🎬 Peter Owen-Jones looks at four seasons in the year of the New Forest. Originally screened on BBC Four in January 2019.

‘The New Forest is a timeless place - there are no fences and the animals roam free. I’ve always wondered how the forest and the commoning way of life have survived in the middle of southern England for so long. It’s been an incredible experience finding out.’ - Peter Owen-Jones.

Over the year, with its dramatic seasonal changes, Owen-Jones ventures out into the forest and immerses himself in the lives of the Commoners, a group of around 700 people who have retained grazing rights for their animals, which date back to medieval times. From the first foals born in spring to the release of the stallions and the annual herding of the ponies, he discovers a hardy people who, despite the urban development around them, and the pressures on the landscape of 13 million visitors a year, retain a deep love of the land and a determination to see their way of life survive.

Presented by Peter Owen-Jones
Photography Paul Williams
Additional Photography Max Williams
Natural History Photography Aaron Cook
Produced by Mark Woodward
Executive Producer (Big Wave) Sarah Cunliffe
Executive Producers (BBC) Mandy Chang & Jo Lapping
Directed and Edited by Nick Stringer

A Big Wave production for BBC (2018)

🎬British Pathé – A race for aeroplanes takes place at Bournemouth racecourse. Item title reads: "A new holiday thrill. Aeroplanes replace horses in races around Bournemouth racecourse. Bournemouth, Hampshire M/S of the racecourse with various parked aircraft. The biplanes take off and skim low over the track in front of the crowd in a sort of race. The camera pans over the scene with the crowds and aeroplanes. Intertitles read: "In the Paddock." "They' re off!" "Neck and Neck"- (or should it be, "prop and prop")" " Won by a "prop".

🎬British Movietone - The Admiralty tests the new boat on Southampton Water. Crowd and aerial views of the new motor-torpedo on trial. present are Earl Howe, George Eyston, and the Designer Claude Graham-White who talks afterwards.

British Movietone News ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986.

🎬British Pathé – Os-Ke-Non-Ton, hereditary chief of the Mohawk tribe, and now radio star, pitches his wigwam in the New Forest and entertains by singing a love song. Item title reads - The New Empire Review now has pleasure in presenting the famous North American Red Indian Chief Os-Ke-Non-Ton famous on concert platform and radio. L/S's of pine woods of Langdown Lawn at Hythe in the New Forest. M/S of a wigwam pitched in the middle of the woods. M/S as Os-Ke-Non-Ton, hereditary chief of the Mohawk tribe, emerges in traditional native American dress. He kneels, then starts to make a fire by rubbing wood together, M/S as he holds up burning cloth and puts it under a pile of wood. M/S as he lights his long pipe from the fire. M/S as he puts on his magnificent Indian head-dress. M/S as he cups his hands to his mouth and calls. He then announces he is going to sing a Red Indian love song and introduces it. He bangs a drum as he sings. M/S after the song has finished he picks up a blanket and walks away into the woods. End Titles

🎬British Movietone - University Officers' Training Corps. Boys from Public Schools' O.T.C.'S visit Calshot in connection with 37167. Shots of the flying boat only

🎬Jack Hargreaves and Stan Bréhaut came over to the New Forest on 26th December 1979 to follow the annual Point To Point race across the Forest. The meeting place for the race was near the High Corner Inn and the finish a few miles away at Stoney Cross. Stan visited the New Forest earlier in the year to film the opening shots.

This sequence has been restored and upscaled for NFG Media Archive, so can now be viewed in high definition for the first time.

The surviving Out Of Town episodes can be purchased on DVD and Blu-Ray from:
https://new.networkonair.com/further-.... The recently discovered 'Lost Episodes' are also now available to buy.

Our thanks to Gudrun Fowler and Mike Womersley at Northam TV Centre for their help and advice.