New Forest – Crosthwaite Eyre Collection and Verderer’s Court

Date:   7^th May

Cost:

Many people have experienced the beauty of the New Forest in Hampshire, a unique and cherished location. We owe much of our ability to enjoy this natural environment to individuals like George Briscoe Eyre. He and others played a crucial role, in opposing the efforts of the Office of Woods (the predecessor of the Forestry Commission, now Forestry England) to abolish common rights in the New Forest and exploit it for timber production.

Eyre’s campaign, along with the public’s reaction, led to the enactment of the 1877 New Forest Act, also known as the ‘Commoners’ Charter.’ This legislation protects and preserves the habitats of the New Forest and the rights of its commoners. This archive provides valuable context for understanding this campaign and the resulting New Forest Act.

This event is an opportunity for HAT members to understand the work being undertaken by the New Forest Heritage Trust (NFHT) on their archive project ‘For the common good: conserving the Crosthwaite Eyre collection’. We will combined this talk with a visit to the King’s House, the Verderer’s Court lead by Ray Mayes. We will obtain an insight to the creation of the New Forest as we know it today and more specifically hear about what steps are required to conserve and protect the  collection that documents this important history, followed by how the collection can be made available online to the public.

We will meet in the morning at the New Forest Heritage Centre at 10:30am for the talk on the conservation work. After lunch we will walk to King’s House, the Verderer’s Court, where Ray will provide a talk at 2pm, finishing about an hour later.

Website :  https://www.newforestheritage.org.uk/ and https://www.verderers.org.uk/verderers-court/

Access:  Further details on Access for the New Forest Museum can be found  https://www.newforestheritage.org.uk/access and the Verderer’s Court

Address: Lyndhurst, New Forest, Hampshire, SO43 7NY.

Directions : Please refer to https://www.newforestheritage.org.uk/visit-us.

Parking : There is a large public carpark to the front of the building (this is a council run car park with charges).

Booking  : To book for any of these events or have any questions, please either book on our website or email events@hampshirearchivestrust.co.uk or write by post to Maskee, Stoney Lane, Medstead, GU34 5EL. Please state your method of payment when booking. Cost £16

Bookings