Horndean & District

October 2018 - Archaeology of New Forest

Members of the Horndean & District U3A met for their regular monthly meeting on Friday 5th October 2018 at Merchistoun Hall. They listened to a fascinating talk about the "Archaeology of the New Forest" by James Brown.

James is their Community Archaeologist currently working on a variety of Heritage Lottery funded projects along with many volunteers. The volunteers are mainly retired and they do mapping, visiting sites and research. Funding has now been ascertained to allow the volunteers to work on their own projects with help and support from archaeologists.

The New Forest is the most densely populated national park but one of the smallest. National park status gives an obligation to protect the heritage of that area. The park has 630 listed buildings, 200 monuments and 7 historic parks and gardens. Most of the park is covered by SSSI status and special protection and conservation areas. It achieved national park status because of its ground nesting birds rather than for the forests or terrain however its archaeology is protected too. It's not just forest but has a very diverse landscape with lots of heath land. In Norman times (1039 William the Conqueror) it was converted into a Royal Hunting Forest which meant keeping the Forest law. From that time it was heavily protected for Royalty to hunt deer etc until 2006 when it became a national park.

The Park has a soft geology of clay, sand and gravel with lots of extraction pits. It is also very acidic which destroys bones and clay pots by natural process. This and the farming has left its mark on the Park. To carry out any archaeological work special permission has to be obtained because of its protection status before any digging or disturbing of the land can be done.

It has coastal farming, a patchwork of woodland and heath land which makes it an interesting landscape to explore. Hampshire County Council hold the Historic Environment Records which gives information on the New Forest and even Horndean if one is interested in researching and finding out more.

In Mesolithic age 10,000 years ago there were nomadic hunter gatherer groups living there, with camps depending where food sources were. Mainly only flint tools and axes found from this time. Settlement sites have been found but are rare and mainly now under water. Neolithic 5,000 years ago starting to farm and stay in one place longer. They had more time to start designing new tools, differentiating between tribes, decorating pots and trading.

There are burial mounds from the Bronze Age 3000 years ago which were landscape monuments to the powerful. There is little evidence of their way of life because of the acidity of the soil destroying pots and bones etc. Large areas of woodland were cleared at this time for crop growing. Then the Iron Age 700 BC to 40 BC to the Roman period. No Roman villas have been found in the Forest which is surprising however there is evidence of a huge number of pottery kilns and Roman roads are evident.

One of James's projects is to write a more accurate map of the area showing the density of archaeology and activity within the Forest. He has access to all of Historic England's maps and photographs and has had them digitized. It has shown up a 1946 area image of a prisoner of war camp just north of Lymington showing where Nissan huts, exercise yards and sewage works were situated. Dominated by WWII activity with old air fields, bombing raids etc.

About 5 years ago they heard about a new technology of LIDAR which is infra red photography from the air using lasers. This enables the lasers to go through trees to the ground giving a more accurate picture. It has provided much more information about the Forest and is more accurate than the Ordinance Survey Maps in many areas. This information is available online if anyone would like to know more.

LIDAR has found evidence of WWI activity of trenches believed to be where they trained dogs for communication between trenches in warfare. Also shows where the class one Beaulieu airport built 1942 was situated and was used by Coastal Command; then in 1944 it was handed over to the Americans who used it on D Day and for experimental testing. For instance how much weight could be added when using a parachute and jumping out of an aeroplane and helicopter testing. It was handed back to the Forest in 1953.

James showed lots of interesting photos, some local and some from the American archives which include Luftwaffe photographs too.

He included much much more information about the New Forest National Park than I can recount here. If you are interested please log onto their website http://nfknowledge.org for more information. Information about the Heritage New Forest Community show on Tuesday 6th November from 10am to 3pm at Lyndhurst Community Centre can also be found on the website - free entry - all welcome.

Diane Stoner
Speaker Coordinator