The New Forest boasts an impressive array of uncommon and special butterfly species. Being...
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Commoning
The New Forest has a proud history of commoning, where commoners release animals onto the Open Forest.
Commoning: an ancient tradition
Grazing by commoners’ animals still shapes and maintains the New Forest we all know and enjoy, making it accessible and very special. Although common rights were once widespread in Britain and Europe, they have been lost in many areas due to the enclosure of common land and the demise of former royal forests. The New Forest remains one of the few extensive lowland commons where rights are still widely practised and a strong commoning culture continues. This section tells the story of commoning, from the animals and rights to the commoners themselves and their close-knit community.Commoning and you
Commoning and you
In this section you can find out more about how the work...
Community and Heritage
Community and Heritage
The New Forest commoning community is a diverse and broad community of...
The animals
The animals
Probably the most well-known fact about the New Forest is that it...
The commoning year
The commoning year
The commoning year is unique to each family and every commoner operates...
Discover more about commoning
The New Forest has a proud history of commoning, where commoners release animals onto the Open Forest.
Neville
Penman
National Park Member
'Please don’t feed or pet the animals; they may look friendly but they can bite and kick.'
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