More information : (Area centred SU 32000665) Park Pale (AT) (1)
The Park at Lyndhurst, originally enclosed by Edward I in 1291, is unusual for it was a King's Park within a King's Forest (a). In 1299 it covered 500 acres and in the 14th c the Sheriff of Southampton was ordered to provide the necessary transport for the work of inclosing the park (b).
Heywood Sumner's plan shows only the north and east sides of the "inner" and "outer" parks but Wrey considers the park to extend to the west and the park pale to be incorporated in the present west boundary of Park Ground Inclosure and the north-west boundary of Pondhead Inclosure. (c)
From the ground evidence it would appear that the original
park, enclosed by Edward I, is represented by the pale which can be traced for most of its course along the east, south and west sides of Park Ground Inclosure, along the west side of the Pondhead Inclosure, on the south side of the Lyndhurst - Beaulieu road and on the east side of Parkhill Lawn. Where best preserved it is up to 9.0m in overall width, including the internal ditch, and some 1.2m in height. This park encloses about 500 acres and is almost certainly the park noted in 1299.
The 'earlier park' appears to have been extended to the north and east to include the present Park Hill enclosure and some ground to the north of Lyndhurst - Beaulieu Road. Here again the pale has an internal ditch and measures some 9.0m in overall width and is up to 1.2m in height. This extension may have ocurred in the 14th c. when the Sheriff of Southampton was ordered to provide transport.
The park was reported to have been in a ruinous state by 1428 and in 1604 the boundary is referred to as 'an old ditch' (a) For details and extent see map diagram. Published 1:2500 revised. (2)
The surviving earthwork pale of Lyndhurst Park forms a `U'-shaped plan which is strange for a medieval park. Although it has been assumed that this is the original plan of the park, it is far from certain. The park is known to have been extended and some earthworks must have been subsequently destroyed. A detached c200m length of bank and ditch (SU 30 NW 69) on Clayhill Heath was almost certainly part of the park boundary at some time, although its position in the former plan is not clear on the ground today . (3) |