Month: February 2023

British and French tribes were inhabiting the chalky Hampshire valley of Wenta, with River Itchen winding its way down to the English Channel, when the Romans arrived and upgraded it to a town, its ground level being 12ft. below that of Winchester today. The original concept of a crossroads with gates at the ends of the four roads, with a large central marketplace, partially survived in subsequent city layouts.

In 871 Alfred the Great (848/9-99) made Winchester the administrative centre of Wessex and it became second only to London in importance. The Normans built a castle there and this remained a royal residence until the 1550s. Cromwell (1599-1658) demolished it in 1649 leaving only the Great Hall, now displaying a 13th century replica, wall-hung, 18ft. diameter legless Round Table.

In 1141 the city was the scene of the supporters of King Stephen (c.1097-1154) fighting to gain his release from Empress Matilda’s imprisonment and there was a devastating fire. In the 14th century, restoration work included the founding of the prestigious Winchester College, a few streets away from Winchester Cathedral. Seven English Kings and local author Jane Austen (1775-1817) are buried in the Cathedral, which was erected in 1079 and had seven different styles added over five centuries.

(Top image of Winchester’s medieval Kingsgate with modern repairs: Geoff Henson at Flickr.com / CC BY-ND 2.0)

William the Conqueror (c.1028-87) did not make any friends when he ordered dozens of Hampshire and Wiltshire villages and farmsteads to remove their boundary fences to facilitate royal hunting activities in his ‘nova foresta’. The ruthless tyrant may even have wiped some places off the map in outlining the 140,000-acre expanse of The New Forest in 1079, including 40 miles of coastline facing the Isle of Wight. He died in his native France but two of his sons and a grandson were variously killed in the Forest.

Most of the New Forest is still Crown-owned. It was designated a National Park in 2005 and much of it is a ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest’. It is home, for instance, to all six of our native reptiles. There are around 4,500 New Forest Ponies, a breed derived from a mixture of at least four others. The ponies roam freely but are owned by ‘commoners’ ~ a traditional term for residents with grazing rights for their animals, including cattle. Visitors must not feed or interfere with them, but sadly some are killed or injured by traffic.

Millions of holidaymakers visit the New Forest each year, some staying at campsites. This video was taken by one such camper:-

(Top image: Sue Turner at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)