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The New Forest

Les noms des biens figurent dans la langue dans laquelle les Etats parties les ont soumis.

Royaume-Uni de Grande Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord (Europe et Amérique du nord)
Date de soumission : 21/06/1999
Catégorie : Mixte
Soumis par : Dep. For Culture, Media and Sport Buildings, Monuments and Sites
Coordonnées Long. 1°35'61" W / lat. 50°52'43" N Hampshire and Wiltshire, England
Ref.: 1318

Description

The New Forest is an area of outstanding wildlife and landscape interest fashioned by human intervention and use over thousands of years. It extends to about 580 square kilometres, based on the New Forest Heritage Area boundary. The human processes that have shaped the landscape over time are well demonstrated by the rich archaeological heritage, particularly from the Bronze Age and Roman period, and a documented history going back to the 1 1th century. An extensive dispersed pastoral system is still practised today over a large part of the area. The landscapes and habitats themselves also provide an important testimony to this interaction. Archaeology and cultural history are still reflected in present day management practices. For thousands of years local communities situated largely in more fertile areas around the periphery have used the resources of the less fertile central area of the New Forest. Activities have included farming and grazing, fuel gathering and pottery making. In addition, the Crown has utilised the area since 1079, first as a royal hunting ground and more recently for timber production to build ships for the Navy. The first demonstrable major impact on the Forest environment occurred in the Bronze Age when there was significant clearance of primary woodland for farming. The gradual leaching of nutrients from these sandy soils resulted in the extensive tracts of heathland characteristic of the Forest today. Other visible evidence of this important period in the Forest's history includes some 250 round barrows, and boiling mounds scattered across the area. The archaeological, cultural and historical record for the Forest is very rich and includes more than 2000 recorded archaeological sites and findspots for the area. There are about 150 scheduled ancient monuments within the New Forest. Documentary sources from Domesday (1086) provide a significant level of information on the ownership and management of the Forest during the medieval period, along with indications of social hierarchy, land holding patterns and subsistence patterns. The history of the Forest is documented since the 1 1th century when the Forest was claimed by William the Conqueror as a Royal Forest and hunting ground. This brought with it many restrictions on long established local use of the unenclosed areas. Formal common rights were established by the mid 16th century. Rights are attached to land, recorded and maintained on map bases held by the Court of Verderers. The distribution of these rights extends far beyond the current boundary of the Forest on all sides. A series of New Forest Acts charts the friction between the Crown and Commoning interests. The quality of the habitats and landscapes, p ar tic ul arly of the un en clo sed areas of th e New Fores t, i s d epen den t on th e per si s tence of the pastoral economy based on the exercise of common rights of grazing and mast (grazing of acorns by pigs). This pastoral economy in turn depends on the continued existence of a small community of about 400 active commoners who make up a distinct social group. The landscape of the New Forest includes old woodlands, timber plantations of different types, extensive tracts of heathland and bog, grassy1awns, enclosed farmland, large estates, coastland, and a number of villages and small towns. The continuity between landscape types is both visual and historical in that they share a common history. New Forest heathlands make up the largest single unit of continuous lowland heath in Europe. The New Forest also supports a significant proportion of the valley mire systems surviving in Western Europe, and the Ancient and Ornamental pasture woodland is of both national and international importance. In addition, there are important coastal areas, river systems and acid grasslands and meadows. A large part of the New Forest has been recognised as a candidate for designation as a Special Area of Conservation, under the European Union Habitats Directive. The cSAC covers about 295 square kilometres, and represents a complex area of habitats formerly common in lowland Western Europe but now rare and fragmented. They include lowland heaths, valley mires, ancient pasture woodland, residual alluvial woods and bog woodland, as well as acid grassland. Dry heath gives way to Northern Atlantic wet heath on the poorly drained soils which often fringes the valley mires and includes a range of different plant communities. The rare southern damselfly (Coenagrion mercuriale) occurs in the boggy flushes. Old acidophilous oak woods with Quercu~ robur and beech forests with Ilex and Taxus (lllici Fagion) dominate the woodlands and the numerous ancient trees are important for epiphytic lichens and bryophytes. These trees and the dead wood also support many uncommon invertebrates including the stag beetle (Lucanus cervus). The New Forest supports five breeding species and one wintering species listed on Annex l of the EU Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds, the otter (Lutra Lutra), bats, reptiles, amphibians and fish listed on Annexes 2a and 4a of the Habitats Directive. Boundaries The proposed boundary is that of the New Forest Heritage Area which has been defined and subjected to scrutiny through public consultation and the Local Plan process, since l99l. It has been identified using the following criteria: (a) to incorporate the land of outstanding national importance for its natural beauty, inclading flora, fanna, geological and physicalfeutures, and elements arisingirom human influences on the landscape, inclading archaeological, historical, cultural, architectural and vernacular feutures; (b) to incorporate essential grazing land. This will inclade peripheraliarmland which is or has recently been used as grazing land in conjanction with the New Forest, or which is part of an area which could be suitable to be utilisedior grazing relating to the Forest (whether with Forest Rights or not) so as in aggregate to include a sufficient pool of land to provide an adequate supply of back-up land and the continued junctioning of the historic dispersed pastoral regime relating to New Forest commoning in the long term. Convenience of access to the 'open forest' should also be considered in this context. The use of these criteria, tested through public consultation and Local Plan inquiries, has allowed critical evaluation of a boundary for - the cultural landscape of the New Forest.