page_title: New Forest
section_title: Common rights
hierarchical_section_title: New Forest / Common rights
caption_attribution_description: New Forest Ponies
context_page_description: The New Forest is an area of southern England. It includes one of the largest remaining pieces of open pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire and towards east Dorset.
  The name also refers to the New Forest National Park which has similar boundaries. The New Forest local government district is a subdivision of Hampshire which covers most of the Forest. There are many villages dotted around the area, and several small towns in the Forest and around its edges.
context_section_description: The purpose of forest laws was to preserve the New Forest as a place for royal deer hunting, and interference with the King's deer and its forage was punished. The inhabitants of the area (commoners) had pre-existing rights of common.
  The rights were to turn horses and cattle (but only rarely sheep) out into the Forest to graze (common pasture), to gather fuel wood, to cut peat for fuel, to dig clay (marl), and to turn out pigs between September and November to eat fallen acorns and beechnuts (pannage or mast).
  Grazing and pannage are still important to the Forest's ecology. Pigs can eat acorns without a problem, whereas to ponies and cattle large numbers of acorns can be poisonous. Pannage always lasts 60 days but the start date varies according to the weather – and when the acorns fall. The Verderers decide when pannage will start each year. At other times the pigs must be taken in and kept on the owner's land, with the exception that pregnant sows, known as privileged sows, are always allowed out, providing they are not a nuisance and return to the Commoner's holding at night. Commoners must have backup land outside the Forest to hold these depastured animals if necessary.
  Commons rights used to be attached to particular plots of land (or to particular hearths). Grazing of commoners' ponies and cattle is an essential part of the management of the Forest, helping to keep the heathland, bog, grassland and wood-pasture habitats and their wildlife in good shape.This ancient practice came under pressure as the rising house prices in the area stopped local commoning families from moving into new homes which have the rights attached which meant the next generation could not become commoners until their parents passed on the house and rights.  Those rights are now dissasociated. Efforts by the CDA, Verderers and associated bodies mean there is a burgeoning economy in the New Forest and a chance for some commoners to earn well above the minimum wage - and additional help for their farming interests. This will help the commoners continue to preserve the Forest.
caption: New Forest ponies
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