influenced and shaped by the people travelling through and living in the area, their settlements and industries, resulting in a diverse coastal heritage.

A number of prominent coastal trades and activities have developed along the New Forest coast, including saltworking, shipbuilding, smuggling, iron working, fishing, maritime trade and national defence.

The New Forest is the most densely populated national park, and this has inevitably left various marks on the coast. The coast is not a barrier or boundary to human endeavour, rather an extension of the terrestrial resource: a richly varied area that has been managed and exploited over time.

In 2009 the New Forest National Park Authority with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage, the Crown Estate, Hampshire County Council and Exxon Mobil based at Fawley set up the Coastal Heritage Project.

The project recorded, promoted and encouraged protection of the huge variety of archaeology found along the New Forest coast and worked to ensure long term protection for the enjoyment of future generations.