Acres Down Farm
The Farm
Acres Down Farm is a busy, New Forest Commoner's working farm depasturing animals according to the ancient rights of the New Forest keeping beef cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens. It is 1 mile on the western side of the village of Minstead which is 2 1/2 miles from Lyndhurst. The farm opens directly on to the 900 year old Royal Hunting Forest now known as the New Forest National Park.
Time Immemorial
The common rights of the New Forest are attached to property, such as a house or piece of land, and not to a person or their family. Not every property in the New Forest has common rights. Common rights have existed since time immemorial, undoubtedly predating the creation of the New Forest by King William I (the Conqueror) in circa. 1079. Indeed, some commoning families have been exercising their rights for many generations and, in some cases, can even trace their ancestry back to the earliest written records of the New Forest. Commoning in the New Forest is a pragmatic enterprise as well as a traditional one. People with rights of pasture graze their animals communally and tend to help each other to care for them and keep an eye on them (although the welfare of each animal is the responsibility of its owner). The Agisters, who are appointed by the Verderers of the New Forest*, deal with the management issues of stock on the Forest and work daily with the commoners to ensure high standards of animal welfare.
Commoning Rights
Pasture
The right to graze livestock, including ponies, cattle and donkeys and also some sheep (under a separate common right).
Pannage or mast
The right to turn out pigs during the ‘pannage’ season in the autumn to feed. The pigs provide a useful service by eating acorns that are poisonous to ponies and cattle.
Estovers or fuelwood
The right to cut wood for fuel. To protect the Ancient and Ornamental woodland, commoners who exercise this right are now provided with firewood from timber plantations by Forestry England.
“The New Forest commoning community is a diverse and broad community of people who come from all walks of life.”
Our Story
"Kate Newman, our great grandmother, bought Acres Down Farm, Robins Bush, and Brick-Kiln Farm in 1947, when part of the old Minstead Manor Estate was sold off. She later sold Brick-Kiln Farm where all the bricks for the estate buildings were made from the clay in the valley and the sand from less than a few hundred yards away. She gave Robins Bush Farm to her son Alfred and Acres Down Farm to our grandfather Jack Newman. He made improvements to the land including reclaiming 50 acres from what had been a fir plantation burnt down during WW2 (Enemy planes tended to jettison bombs which they hadn't been able to drop over Southampton docks in the forest on their return loop home).
Acres Down Farm has been passed down through the generations. Over the years the farm has seen many changes from dairy to beef, commercial pig enterprise and latterly
diversification
into the tourism trade. Using the Common Rights which are attached to the farm, we graze a thriving suckler herd on the forest for the production of our prime Aberdeen Angus beef. We also keep a small flock of breeding sheep, non-commercial pigs and a flock of 40 hens.
Our Aberdeen Angus cattle, Charolais and Suffolk sheep, Gloucestershire Old Spot / Landrace pigs are all reared in a low input, sustainable farming system to produce fantastic great tasting meat. The beef herd is depastured onto the New Forest, were they can forage naturally, only having supplementary conserved fodder in the winter months. The sheep are fed almost exclusively on grass, grazing outdoors on our hilltop. Our pigs stay on the farm until they are depastured onto the forest at pannage season to eat up the acorns during the autumn. All this gives a special intense flavour to all our meats, which is wholly lacking from animals fed intensively on cereals.
“After all happy animals produce the tastiest meat.”
As well as rearing livestock, we have a mixture of hybrid and rare breed chickens for egg production, these range freely outdoors, ensuring rich golden yolks for breakfast!
Acres Down Farm Shop believes in producing products that customers can have absolute confidence in.
