The Forest of Eversley - A Royal Hunting Forest

With the Normans, nearly 1000 years ago, came the advent of the Royal Hunting Forest. A forest was a legally defined boundary within which the king had the right to hunt deer and other animals.The forests were by no means all woodland. Heathland was an important component of the Forest of Eversley landscape, and the varied terrain added to the thrill of the chase. Within the Forest, the commoners would have continued to exercise their rights to graze cattle or pigs, and collect firewood or turves. Coppicing - the cutting of trees and shrubs to ground level, allowing vigorous regrowth and a sustainable supply of timber - was also an important feature of the local economy. These commoners’ rights still exist today for some of the Forest’s residents.

The Loddon and Eversley Heritage Area has a wealth of historic landscape features. Ancient field systems and boundary trees provide important clues to traditional land use, while place names maintain the link between present and past. The abundance of place names ending in ‘-ley’, such as Eversley, Yateley and Hartley, date back to Saxon times when farmsteads were created by making clearings in the woods; ‘ley’ being the Saxon word for a woodland clearing. The word ‘park’ as in Hackwood, Dogmersfield or Beaurepaire Park is a vestige of the medieval practice of ‘imparkment’, whereby the king would licence favoured subjects to enclose land, forming a park in which to keep deer. The wooded and sheltered river valleys so characteristic of Loddon and Eversley would have provided plenty of cover, grazing and water for the deer, which explains the profusion of these parks in the area.