- 2 days ago
The landscape we see today wasn't created by nature alone; it is a medieval, living ecosystem managed by local "commoners." Numbering around 700, they hold historic grazing rights, allowing their ponies, donkeys, cows, and pigs to roam entirely free across the open woodland New Forest: A Year In The Wild Wood.....
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AnimalsTranscript
00:01An hour's drive southwest of London is a forest as old as England.
00:09Step into it and you enter another world.
00:18A last glimpse of an ancient wild wood that once stretched the length and breadth of Europe.
00:32This forest is like no other.
00:36Here, pigs and ponies roam free.
00:42Secret pockets of Heathland shelter some of the rarest creatures in Britain.
00:49And people live a unique forest life that has survived since medieval times.
00:58Through the eyes of those who live here, this is our smallest and most intriguing national park.
01:20As the summer fades to a watery light, and autumn's hues are coming to life.
01:37Can we start something new, just me and you?
01:44Through low light and trees, a future unseen is a future I can believe.
01:59All through the winter, the forest has slept.
02:02But now, the sap is rising in the trees once more.
02:07The promise of spring.
02:11While you can't really explain it, it's just a feeling that you get after working in the woods for most
02:17of your life.
02:19It's just as if everything is sort of waiting to actually burst into life.
02:41Dave Dibden is a coppiser.
02:46Coppising is an ancient way of harvesting wood from trees by repeatedly cutting them back down to their stump.
02:54Dave has spent the winter coppising a small patch of neglected hazel woodland.
03:00Now, in early April, he's looking for signs that the cut hazel is starting to grow again.
03:09When you're cutting the winter, you think, God, nothing's going to come back here.
03:12You know, it's just that stub you've cut off.
03:14You think, well, will it grow?
03:17And then you start coming back in the springtime.
03:20You start seeing those little buds coming on.
03:25You start seeing the new shoots come up.
03:30The first little leaf forming on these new little hazel shoots.
03:33And it's absolutely marvellous when you start seeing that.
03:36And you think, wow, yeah, it's, everything's working.
03:39And it's amazing how it do work.
03:40Nature is absolutely wonderful.
03:48The budding of the hazel in Dave's small corner of the new forest signals the return of spring.
03:57As he works the coppise through the coming seasons, he'll play a vital role in uncovering the forest's rarest wildlife
04:05gems.
04:12As spring spreads through the forest, the canopy renews itself once more.
04:18Beech, ash, oak.
04:22These are the trees of the ancient wild wood, the green heart of England.
04:35For a thousand years, the new forest was a source of wood for warships and venison for kings.
04:48Today, it is a vital sanctuary for wildlife.
04:56But not all the animals here are completely wild.
05:02Wherever you go in the new forest, there are ponies.
05:08Ponies are so iconic of this place, they have practically come to define it.
05:18But though they roam freely here, they are all owned.
05:29What a lovely view tonight.
05:31Right away to the Isle of Wight.
05:33Robert and Lindsay Stride are New Forest commoners.
05:38Our family goes back quite a long way in the forest.
05:41It goes back hundreds of years.
05:44Look at the foal play.
05:46Commoners are farmers who since medieval times have had the right to graze their animals communally on the forest.
05:52Here he comes.
05:55Robert and Lindsay are taking an evening walk to check up on the spring's new foals.
06:00It's playtime before bedtime.
06:03I wonder how many foals we'll have this year.
06:07I don't know.
06:08It's amazing how many people who think that the ponies are wild and when you tell them that they are
06:14owned, they can't believe it.
06:16The ponies are sort of an integral part of our life.
06:20Yeah, nice baby, filly with two white feet beyond.
06:22Most people see the forest as a wild place, but we see it as a working forest that is an
06:28extension to our farm.
06:29I bet her mother's got a foal somewhere.
06:32She's away from her.
06:37She's allowed to be caught up and branded.
06:41Commoning here has never been an easy life.
06:45The new forest grows on poor soils, so is no good for agriculture.
06:51It's one of the reasons it still survives today.
06:55But over the centuries, commoners have found ways to work with the forest.
07:02And those traditions have been passed down from one generation to another.
07:10Come on, I'll pull you up.
07:12Robert and Lindsay are expecting twins shortly.
07:16It's like climbing Mount Everest.
07:19It is when you're pregnant.
07:21It's their hope that their children will want to carry on with this unique way of life.
07:26Poor view though, innit.
07:27But times are tough.
07:29The year ahead promises to be a challenging one.
07:38Today, we think of forests as places entirely made up of trees.
07:42But the new forest has never been like that.
07:46Between the swathes of ancient woodland are wide open spaces, heathland, bogs and grass lawns.
07:57Forest doesn't actually mean woodland, but comes from the old Norman word for a place reserved for the king to
08:04hunt deer.
08:07Nearly a thousand years ago, William the Conqueror needed a regular supply of venison to feed his court at nearby
08:15Winchester.
08:17This wild land was perfect for hunting and had deer in abundance.
08:24So in 1097, William made it his very first royal hunting ground, or New Forest.
08:37Ever since those early days, there have been keepers charged with protecting the royal deer and the trees that sheltered
08:44and fed them.
08:47Martin Noble is retired now, but while he was head keeper, he came to understand as well as anyone, the
08:54quiet but age-old battle between grazing animals and trees.
09:03This is a tiny little oak tree.
09:07Originally an acorn, of course, came from a nearby oak tree and managed to survive through the winter and in
09:16the spring was able to set down the root and now it's produced a shoot with three tiny little leaves
09:21on.
09:23Sadly, the prospects for this little tree are slim.
09:26I mean, it's a beautiful little tree and it's a bit shame to think it's going to get eaten, but
09:32at this stage, if the top has nipped out, and it probably will be, certainly by the winter, if not
09:37before, then it'll die.
09:40The good news is that an oak tree will produce many, many thousands of acorns and it only needs to
09:47have one surviving, one of those acorns surviving to produce a mature tree in 200 years to replace the tree
09:54it came from.
10:05Animals have always grazed the forest, but because ancient woodland has become so rare in Britain, Martin has had to
10:13learn over his working life how to give trees a helping hand.
10:25In the past, people were allowed to collect fallen wood for the fire.
10:33We now realise dead wood provides a vital home for wildlife, so today keepers ensure it's left alone.
10:47And there's an added benefit. Where a dead branch falls, it can cradle a seedling too.
10:55Well, this little oak tree has had the fortune to fall as an acorn into this patch of bramble.
11:01The bramble itself was formed because of a tree or branch of a tree which had fallen earlier and allowed
11:07it to get a foothold.
11:08And the bramble now is acting like a barbed wire fence effectively around the developing oak tree and providing it
11:16protection from grazing animals such as deer, ponies, cattle, etc.
11:23Hopefully, with luck, it will survive to a good old age.
11:29It's said that an English oak takes 300 years to grow, 300 to live and 300 to die.
11:38That is a life worth nurturing.
11:50Although first set aside as a hunting ground, it was the new forest's trees that became its most valued resource.
11:59As demand for timber grew, areas of woodland were fenced to protect them from grazing animals.
12:07Some of these enclosures grew the oak for Nelson's warships.
12:12Others protected coppices.
12:18Hazel was once a hugely important raw material for anything from broomstick handles to the wooden hurdles that fenced the
12:27nation's livestock.
12:30Today, the value of coppicing is being rediscovered and the forestry commission, who manage much of the new forest, are
12:38calling on the skills of people like Dave Dibden.
12:41I manage it for them on a rotation basis.
12:44So you've got ten acres, you do an acre one year, the next year you move on to another acre,
12:49until you've got to your tenth year.
12:52That's your ten acres done, and you're back to your first one, so you've got a continual diversity of growth
12:56of hazel.
12:59The benefits aren't just in a renewable source of wood. Where Dave has cut back the overgrown coppice, there's been
13:07a revelation.
13:13By clearing out all the old hazel, where it had been in the years before, just overstood, dark and cold,
13:20it's just as if you flicked a switch.
13:25I've allowed the sunlight to actually come in and re-germinate the seeds that are in the ground.
13:31They could have been laid dormant there for 50 years or more.
13:37Violets, stitchwort, spurge, plants like these were once the only way of banishing smells, flavouring stews or treating ailments.
13:55It's also good to see now that the hazel that I've cut in previous years, it's all come into leaf.
14:00It will produce a lot of habitat, a lot of cover underneath now for a variety of birds and the
14:06species that will come back there.
14:07Insects as well, you get the insects back and then you get all the small birds back after the little
14:12insects.
14:21Trees, left to their own devices, can crowd out everything else.
14:26But with his skillful management, Dave's ten-acre patch has become a miniature wonderland for wildlife.
14:41The new forest's diverse treasures also lie beyond the trees.
14:51Throughout the forest are unusual pockets of land.
14:55Where the soil is so sandy and acidic, trees find it hard to grow.
15:01Over his life as keeper, Martin Noble has become fascinated by these lowland heaths.
15:07So unique, they're of global importance.
15:11Now in his retirement, he continues his watch over some of the rarest animals in Britain.
15:18One of the things that I've been doing for years is monitoring certain areas of the forest for reptiles that
15:25live there.
15:28As the sun warms the heath in spring, male sand lizards begin chasing after females.
15:37In the late 1980s, Martin pioneered a program of captive breeding and successfully brought the lizards back from the brink
15:45of extinction.
15:49Sand lizards are so rare because this habitat is rare.
15:55The new forest has more than a quarter of Britain's remaining lowland heaths, and so is crucially important for heathland
16:02creatures.
16:04Martin's careful stewardship extends to those that might not have so many friends.
16:11One of my favourite reptiles is the adder.
16:14There are certain places where, in the spring, if you walk very carefully, you can see them out in the
16:20open, soaking up the warm sunshine.
16:25Adders are our only venomous snake, but they're really not aggressive.
16:29If you leave them alone, they'll just slip quietly away into the undergrowth.
16:38These heathlands are also home to some of Britain's rarest birds, like the tiny Dartford warbler.
16:49It survives through the cold months seeking out insect larvae, hidden in the gorse buds.
16:57But it's vulnerable to harsh winters, so exists on a knife edge, hugging the warm south coast of England, but
17:06at the northern limit of its range.
17:11For the Dartford warbler, spring never comes soon enough.
17:23Hobbies are migrants arriving all the way from West Africa.
17:30They rely on the heathland for feeding and breeding.
17:35I just love hobbies. They're just beautiful little birds.
17:38They're little falcons, similar to, but smaller than the peregrine, and hunting smaller prey.
17:42They hunt small birds, even dragonflies and things like that they'll catch on the wing. Wonderful flyers.
18:01The heathland is as much a part of the new forest as the woodland, and it all needs looking after.
18:09It's the responsibility that everyone who lives in the forest takes seriously today.
18:15Get you out in the forest.
18:17Take you back to see your offspring.
18:21See, this horse is 13 or 14 years old. He's been all over the forest now, hasn't he?
18:26It's early May, and Robert Stride and his father Richard are taking their stallion, Rushmore Playwright, out onto the forest
18:34to run with the mares.
18:38Rushmore's been kept on Richard's farm all winter, where he's been living an easy life, but that's all about to
18:45change.
18:47Hopefully the horse might lose a bit of weight.
18:52After a short journey to where the mares are grazing, it's time for Rushmore to be released.
19:17It's been a while since the call of a stallion has been heard on this bit of the forest.
19:39The mares coming from oil's array.
19:49It's too nice for grey mares.
19:50Yeah. Proper forest ponies. Let them go.
20:00There was a time when Rushmore spent all year with the mares.
20:04But recently, commoners have decided to reduce the number of foals born on the forest.
20:12Stallions like Rushmore now have just a few weeks of freedom.
20:18He didn't get them in full, actually, did he?
20:23I think he possibly will lose some weight.
20:28I think you possibly would if you had as many women as what he's got on the go.
20:34Very lucky chap.
20:41Though he has just a short time on the forest, the strides are hoping he'll sire around 25 foals, which
20:48will be born next spring.
20:54Commoners are all too aware that too many ponies leads to overgrazing.
21:01But no ponies would be the end of their traditional way of life.
21:07Look at that.
21:08Sad day if you don't see a stallion raining up the mares in the forest.
21:13The key for Richard and Robert is in balancing the old ways with what's ultimately best for the forest.
21:22He's been dreaming of that for 11 months.
21:26His dreams have come true.
21:28All right.
21:41Summer is always the busiest time in the forest.
21:49Millions of visitors flood into one of the most accessible bits of wilderness in Britain.
21:54But it's only 20 miles by 20 miles.
22:05At times like this, the forest can feel very small.
22:15But venture just a little way from the beaten track and you find another world.
22:29Once you walk off the road, walk off the path, you could be in the middle of a forest 100
22:36miles by 100 miles.
22:38You soon lose the sound of the road, the feeling of modern order.
22:44You soon have been there.
22:47Teprisha is a storyteller.
22:50She grew up here and knows the place intimately.
22:54The source of her inspiration is walking in the forest.
23:01One of the mysteries about being in your own favourite part of the forest, and many of us who live
23:08here have just one little part of the forest that we call our own really.
23:12Is that even though I've been here ever since I was eight, in and out, I never really know it
23:18off my heart.
23:20You know, I never quite know where I'm going next.
23:23I know the stream will be there and I know the trees and the time of year it is.
23:29But there's always something that surprises me.
23:35People often think nowadays in nature of it being very healthy to be out and about and very healthy to
23:42be moving through it.
23:44Using their eyes in a sort of a panorama.
23:46And actually the forest isn't such a panoramic landscape.
23:53It's just a curly queue of tiny different little experiences.
24:08It's a place of discovery.
24:10I mean, if you have an eye for the artistic, there are amazing shapes in this forest.
24:16Amazing things.
24:24The fear of getting lost in the forest is surprisingly real in all of us.
24:29Maybe it explains why many people don't venture very far from their cars.
24:34But the deeper you go, the more you discover.
24:42The forest is full of so many places.
24:47They're really places.
24:48It's not one forest that's all the same all the way through.
24:52And the mood created by different kinds of trees in different kinds of places is intensely different.
25:03Oh, I love beech trees.
25:06Their canopies are so thick in the summer that nothing grows beneath them.
25:11And so they create extraordinary spaces right in the thick of the forest.
25:18I had no idea this place existed.
25:24They're all in a circle.
25:27As if somebody's planted them like temple golems to stand there.
25:35And in between, it's a vast, vast, temple-like space.
25:53From the ground, the trees reach vertically up to the light.
26:00And high, high above is this beautiful green ceiling.
26:08The sun shining through gives the impression of stained glass.
26:12As delicate as in any cathedral.
26:20How much better to find yourself in a cathedral than in a car park?
26:32zmian
26:43Summer for Dave Dibden, is about sorting through all the hazel that he cuts in the winter.
26:48It might not look like much, but he has an eye for what can be turned into useful products and
26:54sold.
26:55when i'm cutting during the winter months coppicing it you haven't got time to sort of
26:59sort too much of it out looks like a load of old twigs and a lot of old branches which
27:04it probably
27:05is but a lot of gardeners now are going back to the old way of growing things and as i
27:12work the
27:12rows up you'll see that i'll just sort through stuff that i can think would better use for
27:19peam bean sticks and anything else that comes out and people generally do not like them that shape
27:25i mean some don't seem to worry too much but i mean the peas don't mind really what they grow
27:30up but
27:30that's uh that's just a nice sort of shape that um can set up alongside a fence in your garden
27:37it's just another way of keeping our woodlands alive and the more people buy this sort of stuff
27:41the more we can work our coppices to where they used to be worked dogs are doing tug of war
27:56yeah that's one a bit different look it's a hazel
28:01but when the hazel is growing this this is the honeysuckle that would be growing with it when it's
28:07young and that's the hazel grows that gradually tightens up and gradually grows you can see this
28:13bit here it grows right into it so that's cleaned up and seasoned for a year in the workshop fill
28:20this
28:20honeysuckle off trim it up and um use that as a walking stick when it's properly finished off
28:29dave can get over 30 pounds for one of his twisty walking sticks he's well known for them
28:34but the real rewards for his work are right here in the forest
28:42this summer he saw his first pearl-bordered fritillary in the coppice
28:49the caterpillars of this rare butterfly feed only on violets which have flourished here since dave
28:55cut back the overgrown hazel they used to call it the coppices butterfly as it followed the old coppices
29:03from clearing to clearing as coppicing died out it did too
29:12now the adults have returned for the first time in generations
29:19it's like a big jigsaw things click into place
29:24you can't push nature but over the period of time it will click click click click click
29:28and in the end you've got a big picture and things come back
29:34the full richness of the new forest comes out
29:38only when people are part of the bigger picture
29:49this is edward charles and amelia may
29:55the next generation of commoners arriving at the busiest time in the farming year
30:04most people take paternity leave luckily it rained for the week they were born so
30:09robert could come to the hospital with you didn't have to go hay making that week
30:12the following week he did go hay making so we didn't see him too much
30:22like all commoners the strides have some land
30:26the rights to graze livestock on the forest are tied to that land
30:30they can keep their animals here when they're not on the forest
30:34and grow winter fodder for their cows
30:37and if the sun's shining hay making can't wait even if you've just had twins
30:44hay making is a fundamental part of a commoner's life i mean if you haven't got any feed in the
30:49winter you're stuffed
30:53when the sun comes out like this it's a real hay maker the grass wilks as you're looking at it
30:58which is
30:58good for us makes our life a lot easier
31:14by midsummer robert's pastures need a rest
31:20so he now leads his cows out into the forest to find fresh grazing
31:29so
31:38dad always says it's good for a cow to go out in the forest
31:41it keeps them active in their mind you'll turn them out and away they'll go
31:46it keeps them active in the forest
31:58animals are not silly are they they know which plants to eat
32:01if you had enough time to study what a cow eats in a day you would have a surprise to
32:06what a cow
32:06would eat out in the forest
32:09we're used to seeing cows in fields
32:12but their ancestors evolved in the ancient forests so they're quite at home here
32:18and whenever they move back into their ancestral home
32:21they join the ponies and the deer in having a profound effect on the nature of the forest
32:37the ancient woods are not really the dense woodland that you might expect
32:41because with the grazing pressure from ponies cattle and deer there are a lot of open spaces within the trees
32:48one of the most visible elements is what we call a browse line this is effectively a line up to
32:56which the ponies and other species can reach
33:10it means that there's a clear visibility between the trees
33:13when you're walking in the woods you can see
33:15through and it makes a very attractive sort of walk because
33:19you can see a long way ahead although there are quite a lot of trees around
33:27the open nature of these ancient woods isn't just a result of recent grazing practices
33:34people and their livestock were helping to shape them from the earliest times
33:40if you go back far enough into mesolithic times maybe 8 000 years ago then this would have been the
33:46sort of land that most of britain and a large part of europe would have been and i have a
33:51feeling that
33:51the reason that so many of us actually love the new forest and love walking in it
33:55is because this is the sort of habitat which we would have lived in it's something in our psyche
34:00which says this is really what our habitat should be the new forest is the very last place in western
34:12europe where we can directly experience this link with our own forest past it's a connection that some
34:19feel is fundamentally important to us today
34:29i think the forest is rooted deeply inside all of us
34:37as a storyteller i tell folk tales that come from all around the world
34:42but still for me this is where the stories that i love most come from
34:50hansel and gretel robin hood the hobbit so many of the stories we heard as children
34:56owe their genesis to the wildwood
35:05many of the movies we see and the novels we read even in urban settings continue to play out the
35:12same themes
35:14the forest draws you in but at the same time you're frightened of what you might find there
35:20it's a metaphor for life
35:24we all carry this place around with us in our imaginations but today most of us have lost that
35:31physical connection if you can actually get out into the forest it can be a hugely powerful experience
35:41the forest is not just a fascinating place i think it's the ancient heart of our culture
36:10it's a big thing in the social calendar of the forest it looks like a bit of a wild west
36:16show actually i
36:17think to the outside world
36:22the drifts are a once a year chance to gather up ponies for sale but they're also a way of
36:28checking
36:28up on their welfare
36:33you need a bit of luck and a lot of skill to catch ponies
36:38you've got to use stealth if they see you riding out through they'll twig
36:45you're usually split up into small groups and everybody knows where their positions are
36:50you've got to come around sort of in a pincer movement and it's like a surprise attack really
37:09at the end of the day it is a job it's not just a jolly but there's something about riding
37:13across
37:13the forest after ponies at speed and some people say we're absolute maniacs well most people actually
37:19but idiots we do get fired up and we will get annoyed with one another and say why the hell
37:33didn't you do this why the hell didn't you do that well you always told me when i was a
37:37boy if you
37:37didn't get swore out you wouldn't be any good we're all right again the next day or the day after
37:43it
37:43might take a couple of days usually you go three or four times on a drift sweep different areas to
37:55get as many ponies in as you can you've really got to pit your wits against them to catch them
38:04some of the riders will be waiting in key positions to push them on towards the pound
38:14but things don't always go to plan
38:31they don't all get caught some very elusive ones
38:38the plan worked three quarters of the plan the ponies came right down to the pound
38:42but the riders weren't up with the ponies and the ponies had a chance to think
38:47and if you give ponies a chance to think they'll outwit you and they turn back before we could catch
38:52up with them and once they turn back that's the end of it
39:03you have good days and bad days on drift last week we had five mares and foals to take home
39:08today we got
39:08nothing but that's the way it goes even though i haven't got anything to go home with somebody
39:13else has it's their turn to take their ponies home this week and next week it'll be my turn again
39:18so
39:18that's the way it is
39:23by coming together at the drift the commoners can collectively look after the welfare of the ponies
39:28and properly manage their numbers on the forest the ponies are first wormed and then reflective
39:36collars are fitted to make them more visible to cars at night
39:42to show that the fees for keeping them on the forest have been paid their tails are cut
39:48each area of the forest with its own unique pattern
39:54any new foals that are staying on the forest are now marked with the owner's brand
39:59so that everyone can see who is responsible for the animal's well-being
40:07ponies that have been picked out for sale are now taken home by their owners
40:12but they won't know whether they've made a profit until the pony sales in the autumn
40:36so
40:57by late august morning dews are growing heavy
41:01and summer visitors are preparing to leave
41:22across the forest heather is now in full bloom
41:31the last of summer's nectar with the first signs that autumn is not far away
41:45in dave's coppice this year's shoots are now at head height but until the sap is down again he can't
41:52start
41:52cutting his next patch of hazel with time on his hands there's a chance to practice another lost skill
42:04charcoal burning once an essential part of every woodsman's year
42:09and a way of using up any leftover hazel you can get a real good fire going real good hot
42:15base
42:16and then the drum i raise up about roughly like four inches with wooden blocks
42:22you pack it in the drum as tight as you can really
42:28and it's looking quite good at the moment it's building up a lot of heat actually inside
42:34the drum now which is what we want
42:38you don't want the wood to really burn so you're more or less cooking it so but once you know
42:44it's
42:44well alight at the bottom you can start shutting the air out
42:49then you're just keeping the fire it's just turning over then um it's not roaring away
42:55that's when it really starts cooking then you get loads and loads of white smoke come out
43:02charcoal is formed when the heat from the fire drives off water and impurities to leave just carbon
43:10the white smoke is the water being turned into steam and you gradually see the the smoke changing
43:18it goes to sort of a yellowy type of smoke and that's the the minerals being burnt off
43:25the real skill is in constantly reading the smoke get it wrong and you can easily burn the wood
43:32and end up with a pile of ash a lot of it okay you can read it all in books
43:39but it's like a lot
43:40of these old crafts it's done by the feel of it listening to the way it's drawn up through the
43:45drum
43:45and using your instinct really when it starts to really turn to charcoal very thin smoke starts coming
43:53off then bluey color
44:00and that's when you can start really shutting it down you shut all your gaps up around the bottom
44:05then you shut the top off without the air getting to it it will just naturally go out
44:13just let the drum cool down then with a bit of luck you'll have some nice charcoal
44:21just enough to make a few pound here and there on a bag the charcoal from hazel coppices was once
44:29the
44:29most valuable source of fuel in britain it's almost pure carbon burning hotter than coal and for thousands
44:37of years was the only fuel hot enough to smelt iron these days it goes for barbecues so long as
44:46dave can
44:47get it home safely sometimes it has been known you've just got to leave a little spark in there
44:52and it can reignite again so it's the first the first few hours it's crucial because perhaps you'll
44:59be driving home you'll say what's that burning and your bags are light in the back of the truck so
45:02you've
45:02got another fire
45:11it's the first pony sale of september and the biggest sale of the year
45:17and just a little bit of the new truck
45:20tourists come from all over the world for the spectacle
45:24but for commoners it's much more important than that
45:28on the great 50 40 or 30
45:31where we're gonna be
45:35robert and richard stride have brought ten of their ponies today
45:49The experts say that a forest pony's got the most placid, lovely temperament of any of
45:53the native breeds. They're usually easy to break in and handle.
46:10But the sale isn't going as well as hoped. Today's not been the best sale I've ever been to.
46:19Prices are very depressed. Some of the very best foals in there today didn't sell. They
46:24only had reserves of £50 on them, so it's a sad indictment of the times, I think.
46:31Richard and Robert have sold eight of their foals, but at a loss. In a recession, there's
46:38less demand for ponies, and that's coupled with higher production costs.
46:45Each pony sold has to have a passport and an identifying microchip, which is placed under
46:51its skin. It's the seller who has to pay for both of these costs.
46:57There's foals in there, lovely foals, for £10. I mean, the cost of production is close
47:03to the third bite just for the paperwork and the microchip, so it's an absolute loss.
47:09It's pretty heartbreaking, really. It's not all about the money. I mean, it's the old traditions
47:16and the heritage of it all, but it would be nice if they did make a bit of profit instead
47:23of a loss.
47:28Even though times are tough, new forest ponies, with their hardy nature and gentle temperament,
47:33do still find good homes. And commoners have always been resourceful.
47:40We've got to evolve our systems to suit the market. It won't collapse, but it has got to
47:46change. Like my mother says, we've got to evolve with the times. It's no good being like a dinosaur,
47:51because look what happened to the dinosaurs.
48:14As autumn comes to the new forest, beech, birch, ash and oak, each in their own time, turn
48:22the landscape golden.
48:28As the leaves start to fall away, the forest echoes with strange new sounds.
48:40Fallow deer, bucks, are proclaiming their dominance, hoping to mate before the winter sets in.
48:53The oaks are always the last to turn, but first they become heavy with acorns.
49:01It's time for commoners to let their pigs into the forest.
49:21Cows and ponies can be poisoned if they eat too many acorns. But pigs are immune to their tannins.
49:30And as they hoover them up, they reduce the danger to other livestock.
49:37Meanwhile, the pigs get fat on the fruits of autumn.
49:56And for many, autumn is simply a time to get out into the forest and soak up a brief but
50:03glorious moment of colour before winter takes hold.
50:11What a joy to come back into the forest in autumn, you know, especially on a sunny day.
50:19It knows how to die. I think that's what's the joy about coming into the forest at this time.
50:26Just like after a really good party, everything sort of leaves at a different time.
50:30That family collects itself and says, right birches, out of here, on we go, we've done our bit, you know.
50:35And the oak says, yeah, I'm sticking on a while, you know. I still have things to do.
50:42And then the beaches go, well, before I leave, you know, I'll do a turn.
50:53They exit in style.
51:12It's light through colour, light through gold.
51:20And it's a colour that just, it feeds you, it makes you feel a real deep joy.
51:37I am of that age where suddenly you find yourself at more funerals than christenings.
51:44I've lost six close family members and two dear friends.
51:50And in the confines of my home, sometimes life hasn't made sense.
52:00But constantly, by myself, with my dog, with a good friend, I've gotten out into the forest.
52:08And there's a really deep sense of contentment and a deep interaction with things that are true and are just
52:18doing what they do.
52:20It's not the holiday world of time taken out of a real life.
52:25This is real life. This is a real place.
52:28And we so need to be in real places.
52:34When we're autumnal, when we're worn out, whether we're 16 and worn out or 60 and worn out, the forest
52:43will give something back.
52:45It's regenerative. It builds you up again. It puts you back on your feet.
53:19What does it look like?
53:24For over six months, the forest has been cloaked in leaves.
53:30Winter brings a new stark beauty, as the bones of the forest are laid bare once more.
53:37It's now that the trees most clearly reveal stories from the past.
53:45There's a place I love called Sawley Beaches, a place that says as much to me about the
53:52new forest as anywhere.
53:57It's a group of beaches of such impressive proportions that you can't help but be moved
54:01by them.
54:08But these trees are not entirely natural.
54:11The reason they look like this is because they are pollards.
54:17The pollarding was an ancient way of harvesting the wood from trees by chopping the branches
54:22off at head height.
54:25When pollarding stopped here over 300 years ago, these trees just kept growing, branching
54:31out from where they were cut to form these extraordinary shapes.
54:42Today these new forest giants are coming to the end of their lives.
54:46And with them, the record of a lost practice dies too.
54:53But to think that such iconic trees were the result of a few woodsman's cuts so long ago,
54:59it tells us a great deal about the true nature of this forest.
55:08The thing I love most about the new forest is this deep sense of continuity with the past.
55:14Sawley Beaches for me is a clear reminder that this wilderness has been made by nature but
55:20in a long alliance with people to provide something which I don't think exists really anywhere else.
55:32Nearly a thousand years ago, William the Conqueror protected this forest for its deer.
55:39unwittingly, he preserved something that has become unique.
55:44In 2005, the new forest was made a national park to recognize the value of its landscape
55:51and wildlife, but just as importantly, the relationship between forest and people.
55:59Robert and Lindsay Stride believe the long tradition of commoning is fundamental to keeping the
56:05special nature of the forest secure into the future.
56:12The forest will always be facing challenges, but essentially, the forest will always be.
56:22And I hope that, you know, for the twins, they're going to have that same sense of freedom that
56:30we had as children and that they will learn to love the forest.
56:37Nearly every member of our family is still actively involved in common in one way or another.
56:42So I would hope that these two will carry on the traditions of keeping ponies and cattle and pigs
56:48and trying to keep the forest going in the traditional way.
56:55Without active commoners managing the forest and the landscape through their animals grazing it,
57:01the forest would be a very different place for everybody.
57:14For centuries, people have grazed their animals on the new forest and harvested its trees.
57:23Managed with care, it has phenomenal power to regenerate itself.
57:31Work against it and all will be lost.
57:35Work with the forest and you'll find it infinitely dependable.
58:01Next time, we travel north to a vast wilderness where Britain becomes truly arctic.
58:08Work, where conditions are so extreme that they challenge even the toughest of survivors.
58:17The Cairngores.
58:20We get a nice day.
58:21We just need to do a big show.
58:28We're going to be a nice day.
58:29We'll be here.
58:29We'll be here.
58:29We'll be here.
58:29We'll be here.
58:30Bye-bye.
58:31Bye-bye.
58:32Bye-bye.
58:33Bye-bye.
58:34Bye-bye.
58:35Bye-bye.
58:37Bye-bye.
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