Country Diary: New Forest

For all its new mystique as a national park, the forest is a highly managed landscape. More particularly, it is the result of conflict, created as an outcome of William of Normandy's conquest. Castle Malwood, near Minstead, dates from the bronze age. To the north-west is the ancient British fort on Castle hill with a commanding view of the Avon valley, and remnants of Romano-British potteries tell of the long Roman presence. Henry VIII's Calshot castle guards the south-eastern boundary along the Solent, while the fortifications of Hurst castle brood over the narrow stretch of water to the Isle of Wight. Henry's dissolution destroyed the abbey at Beaulieu. Moyles Court stands as a reminder of bloody upheavals in the 16th and 17th centuries. But the external threat has had the most dramatic impact on this landscape. Boatyards at Bucklers Hard and Portsmouth plundered the woods to build the fleet needed to counter Napoleon's ambitions.

Timber needs in the first world war led to the planting of quick-growing conifers, but the second world war had the greatest impact. Swaths of heath and wood were cleared to create airfields at Beaulieu, Holmesley, Bisterne, Needs Oar Point, Pylewell, Stoney Cross and Ibsley. The Ashley ranges near Godshill were used to test the bouncing bomb that Barnes Wallis developed to attack the Ruhr dams. Roads and tracks were created for the troops and armored vehicles that occupied vast areas in preparations for D-day. Tank training churned up acres around Burley and infantry practice scarred Whitemoor and other areas.

The forest has grown on, but traces of these historic conflicts abound, and some will shape it for ever.