I joined a few other members of the National Park Authority this morning to learn a bit more about the practise of communing in the New Forest.

We met at a small holding located at Bolderwood before moving off to Queens House in Lyndhurst. Our host was Lindsey Stride, a young commoner who had married into a family with a very long history of commoning in the New Forest.

A school teacher, Lindsey reminded us that most commoners are not “full-timers”, many of them have jobs and fit their commoning activities around their normal working lives.

Commoning is an ancient right that still exists today to turn out any horses, cattle or pigs that you own into the open Forest. It isn’t widely understood by many visitors to the area but the New Forest exists as it does today because of the way vegetation is grazed by animals owned by commoners.

Lindsey is a great ambassador for Commoners through her direct day to day involvement in all aspects of communing. She has been active with an organisation called “The Commoners Defence Association” (like me, she doesn’t much like the name but has great respect for the organisation founded in 1909 and has fought many battles to protect their way of life). Lindsey has also been instrumental in setting up a Young Colts organisation, especially for children who she reminds us are the commoners of the future.

I suppose that the main messages I took away from all that was said and presented to me in the 3 hours of talk and dialogue was that commoning can be and should be a very rewarding way of life for those willing to commit to it. Many, many people living in the New Forest have commoning rights, but relatively few people exercise them.

There are about 7,000 animals turned out by commoners onto the Forest which is probably as much as can be sustained by the land currently available. However, it is important that the animals are properly cared for and not just abandoned. Equally, she accepted that some commoners did not always manage the land in a responsible way.

It seems that there is much to be gained by educating all commoners as to the benefits of quality animal husbandry and land use. However, it was important too to educate the public that the New Forest is a working environment. Visitors really need to understand why commoners have to do some of the things they do, including the rounding up of ponies by way of “a drift”, or the turning out of pigs to eat up all the acorns. It is only through greater understanding that some of the conflicts can be resolved.

It would seem that some of the older commoners have been very resistant to any change in the past. However, things have changed drastically in recent years. Notably, some £5 million funding from Europe, “Life” projects, which have helped restore wetland habitats. It seems different groups within the New Forest often fail to agree on how certain areas should be managed. However, through discussions and compromise, positive actions have been undertaken which have caused people to re-think their views.

A very real concern, well expressed by Lindsey, relates to the way in which commoning can be sustained in the longer term. It is essential that new young commoners are encouraged into the way of life, to replace those that die. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult for people to buy or rent the necessary back-up grazing land with necessary facilities like fencing and water.

It was also considered that government schemes for providing grant aid can be extremely complicated and not always addressing the issues.

I believe that my colleagues and I, on the New Forest National Park Authority, have benefited from a clearer understanding of some of the key issues and challenges faced by commoners in the area. We won’t be able to solve all of the problems on our own but we can continue to work in partnership with others to improve the environment for the practice of commoning to thrive.

For those wishing to learn a bit more about commoning in the New Forest, there is a web-site : www.newforestcommoners.co.uk