Lyndhurst in old pictures - charming country cottages
Attractive country cottages, many of them thatched, enhance the New Forest landscape and have attracted artists and photographers since Victorian times. Indeed, for over 100 years, pictures of many of these delightful buildings have been used to grace postcards so eagerly purchased by visitors to the area. Here are a small number of examples of cottage images from around Lyndhurst and neighbouring Swan Green.
thatched cottages on the road to Brockenhurst
The more prominent cottage shown on the right, above, is believed to be Beechen Cottage, a little to the south of Goose Green, on the Lyndhurst to Brockenhurst road. A modern view is here. If that's the case, then the more distant cottage on the left, also (I think) shown again in the winter scene further down the page, and now no longer present, is probably the old turnpike gate house close to Foxlease Bridge.
the same cottage as that shown alongside.
And the location of the wayside cottage shown above? Well, thanks to James Sapsard it has been identified as belonging to the Midforest Veterinary Practice, situated opposite the entrance to Foxlease (on the Brockenhurst road). An up-to-date image is shown here, together with the later additions to the right of the original building. (James remembers delivering the Echo there, back in the 1960's, when it was the home of Mrs. Devonshire). The lane running alongside is Beechen Lane, leading to Hillary Close and on to Pondhead and Park Ground Inclosures.
and beside what is now the A35 at Swan Green,
to the west of Lyndhurst. Ordnance Survey
maps in 1870 and 1898 showed a smithy close
to the low building with smoke billowing from
the chimney. Presumably that is it).
(1853 to 1934), published as a postcard. (It
features the same row of thatched cottages
shown on the previous image and also the
adjacent building suspected of
being the Swan Green smithy).
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Sadly, 58 animals were killed - 35 ponies, 13 cows, 8 donkeys and 2 sheep, whilst a further 32 were injured - 3 pigs, 9 donkeys, 11 cows and 9 ponies.
(Forty-three accidents occurred in daylight, 15 at twilight and 101 in the dark. Twenty-seven accidents were not reported by the driver involved).
Here's just one horrific example - Three donkeys killed in collision with van at notorious New Forest blackspot (Advertiser and Times)
Dragonflies and damselflies remain on the wing and so do butterflies, but in ever decreasing numbers.
Hen harriers and other autumn and winter visiting birds begin to arrive in the Forest.
New Forest fungi - mushrooms and toadstools increasingly appear in the woods.
Red deer start to noisily rut as stags roar songs of love across favoured heaths.
October
Ancient, unenclosed woodlands and broad-leaved inclosures increasingly take on colourful autumnal hues.
Grey squirrels frantically seek out and store acorns for use during the cold days of winter.
Fallow deer boisterously rut for two or three weeks around the middle of the month before the bucks leave the does and eventually re-form their own male-only 'buck herds'.
