Hampshire Magazine March 1965

Extract from " new look at the New Forest"
by A.T. Lloyd

Certainly, too, Domesday shows that local families must have suffered (from William the Conqueror imposing Forest Laws). In the area that is now, and - as I wish to claim - was always, the afforested area thare were 45 manors reduced to no value. Only four did not suffer this fate; but of them Minstead, Canterton and Lyndhurst were reduced to an eighth, a fifth and a twelfth respectively. Brockenhurst's position was unique, for it actually doubled in value. The reason must be sought in the service its lord did the King, as was later clearly defined; it was the centre from which the monarch hunted. Thus it is the only manor within the Forest on which a church is recorded in Domesday, though it is likely that another did exist then at Boldre, the meeting place for the occupants of three quarters of the estates in the Forest.

As it happens we are told where the creation of the Forest had brought about the destruction of the chapel; this was at the spot where Rufus fell, and the earliest reference says this was at "Thorougham." This can be none other than the Domesday manor of "Truham" owned by the Cathedral at Winchester since 735, the earliest known land grant for S.W. Hampshire. Records of Beaulieu show that this is the area now called Park Farm (see Hampshire. Sept. 1962). Beaulieu was the only Abbey founded within the bounds. Bellus Locus Regis ("the King's beautiful site") shows that King John chose it in 1204 for the Cistercians in an uninhabited part of his Forest; however, the Pipe Rolls show that John had an important country retreat there, already. £79 13s 9d being spent on its repair in 1203.

Colin Bower
31 October 2024

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