New Milton Advertiser 2nd Oct 2020

Friday 2nd October 2020 · 27

news@adt.press · advertising@adt.press · 01425 613384

AUGUST OCTOBER Broomy and Holly Hatch inclosures

THE north of the New Forest lacks the great tracts of unen- closed ancient woodland which dominate the central areas. It is a landscape of heather-covered moorland broken by isolated plantations, most of which date from the first half of the 19th century. Two of these great woods are Holly Hatch Inclosure, made in 1808, and the contiguous plan - tation of Broomy Inclosure which was enclosed a year later. Holly Hatch has an area of 149 acres and was probably planted originally with oak, although very little of this survives today. It was equipped with a wood- man’s house of the type known as a Glenbervie Cottage after the then Surveyor General of Woods and Forests. Each inclosure he made in the Forest had such a house and they were marked with an engraved stone built into the wall, bearing the name of the wood, the date, the area in acres and the initials or name of Lord Glenbervie. Holly Hatch Cottage has such a stone com- memorating the making of the two woods. The cottage occupies one of the most spectacular sites in the entire Forest with sweeping views northwards across the valley of Dockens Water. In 1970 the Forestry Commission tried to sell the cottage, but the plan met strong resistance and was eventually abandoned, so that it remains to this day in the oc- cupation of a local person. Until about 2003 the peace of its surroundings was ruined by the drone of a diesel generator, now fortunately silenced by the connection (underground) of a mains electricity supply. The woodland of Holly Hatch is very varied, with remnants of the 1810 oak surviving around the cottage, but with a wide mixture of tree types through the remainder. There are some fine areas of young beech, and that is quite rare in the inclo- sures. If it is not destroyed by cli- mate change it should make for a very beautiful wood with- in the next 100 years. The long term (200-year) plan is for this plantation to be converted to

native woodland. Holly Hatch (and Broomy) was “thrown open” in 1851. In other words, the fences were re- moved because the trees were by then sufficiently established for them to resist damage by grazing stock. I am not sure when the woods were re-en- closed, but probably about 1927 when much of the beech was planted. Broomy Inclosure is now very different from its neigh- bour. Despite being enclosed in 1809 it was not planted with oak until 20 years later – at least if Forestry Commission stock maps are to be believed. Perhaps an earlier planting had failed. Today the large area of this oak which survives is among the most beautiful of the formal broadleaved woodlands of the Forest. It is again thrown open. Of the 225 acres of Broomy, much was destroyed by clear felling in the 1960s and earlier in violation of the New Forest Act of 1877. Some of the Douglas fir then planted promises in its turn to become very fine wood - land, and it is already a notable landscape feature. At the extreme western end, now planted with beech dating from 1948, is a renowned blue - bell wood much marred in re- cent years by an ill-conceived stream-filling operation which fails regularly, followed by re- peated attempts to stabilise it and a consequent infestation of the surroundings by rush- es. On high ground at the south edge of the inclosure stands Broomy Lodge, once one of the great houses of the New For- est estate. It was rebuilt in late Victorian or Edwardian times when it became the home of the Heathcote family as crown tenants. Later, after rumoured secret use in the Second World War, it was the home of a prominent Forest personality – Christo - pher Dalgety. I believe it was he who purchased it from the For- estry Commission. Today the traditional Forest name has, most regrettably to my mind, been superseded by ‘Rightman Place’ and instead

tection from about half of the experimental area to see how much, if any, will survive the renewed pressure of livestock. This may seem like deliberate vandalism, but it is an essential element in the planning of fu- ture action to save some of the Forest’s ancient holly woods. Could longer-term inclosure, perhaps until stock numbers fall to a more normal level, pro- vide the required protection for holly to survive? On the east side of the gravel road a second 1.5-acre experi - mental area was cut and fenced some years after the first, again with excellent results. This will in due course receive similar treatment to the first. At the other end of the For- est, at Shipton Holms, is a further inclosure experiment which, in common with those at Bolderwood, has thrived. Here the fencing will be wholly removed to assess the effect of renewed browsing. There are no plans to apply similar “sacrifice” treatment to other plots such as those at Lit- tle Wood near Picket Post and Whiteshoot near Fritham. The changing face of Forest pony drifts The reduced programme of drifts (pony round-ups) has been progressing throughout the last month amid some ex- traordinary scenes of masked animal handlers and an unbe- lievable invasion of signs de- signed to encourage the safety of those attending or merely passing by. In fact the precautions, pre- scribed by a comprehensive nine-page risk assessment, seem to have worked well and with minimal disruption to the processing of the ponies. Anthony Pasmore anthony.pasmore@adt.press

Much of Broomy inclosure’s 225 acres was destroyed by clear felling in the 1960s

sure bank next to Dockens Wa- ter and there I photographed them as the official business was conducted. I fear that there are now few survivors of that day. I think this is the only occa- sion since the court was found- ed in 1877 that an outdoor sit - ting has been held. In the light of Covid, it may not be the last. The Bolderwood Hollies experiment One of the first site meetings held by the verderers following the easing of virus restrictions was a visit to Bolderwood Hol- lies to see experimental work being undertaken by Forestry England to restore parts of the dying holly woods of the Forest. The work is being supervised by Dave Morris, one of the in- creasingly rare breed of for- estry officers who have a long professional association with the New Forest rather than the here today and gone tomorrow system which seems to apply to so much of the Queen’s House staff. Bolderwood Hollies is a wood of more than 37 acres adjoining a tourist honeypot, although perhaps few visitors even glance at the devastation around them, preferring instead to con- centrate on ice cream and the impressive Douglas firs in Bol - derwood Grounds to the south. The hollies throughout the wood are in an advanced stage of deterioration. They are being killed as the bark is torn off their stems wholesale by ponies, fol- lowed by a fungal attack (neo- nectria ditissima, about which I wrote at the end of last year), which probably becomes estab- lished through the wounds to the bark. It has long been known in the Forest that coppicing or pol- larding holly can have a marked rejuvenating effect, but only if the tender regrowth is not im- mediately removed by browsing animals, including deer. Several years ago, there- fore, the Forestry Commission marked out a plot of a little un- der two acres on the edge of the wood, west of the gravel road into Oakley. Within part of this, the trees were coppiced and the remainder was pollarded. About half of the treated area

was then fenced against ponies and of that fenced area, half was also protected against deer. On each side of the inclosures the treated area was left unprotect- ed. In these unprotected areas the regrowth was immediately gnawed off, with virtually every stem or stool killed, or nearly so. By contrast the growth in the fenced area has been very impressive on both pollarded and coppiced stems. There is little difference between the deer fenced area and that from which the ponies alone have

been excluded, making it clear that the chief offenders in the holly woods are the ponies. The protected trees appear remarkably healthy and strong, with masses of vigorous re- growth. There is an occasion- al twig where the leaves have turned brown which, as the verderers were shown, is where voles have nibbled very small shoots, but I don’t think we saw more than half a dozen such instances among thousands of new shoots. The next phase of the exper- iment will be to remove pro-

of being a key element in the Forest community it is now lux- urious holiday accommodation. A little further downhill from the lodge, on the edge of Broomy Inclosure, is a large stock pound used in pony drifts and for colt hunting. It replac- es one a little further towards the lodge which was reputed to have been built by the RAF in part compensation to the commoners after Stoney Cross aerodrome was enclosed. Broomy Lodge, like its dimin- utive neighbour in Holly Hatch, enjoys panoramic views to the north where, just outside the Dockens Water boundary, lies the much illustrated (in its orig- inal form) Splash Bridge. The bridge leads to the principal ac- cess point to the inclosure. The artist and archaeologist Heywood Sumner published a drawing of it in his 1925 New Forest guidebook, but later on the Forestry Commission re- placed it with an unusual con- crete structure which was ap- parently cast in situ and which has rather more character than many modern Forest bridges. A duplicate of it is to be found in Islands Thorns. Like many of the Forest’s plantations, Broomy – and to a lesser extent Holly Hatch – has a much older history. Ploughing ridges near Splash Bridge sug- gest cultivation in Saxon times, while even earlier field systems extend through the wood to- wards Linwood. There is also a possible site of a mill on Dock- ens Water, fed by a now dried- up leat through Broomy from Amberslade Bottom. Finally, Broomy Inclosure was the site of a unique event for the Verderers’ Court 38 years ago. In those days the courts were open to the public only on alternate months, and on 19th April 1982 there was due to be a “closed” court. Early that morning a site meeting was held at Broomy and, because of the exception- ally good weather, the verder- ers decided not to return to Queen’s House, but to hold a formal court in the open air – unprompted by even a hint of a virus condemning indoor gath- erings. The verderers settled them- selves comfortably on the inclo-

Putting out pony drift signs at the pound

Did you know we offer a Leaflet insert service? The New Milton Advertiser & Lymington Times is the perfect platform for you!

The present splash bridge

INTERESTED IN ADVERTISING? For further information contact your

sales rep or call us directly on 01425 613384 for more information

Heywood Sumner’s drawing of the splash bridge in his 1925 guidebook

Calmore

Cadnam

FORDINGBRIDGE

TOTTON

SOUTHAMPTON

Ashurst

Marchwood

New Forest National Park

HYTHE

LYNDHURST

RINGWOOD

FAWLEY

BEAULIEU

BURLEY

BROCKENHURST

Calshot

BOLDRE

BRANSGORE

Bournemouth Airport

LYMINGTON

NEW MILTON

HIGHCLIFFE

BARTON-ON-SEA

CHRISTCHURCH

MILFORD-ON-SEA

BOURNEMOUTH

Hengistbury Head

We are also able to offer a print and design service — rates available on request

Read by 38,484* local readers

every week * (JICREG June 2019)

The verderers meeting outdoors at Broomy in 1982