“They will be hard to see” – New Forest commoner’s warning to drivers

A commoner has stressed the need for people to drive carefully across the New Forest, especially amid pannage season.

As well as livestock such as ponies and cattle which are turned out all-year round, pigs are turned out by commoners during the autumn. This is so they can hoover up the acorns on the Forest floor which have fallen from the oak trees.

The acorns can be poisonous to the ponies and cattle if eaten in large amounts so the pigs’ job is a vital one. Accidents involving New Forest livestock unfortunately tends to rise this time of year with clocks going back an hour and the nights drawing in.

Jerry Springall, a commoner originally from Australia but who now lives in Gorley, is urging drivers to be extra vigilant of pigs rummaging for acorns close to the roadside.

“Drive carefully and be aware of them,” he says. “They will get in front of your cars and they will be hard to see, and there will always be that little straggly pig or the one that is tailing behind that will run out at the last minute and may cause an accident.

“All we ask as commoners and people around the Forest who have got livestock out is that if you are involved in an accident, you stop, phone the authorities and allow the animals to be looked after and get the help they need.”

This year, the pannage season started on Monday, 16 September and runs until Friday, 22 November.

The season can sometimes be extended by the Verderers if there is a glut of acorns to be consumed, as happened last year.

“Pannage is turning pigs onto the Forest to eat the acorns,” explains Jerry of the centuries-old tradition. “The cattle and the ponies can’t digest the acorns as they are poisonous to them so the pigs go round hoovering them up.

“It changes the meat quality – people seem to really love the meat as it makes it darker and nuttier, and it gives a richness to it which seems to sell well around the Forest and beyond.”

The pannage season is just one of many annual events in the New Forest calendar for commoners and forms a crucial part of their way of life.

Keeping and turning out livestock brings many different challenges, while the majority of commoners have a full-time job to attend to as well.

It means their free time is taken up by their commoning duties and ensuring the tradition prospers and thrives into the future.

“Commoning is very, very, very important to the New Forest,” says Jerry. “Turning animals out on the Forest makes it what it is.

“It develops the Forest and gives it its uniqueness. The way the Forest looks every day is made by the animals and what they eat and where they stomp, and that makes it into the Forest we see and love today.”

Jerry, who works on Folds Farm in Fordingbridge which also runs civil engineering and construction company Earlcoate, has been in the UK for more than two decades and says he has no regrets about swapping Down Under for his lifestyle here in the New Forest.

“I love living in the Forest,” he says. “I have got an Australian background and I’ve been here for more than 20 years but this is a lifestyle and the closest I can get to living in Australia and having that freedom to enjoy my farming background.

“Commoning definitely comes with its challenges like the weather but we all overcome them. We’ve got a good little local community that we can call on to help out if needed.”