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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
Ytene was the Anglo-Saxon name for this southern
forest, named for the Yt or Jutes, the Germanic tribe
from Jutland in modern day Denmark, who had
settled here after the Romans left. The New Forest
was designated as a Royal Forest by William the
Conqueror in about 1079 for the exclusive use of the
royal hunt, mainly of deer. William was obsessed
with deer hunting and his New Forest was created
at the expense of 20 small hamlets and farmsteads
whose inhabitants were thereafter denied their ancient
rights under common law to exploit the riches of the
land of their fathers. "Forest" in a Norman sense was
a legally defined area subject to special forest laws,
it was not necessarily a wooded area in the modern
meaning . Indeed nearly half the New Forest is open
heath, grassland and bog.
The laws enacted to preserve the
venison
– the
"beasts of the chase" (deer & wild pig) and the
vert
(
which was their food) for the royal pleasure were the
Forest Laws. The odious penalties of Forest Law for
interference with the king's
venison and vert
became
less severe over the centuries, but remnants of the
legal structure that policed the area under Forest Law
for the Crown are still present in the New Forest as
the Verderers' Court.
Today the New Forest is a varied landscape of woods
and glades, heaths and moors. Dotted with tiny
villages and roamed at will by deer, ponies, donkeys
and pigs there is nowhere else quite like it. Our
entertaining day trip gives you a real flavour of the
forest with a string of beautiful places to see and
visit throughout the day. The starting point for the day
is within a 90 minute drive of groups in Worthing,
Guildford and Slough and two hours for groups from
Croydon, Crawley and St Albans. At £19.95 per
person including morning refreshments and lunch this
enjoyable day is good value too.
Our New Forest guide will meet you at a thatched
country pub near Landford off the A36 Salisbury
Road at 10-30am, for morning coffee or tea with
biscuits included in the tour fee. From here we slip
into the forest following in the footsteps of Kings
and Queens, commoners and gypsies, smugglers and
lovers. Over the past millennium a wealth of myth
and legend has wound itself around the forest trees
like a clinging vine. Your expert guide will chart a
course to the heart of this enchanting world. You’ll
see the Rufus Stone commemorating the controversial
death of flame haired William II and see picture
postcard villages including one that had to go to
court to decide if it was in the forest or not.
We return to the pub for lunch. A set main course
A Day in the New Forest