Inter-disciplinary study of the history of the New Forest, analysing the origins of the legal Royal Hunting Forest, the various legal systems of the Middle Ages that came to bear on the landscape how governance changes have shaped the appearance and management of the area.

List of figures, maps and photographs Acknowledgements Glossary of historic terms Forward Chapter 1 A new book on the New Forest Into the Forest Legal reforms and management changes Previous accounts Characteristics of the New Forest An approach Summary Chapter 2 Under the Greenwood Tree Landscape ecology, function and value Geology, climate and soils Stability and change Values placed in trees New Forest landscapes Summary Chapter 3 A Hungry Land (10,000 BC–AD 1066) Early human activity and the landscape Agriculture and the Neolithic (c 4000–2400 BC) Bronze Age (2400–700 BC) Iron Age (700 BC– AD 43) Transition and the coming of the Romans Romano-British settlement Roman roads Roman industry Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes and the hunt Anglo-Saxons and Normans in transition Conclusions Chapter 4 The Medieval Forest (1066–1500) The Normans at work and play Feudalism, economt and the law Within the perambulation Economic development Settlements and enclosures Conclusions Chapter 5 Forest governance in Medieval times Officers of the Forest The Forest laws The Forest courts Governance and reform Charter of the Forests Dwellers within the Forest Conclusions Chapter 6 The increase and preservation of timber (1500–1700) Henry VIII heralds a new regime? Re-organisation and the rise of auditing The end of monastic interests Coppicing: a New Forest experiment? Manwood and Norden The rise of silviculture Grazing Seventeenth century pressure on land Conclusions Chapter 7 Decline of the Old Ways (1660–1900) Planting and counting the hearts of oak the Drivers’, their map and the General Surveyor Office of Woods and the arival of big government? The New Forest Association, commoning and inclosure Encroachment, enclosureand property rights romany population Extent of encraochment Nomansland East Boldre In the villages Conclusions Chapter 8 A Search for the Workable (1900–1980) Conservation to the Second world War A new land fit for heroes, 1945–1949? Misfits Redeeming the New Forest? Conclusions Chapter 9 The Rise of the National Park (1980–present) New Forest National Park (NFNP) Boundaries again Modern commoners Agri-environment payments Who needs another layer of bureaucracy anyway? Evolving governance and its dissenters Economic and governance challenges New partnerships in hydrological projects? A case example Conclusions Biography