about Latchmore
The Latchmore Valley is situated on the North West side of the New Forest, in the parish of Hyde, and is bounded to the North by Hampton Ridge, and to the South by Hasley Inclosure. The Latchmore Brook rises about three miles to the North East, near to Telegraph Hill, and flows through Islands Thorns, Amberwood, and Alderhill Inclosures before emerging into a large well-grazed open lawn, surrounded by broad heaths. There are several valley mires which help to ensure that the Latchmore Brook continues to flow, except in the summer months, when it can dry up between storms. The Brook leaves the open Forest at Ogdens, following the road past Furze Hill, becoming known as the Hucklesbrook, and enters the River Avon just north of Ibsley. The valley has a varied history, which has clearly affected its wildlife.
The timber inclosures were first fenced in the late eighteenth century, and the Schultz Gunpowder Factory, upstream at Eyeworth, was active from the 1860's until just after the first world war. The Gunpowder Factory was responsible for the most significant permanent change to the drainage of the valley, the creation in 1883 of Eyeworth Pond, a reservoir holding (according to the factory's own literature) 6 million gallons of water. The factory used nitric and sulphuric acid in the manufacture of shotgun cartridges, including processes which took local timber and steeped it in acid solutions. Effluent from the factory was discharged (both deliberately and accidentally) into the Latchmore Brook, which became notorious for levels of pollution which could not sustain any aquatic life. In 1915, the New Forest Commoners complained that their animals knew better than to venture anywhere near such a polluted watercourse, and would not drink from it, although by then the peak of the factory's discharge had finished.
In the Second World War, the area was requisitioned for military use as a bombing range, and evidence, in the form of concrete targets, craters, and the occasional unexploded device, is still being uncovered. The area East of Ogdens Farm was ploughed as part of the war effort, and the improved grassland created then is still favoured by large numbers of ponies, cattle and the local herd of fallow deer.
Beside the lower part of Latchmore Brook the stream is surrounded by a thicket of small trees and bushes, including many hawthorns and blackthorns, with some crab apples and hollies, and lots of opportunity for bramble and honeysuckle to grow. The middle section includes a piece of more traditional heath, with low heather and increasing encroachment from bracken, and the upper part of the route takes in mainly pine enclosures, but with some oaks, and a hedge line including hollies, silver birch and brambles. The north side of the valley has several extensive mires, with a series of drainage ditches which feed the Latchmore Brook, and which lead to large areas of more or less permanent bog, making the north side less accessible on foot.