Category: Articles

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Essential Wessex: Gytha of Kyiv

Gytha was the daughter of Harold Godwinson and Edith Swan-neck. Through her marriage to Vladimir Monomach, she became a grand princess of Kievan Rus after her father’s death in 1066. Their oldest child, Msitislav, was the last grand prince of a united Kievan Rus, and was known in the Germanic-speaking world as Harald, after his grandfather.

Gytha was believed to have been a major influence on what we would nowadays call her husband’s public relations strategy. Historians have noted stylistic similarities between Vladimir’s writings and those of Alfred the Great. It is likely that these are due to his links to the the royal house of Wessex through Gytha.

Dating Gytha’s life is difficult due to discrepancies between different primary sources. As far as we can tell, she was born in either 1053 or 1061, and died in either 1098 or 1107, depending on which source you believe. She is buried in St Sophia’s cathedral in Kyiv, modern-day Ukraine.

Gytha was the ancestor of Philippa of Hainault, queen of Edward III, and therefore of all subsequent English and British monarchs. She was also an ancestor of Ivan the Terrible, establishing the links between British and Russian royalty that persisted until the Russian revolution.

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The Character of Wessex: The New Forest

Contrary to what its name may imply, the New Forest is actually two-thirds heathland. “Forest” in this context means land set aside for royal hunting, and the New Forest has served this function since the reign of Edward the Confessor. William the Bastard turned it into a “perambulation” with its own forest law – a situation which persists to this day, administered by the Verderers’ Court. The New Forest was famously the site of the death of his successor, William Rufus, which we have written about before.

The New Forest Character Area is bounded by Southampton Water to the east, the Solent to the south, and the Hampshire Avon to the west. The northern boundary is a bit fuzzier, but much of it follows the A27 Salisbury Road. Elsewhere, it simply shades into Salisbury Plain.

As well as the New Forest ponies that we wrote about a couple of weeks ago, donkeys, cattle, sheep and pigs graze freely, owned by the commoners.

The New Forest cicada is endemic to the region, and it is the only place in Britain where the wild gladiolus grows. Also notable are populations of the smooth snake, hobby, honey buzzard and nightjar. Hen harriers also winter there. Coastal areas support the Mediterranean gull, sea lavender, Bewick’s swan and gadwall.

75% of the character area was designated a National Park in 2005, the first in Wessex. 60% of the forested area is managed by the Forestry Commission, which is currently in the process of replacing non-native species with indigenous ones.

Like so many other places, the New Forest is under threat from climate change. Rising sea levels and changing patterns of rainfall are affecting the watercourses, increasing the chance of flooding. Gentrification is also threatening the historic character of the area, bringing in more traffic, and buildings that jar with their surroundings. Clearly there is work to be done to keep the Forest from becoming just another playground for Londoners.

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The Character of Wessex: Exmoor

We already covered Exmoor ponies a couple of weeks ago on this blog. Now it’s time to turn to their natural habitat, a landscape that inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Williamson and RD Blackmore, and which gave its name to the Devonian period. Exmoor is bounded to the north by the Bristol Channel, while the Taw/Torridge estuary forms its south-western extremity.

A royal forest since shortly after the Norman invasion, Exmoor was extensively redeveloped in the 18th and 19th centuries by the landowning Knight family. Though there is evidence of human presence since at least the Bronze Age, much of its current settlement pattern can be traced back to the Knights.

As well as the aforementioned ponies, Exmoor is home to a local breed of sheep, the Exmoor Horn. Sheep farming is a major part of the area’s economy, along with some dairying, and coniferous plantations for timber supply.

Among wild plants, purple heather predominates. while red deer are a large part of Exmoor’s identity. Local rare species include Dartford warblers and Bechstein’s bats.

Whilst the moorland itself is gentler than nearby Dartmoor, the coastline contains some of the steepest cliffs in England. Along with deep river valleys, it is easy to see why Exmoor’s landscapes were such an influence on the romantic movement.

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Essential Wessex: Domestic Pig Breeds

Wessex is home to many breeds of domestic pig. Some of the most prominent are as follows.

The Berkshire Pig (illustrated) is one of the oldest breeds of domestic pig in Britain, and the first to have pedigrees recorded in herd books (a development which occurred much later than it did for other species of livestock, due to pigs being seen as a peasant’s animal). It originated around Reading in the early 18th century, when native breeds were crossed with imported pigs from East Asia.

The Gloucestershire Old Spot is called “old” because it has been around since time immemorial. Its meat is geographically protected, due to traders fraudulently mislabelling the meat of other breeds as GOS meat.

The Hampshire Hog actually originated around the Scottish border. but was exported to North America from Hampshire. It is so identified with the county that its inhabitants are referred to as Hampshire Hogs.

Closely related to the Berkshire pig is the Oxford Sandy and Black. This breed was on the verge of extinction in 1985, when a Breed Society was formed. Thanks to the Society’s efforts, numbers are on the increase, though it is still among the rarest of breeds. It is sometimes nicknamed the Plum Pudding, because of its distinctive colouring,

Finally, the Wessex Saddleback is now extinct in the United Kingdom, though it survives in Australia and New Zealand. It was traditionally farmed for bacon and ham,

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Essential Wessex: Feral Ponies

Wessex is home to many breeds of feral pony, on Exmoor, Dartmoor, Lundy and in the New Forest.

Ponies have existed in the New Forest since the end of the last Ice Age. Currently, all New Forest ponies are owned collectively by the Foresters who have right of pasture over common land. The Court of Verderers appoints five Agisters to look after the ponies, each covering a different area of the Forest.

New Forest ponies formed the basis of the breeding stock for Lundy Ponies in the 1920s., crossed with a Welsh Mountain stallion. Exmoor or Dartmoor ponies would have been closer geographically, but the owner of the Island at the time, Martin Coles Harman, wanted a larger breed, able to cope with the relatively harsh conditions on Lundy.

Fossil remains of Exmoor ponies have been found dating back to around 50,000 BC. They are smaller than New Forest or Lundy ponies, but are agile and sturdy. They were used as pit ponies in the past.

Finally, Dartmoor ponies were also used by tin miners, and make excellent foundation stock for riding ponies. Their numbers are in steep decline, however, from around 5000 in 1900 to 800 today. The Dartmoor Pony Society and the Duchy of Cornwall are currently engaged in a breeding programme to try and reverse this trend.