Smithsonian Channel - New Forest The Crown's Hunting Ground (2021)
In the heart of Southern England lies a royal forest; a wild and magical place of ancient beauty that's hardly changed since King William the Conqueror proclaimed it as his hunting grounds some 900 years ago.
Stretching down from the famous Salisbury Plains to the rocky shores of the English Channel, the New Forest National Park is the largest and richest lowland wilderness in Britain, home to more ancient woods, mossy mires and rich heathlands than any other landscape in Europe.
Shaped by the people and animals that have inhabited it, today the National Park continues to be a vast open forest where herds of deer and ponies roam free. Their presence, a testament to the King's ancient 'Forest Laws' which continue to protect the land and give local people, known as 'Commoners', the right to graze their livestock in the forest.
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