Lepe, Hampshire, England

More on my recent visit to England

    

Another walk in the New Forest National Park:

 On this day, we set out,  for the hamlet of

Lepe, in the county of Hampshire, which is a coastal Country Park in the New Forest National Park. There are stunning views across the Solent ,  a narrow channel between the Isle of Wight and the southern mainland of England.

Lepe has a wonderful mix of habitats;  birds watch over the shoreline of the Solent which provides access to the port of Southampton Strait of the English Channel. It extends 15 miles between mainland England and the Isle of Wight and varies in width from 2 to 5 miles.

There is over a mile of beach, pine fringed cliffs and wild flower meadows where butterflies are attracted to the wildflowers.

The park is popular for walking, swimming, fishing, windsurfing and bird or boat watching.

On the day we visited the park was tranquil and there were very few people around.

This lighthouse was built by the local community to commemorate 

the 2000 Bicentennial.

As we walked along the quiet shore it was hard to imagine that this peaceful area had played such an important role in the WWII  D-Day landing of Normandy. 

Troops, vehicles and supplies bound for Normandy, left the Lepe coast 
on the 6 June 1944:  thousands of troops with their vehicles and supplies left Britain for the beaches of Normandy. This was D-Day, the start of the great campaign to drive the German army out of France and to bring the Second World War to its end. The D-Day invasion, code named Operation Overlord, one of the most remarkable feats in military history, was under way. It had taken over two years of planning, and was one of the best kept secrets of the war.

Many hundreds of troops with their equipment, vehicles and ammunition were hidden along the narrow roads and in the woods of the area.

My sister and her childhood friend walking side by side, having a chat,  as they have done so many times before.

Watch House is still lived in today and it is just what it's name says,  a lookout built to keep an eye on the harbor.

Almost anywhere that you visit in England the area is steeped in history and local legends.

In the 1800’s after years of smuggling in the area, the Coast Guard Cottages and Watch House were built, housing the Preventative Officers and their boat. Soon after Billy Coombes, the captain of a smuggling ship, was captured and hanged at Stone Point.

Local history of Lepe can be traced back 70,000 years during the last Ice Age, when sea levels were low and a chalk ridge extended from Studland in Dorset to The Needles, Isle of Wight. 

5-12,000 years ago humans lived a nomadic life in small groups at seasonal camps but were forced inland as sea levels continued to rise.

1-5,000 years ago they began farming and so settled in villages leaving evidence in the form of Bronze Age burial mounds, Iron Age pottery, Roman coins, and Medieval tidal mills.

Lepe harbour was used for ship building until 1825 when it silted up.

  

Lepe has a stony, sandy and muddy shore, without a large number of rocks and the foreshore is often disturbed by bait-diggers after lug worms.  This scenic photo shows a local fisherman digging for bait with the Isle of Wight in the background.

*****

 Another delightful  day enjoying each other's company and exploring  the  beauty of this shoreline.  This area is so peaceful and it was interesting to recall how important this site  was during WWII and that  Lepe was once one of the main ports in the Solent but was wiped out of existence by a great storm in the seventeenth century resulting in the complete demise of the related fishing community.

Nowadays the area is a  destination for the pure enjoyment of observing nature and walking, while taking a break away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Exbury Gardens, Hampshire, England

Exbury Gardens and Steam Railway

Located in the New Forest, Exbury Gardens in Hampshire, England, belongs to a

 branch of the Rothschild family. 

It is situated just to the East of Beaulieu. 

Primroses (Primula vulgaris)

We traveled to the gardens  in the morning, myself, my sister and a childhood friend.

Our first order of the day was to have lunch in the Tea Garden - then off we went to explore the gardens. As we entered the grounds it was immediately obvious that the views are spectacular.

Exbury House

Once again, as we walked, we became immersed in the ancient history of the area. The first recorded reference to Exbury is in the Doomsday Book of 1086 where the village is noted down as being called Teocrabrae. There is very little recorded until the purchase of the estate in 1726 by William Mitford. One of his first acts was to plant the cedars of Lebanon near his farm (later to become Exbury House) plus many avenues of trees radiating out from the House. 

The house is still occupied from time to time by the de Rothschild family, and is not open to the public

Yellow Rhododendron - named after 'Naomi Rothschild'

The Gardens are a spectacular 200-acre site, world-famous for the Rothschild Collection of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and rare trees and shrubs. Lionel Nathan de Rothschild purchased the Exbury estate in 1919 and soon set to creating a garden on an ambitious scale  It is often considered the finest garden of its type in the United Kingdom.

The Azalea Bowl  

The evergreen azaleas and rhododendrons are gorgeous. We opted to ride on the Head Gardener's motorized Buggy around the grounds.He was an excellent tour guide with a great sense of  'British' humor.We were so busy taking photos of every flower that we could see that I have just realized we didn't take his photo, but I am sure he would understand :-)

.

Lovers Lane leads towards the Beaulieu River, flanked on both sides 

with  banks of deciduous azaleas. The blooms are deliciously scented.

A wonderful flowering season for the Rothschild Collection of rhododendrons and azaleas. 

Yes, there were others visiting on the same day. 

In actual fact,  there are more than  100,000 annual  visitors from all corners of the

 world who come to  enjoy the Exbury legacy.

The Top Pond is the largest in a series of three concrete-lined, ornamental ponds created by Lionel de Rothschild and fed by a natural spring. A full display of Exbury deciduous azaleas surrounds the pond with fiery colors; primulas and iris fringe the water’s edge; and giant carp and golden orfe can be seen swimming lazily.

The Exbury Gardens Steam Railway Station

I realize, once again, that I didn't take a photo of the train. Just too busy looking at the flowers. Those of you who know me well are aware that  I am totally addicted to flowers and the wonderful gifts provided to us by Mother Nature. :-)

Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non scipta) 

Providing a carpet of blue at the entrance to The Glade.

One of the most magnificent sights in England at springtime are the 

carpets of of bluebells in the woodlands.

Once again, we were reminded of the centuries of recorded history that is available to us. In the 1700's the economy of Exbury was based on sheep, general crops and a two-pan salt works. When the latter closed Exbury opened a brickworks, which operated up until the First World War. The Mitfords built the current Exbury village using the characteristic yellow bricks made in this area.

Another wonderful day. 

Good company and beautiful scenery - all is right with the world!

What more could a woman want in life?

The Ponies of the New Forest, Hampshire, England

Last month my sisters met me on the day that I arrived in England and we stopped for lunch in the village of Beaulieu, which is located on the south eastern edge of the New Forest National Park in Hampshire. Beaulieu has a population of 829 people and is 92 miles SW of London.

Rooftop of one of the local cottages

Some of the local points of interest are the Palace House which overlooks the village from across Beaulieu River. It began in 1204 as the gatehouse to Beaulieu Abbey, and has been the ancestral home of a branch of the Montagu family since 1538, when it was bought from the crown following the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII.

Although still home to the current Lord and Lady Montagu, parts of the house and gardens are open daily to the public. 
The estate includes the British National Motor Museum with over 250 vintage and historic cars on display including Donald Campbell's Bluebird.

The New Forest Pony is considered to have a gentle temperament, and the ponies are noted for their intelligence, strength and versatility. New Foresters are amongst the most approachable of all the native British pony breeds, perhaps because of their history of frequent contact with humans.

The New Forest Pony is one of the recognized Mountain and moorland or Native pony breeds of the British Isles. The breed is valued for its hardiness, strength and sureness of foot. It is indigenous to the New Forest and many ponies can still be seen roaming loose there.

The earliest record of horses in the New Forest dates back to 1016 when rights of common pasture were granted to the people living in what was a royal hunting ground. 

The ponies living full-time on the New Forest are almost all mares. For much of the year the ponies live in small groups, usually consisting of an older mare, her daughters and their foals, all keeping to a discrete area of the Forest called a haunt.

The cattle and ponies living on the New Forest are not feral, but are owned by commoners (local people with common grazing rights), who pay a fee each year for each animal turned out. The animals are looked after by their owners and by the Agisters, employees of the Verderers of the New Forest – the Verderers are a statutory body with ancient roots that shares the management of the forest with the Forestry Commission.

The average height is 4’8”. New Forest Ponies are most commonly bay, chestnut or grey. 

There are approximately 6,500 animals using the right to pasturage, i.e. grazing in the New Forest. These are ponies, donkeys, cattle and pigs.

I know that the word Agister may be new to some of you from other countries. Agisters, in the United Kingdom were formerly the officers of the forest empowered to collect the agistment. They have been re-established in the New Forest to carry out the daily duties of administering the forest.

My family and I have been visiting the New Forest since we were children. It has always been a delight to watch the ponies roam around while freely grazing there, and to realize that this custom has been in place for more than a thousand years. The right to graze animals is one of the Common Rights under ancient forest law. These rights attach to property in the forest so anybody living in a house that has Common Rights attached, gets these rights automatically and they apply equally to property owners and tenants.

The current rights are:

1. Pannage or Mast - the right to turn out pigs between 25th September and 22nd November each year to feed on acorns and beechnuts. Not only does this fatten pigs for Christmas, it also prevents ponies and cattle gorging on acorns which could cause inflammation and death.

2. Common Pasture - the best known of the Common Rights, which is to turn out ponies, cattle and donkeys to graze in the open forest.

Nowadays, only the rights to Common Pasture and Mast are practiced to any extent. The ponies  are predominately New Foresters, some other breeds such as Shetlands are also found in some areas. The lives of the ponies are relatively unhindered by humans unless they need veterinary attention or additional feeding, when they are usually taken off the Forest.

New Forest National Park covers an area of 219 square miles and  contains the highest concentration of very old trees in Europe.

*****

This was the  first day of peacesojourner's meanderings in England. It feels good to be home .  I will share more of my adventures with you later.