Walks And Walking – Hatfield Forest Christmas Eve 2011

Walks And Walking – Hatfield Forest Christmas Eve 2011

To celebrate Christmas Eve this year with Tedi we decided on an early morning trip to Hatfield Forest for “Pig in a Poke” and Mulled Wine for breakfast.

Here are our photos, shame it did not snow but at least we got to see the wild mistletoe. I say wild, but as it is a parasite I am sure all of it is wild, although I did see a news report about how mistletoe is grown and then auctioned.

Wild Mistletoe Hatfield Forest Walks Walking Routes December 2011 Christmas Eve

The Wild Mistletoe Hatfield Forest Walks Walking Routes December 2011 Christmas

Hatfield Forest Walks And Walking Routes December 2011 Christmas Eve

Hatfield Forest is an ancient woodland, a rare surviving example of a medieval royal hunting forest, of great historical and ecological importance currently managed by the National Trust.

Click this link for more information about Hatfield Forest National Trust

About Hatfield Forest

Hatfield Forest is unique in that it has survived intact, with written records over the last 9 centuries, not only by Kings, but landowners, tenants and peasants.

Hatfield Forest was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. It belonged to King Harold passing to William the Conqueror after his defeat at the battle of Hastings. It is probable that Henry I created Hatfield Forest as a Royal Hunting Forest in around 1100AD and introduced fallow deer to the land.

The name Hatfield Forest comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Hoep-Field.Its modern meaning is ‘heathfield’; ‘Hoep’ meaning heathland, and ‘field’ meaning not field, but open space in sight of woodland.