v SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE HERALD v Page 76 • The HERALD • 13th March 2025 BLACKFIELD GARAGE SERVICES LTD Tel: (023) 8089 3146 MOT’s AND SERVICING, ACCIDENT REPAIRS, INSURANCE AND PRIVATE WORK FREE ESTIMATES EXHAUSTS AND BATTERIES ETC All makes and models of vehicle Courtesy cars available Members of the Retail Motor Industry Federation Blackfield Crossroads, Blackfield Holbury Service Station Web: www.holburyservicestation.com Email: holburyservicestation@hotmail.co.uk Member of Good Garage Scheme.com TYRES FITTED WHILE-U-WAIT Budget and Branded tyres held in stock Long Lane, Holbury, SO45 2NZ Tel: 023 8089 3727 All Major Cards Accepted and Repairs to Cars & Vans MOT’S & SERVICING 023 8084 9370 Prospect Place, Hythe SO45 6AU • MOT’s • MOT Repairs • Air Con • Auto Electrics • Servicing • Welding • Diagnostics • Suspension • Tyres • Clutches • Cam Belts • Brakes To advertise your business in The Herald, contact Sue on 023 8084 0815 or email: sjones@herald-publishing.co.uk The Story of the Carter Stone by Marc Heighway Marc hosts monthly local history talks, visit: nfhwa. org/events for details If you’ve walked from King’s Hat Inclosure car park and carried on through the boggy landscape up the hill to a piece of New Forest heathland named Gurnet elds Furzebrake, you may have stumbled across a curious stone standing alone on the heath. Its weathered inscription reads: “This stone is erected to mark the spot where S Carter was killed whilst hunting with the New Forest hounds 16 Jan 1883.” Despite its appearance, this is no gravestone. Beneath your feet lies no body, just the silent memorial to a man whose life ended at this spot. It is a memorial to the name inscribed in stone: S. Carter. Over the years there has been some debate about the stone memorial. It’s certainly extremely incongruous to its surroundings. It also celebrates a man who was fox hunting at the time of his death, a past time that most people nd abhorrent. Indeed, the stone has become a focus for modern antihunting gra ti. Despite this, the Carter Stone was suggested as an important asset to be included on the New Forest National Park Authority’s ‘Local List’ of heritage assets. Regardless of modern opinions, the Carter Stone o ers a fascinating glimpse into a di erent era - one where hunting was a way of life, and death could come swi ly on the chase. But who was S. Carter? What kind of man inspired such a memorial? Uncovering his story took me back through census records, newspaper archives, and old maps to piece together his life. Carter was born in December 1818 in Newchurch on the Isle of Wight. In 1851 he was living at 9 Bedford Terrace at Bedford Place in Southampton. By the time he reached his early forties, he was living in Junction Road in Totton, where the census records his occupation as saddler and harness maker. He married his housekeeper Matilda Bungay in January 1865, she was eight years his junior. ey had no children. According to news reports from the time, he was a popular gure in the New Forest, a good rider, and one of the oldest members of the Hampshire Yeomanry Cavalry, aged sixty four. He composed his own songs, which were o en called for at social gatherings. He had previously told friends that when he was to die, he’d like it to be when fox hunting. Little did he know how prophetic that wish would be. On the day of his death, he met other horse riders belonging to the New Forest Foxhounds at Hythe Crossroads, now the Heath roundabout. Within minutes they had spotted a fox, so set o in chase down Beaulieu Road, as if heading towards Hill Top. A er just eight hundred metres or so they made a right hand turn at pace across the heathland, raced past the Bronze Age Tumuli, passed e Noads, around Crab Hat Inclosure, down the hill, through North Gate, and into King’s Hat Inclosure, before crossing the Beaulieu River in water up to their horse’s bellies. Once out of the water, the Continued on page 77
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