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Marc H (New Forest Ramble)

@newforestramble.bsky.social
475 followers 383 following 391 posts

I walk about and stumble across stuff I think's interesting, you might too, and it's often the weird and wonderful in the New Forest including history. Lots of WW2 history and military airfields can also be expected.

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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I was interviewed by the BBC for a Podcast this month. Search BBC Sounds Secret Hampshire and you can find it... about the New Forest's wartime airfields.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
The latest Naval Dockyards Society publication (Vol 19) has an article by myself on the naval requisition of the Beaulieu River and estate during WW2. The book can be ordered from the Naval Dockyards Society.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I didn't lead them here.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
It's been an incredible weekend at Buckler's Hard for our wartime heritage festival. I want to thank all who visited, exhibitors, speakers, vehicle owners, theatre people, and wonderful volunteers. The festival was beyond my wildest dreams. It was surreal to sign my book for people, so thank you.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
If you want an idea for a day out next weekend, there's a WW2 history and heritage event on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 June at Buckler’s Hard. Free talks, exhibition, displays, vintage wartime vehicles, and more.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social opened the WW2 Exhibition at Buckler's Hard yesterday. The exhibition will form one small part of the WW2 Heritage Weekend on Sat 13 - Sun 14 of June. Search FB for Buckler's Hard Wartime Weekend for details.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
This morning we were delighted to welcome Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social to officially open a new exhibition we've put together: 'Beaulieu River at War' - it runs at Buckler's Hard until October.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Some information on the WW2 heritage weekend we're putting together in the New Forest, at Buckler's Hard (on the Beaulieu River).
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
This cannon shell - along with other artefacts connected to the incident - will be on display at the Buckler’s Hard Wartime Weekend on 13–14 June. It's a free heritage and history weekend that myself and Mary Montagu-Scott have curated.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Anti-aircraft guns opened fire. Two Typhoons raced to intercept. Moments later, the aircraft crashed near Exbury. All seven German airmen onboard were killed. But here’s the mystery… A Junkers Ju 188 normally carried just four crew. So why were there seven men aboard?
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Banana for scale… This cannon shell was fired by an RAF Hawker Typhoon from RAF Needs Oar Point in the New Forest. On 18 April 1944, a lone German Junkers bomber appeared over the Solent and New Forest - an extraordinary sight at a time when the RAF controlled the skies. 🧵
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Here’s how AI is rewriting history... I Googl'd Noor Inayat Khan. The left image is a genuine photo. The right AI-generated. The fake is pulled from a clickbait Facebook page. We're in an era where fictional can replace real history, and most casual observers won't even realise.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
The Buckler’s Hard Wartime Weekend - 13/14 June, 2026. Step back in time this June as the historic riverside village of Buckler’s Hard hosts a free wartime heritage weekend commemorating the extraordinary role the Beaulieu River and surrounding New Forest played during the Second World War.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
I'm organising this history weekend in the New Forest with the Buckler's Hard Shipyard Trust. It's free to attend. Full details of the exhibitors, speakers, vehicles, and things to see including an exhibition and more, will be published in the next couple of weeks.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
This morning we led a family visiting from the USA - to the site where their father / grandfather died in 1959. He was a NASA test pilot flying a jet over England. Having this interest in history occasionally leads to days like this where you can help people.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
I was walking this evening in the New Forest and found a brick so I thought I’d talk about bricks. Being a few weeks off 50, this is the kind of thing that many men of my age are interested in.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Can you help? I need recommendations for guest speakers to talk to my group in the New Forest, we seat 80 to 95 people twice a month. Military history speakers, aviation, WW2, WW1, etc. If you've seen anyone to recommend please say, or if this sounds like you.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Thank you for all that came to the New Forest this evening to hear about PLUTO. We had just shy of 100 people. The local interest in WW2 history is quite something.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I heard it's someone's birthday today. #spitfire
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
If you enjoy stories like this, I post a few a week on YouTube, under the NewForestRamble handle.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
As it's Friday afternoon, here's a little bit of fun New Forest WW2 history I recorded which includes naked pensioners, witches casting a spell on Hitler, and the invasion scare of 1940.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
William Eagle was a WW2 fighter ace, but later tragically killed in front of his fiancee whilst flying over the New Forest in his Typhoon.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
I am giving a talk at Bournemouth University on Feb 26 if anyone is local to the campus.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Here's a batch of metal runway tracking that once held the weight of 200 departures of American P-47 Thunderbolts on D-Day from the New Forest. Unfortunately not enough to build a new Advanced Landing Ground but there is an interesting plan for it. #ww2 #d-day
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
The grave of Martyn King this evening. He was shot down over Southampton. The youngest Battle of Britain pilot killed in action, aged just 18.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Trained in Beaulieu, Executed in Dachau.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Was on the site of a Canadian D-Day camp in the New Forest this morning, and spotted this picket screw. Would have been used to fence the barbed wire and keep the men in camp... it's been left between two limbs, and 82 years later is now part of the tree.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
I was at the Montagu Arms hotel in Beaulieu, New Forest, today, so thought a good opportunity to record a 45 seconds of WW2 & D-Day history that happened in the building. #newforest #ww2 #beaulieu #dday
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
If you look close, you can see where the road's previous level was.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
If you attempt to drive under this bridge near Brockenhurst today, it will likely be flooded... due to WW2. The road was lowered in the lead up to D-Day to allow for military vehicles to pass under the bridge. Which is why it floods and traps cars to this day.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Here's a little about the site of the former New Forest D-Day WW2 airfield, RAF Lymington... and news
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
The former RAF Lymington looking a little soggy this morning. #ww2 #dday #newforest
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Spotted on my travels this week were sections of the metal runways from the former RAF Lymington in Hampshire. On D-Day, American P-47 Thunderbolts rattled down this metalwork over 200 times on that day alone, starting at 3am in the morning til 7pm at night. #ww2 #dday #newforest
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
The talk I am giving on the RAF Lymington WW2 D-Day airfield sold out, so if of interest, a second date has been arranged. Book a seat on www.ticketsource.co.uk/nfhwa
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Throughout the New Forest you can find evidence of where 1000s of men were camped up in advance of the D-Day Normandy Invasion. They left some traces... #newforest #ww2 #dday
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Buckler’s Hard today; they’ve asked me to put an exhibition on here in the summer. Not of myself you’ll be relieved to hear. #newforest
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Tonight 100 people turned up to hear me talk about stuff. Well, old WW2 airfields, proving there are others out there just as odd as me. Thank you. #ww2 #brockenhurst #newforest
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
I made a video a few years ago, with "then vs now" montages of WW2 airfields in the New Forest, here's a short clip.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
I worry about the impact of phones on kids. But this has to positive: he went out today & sent me photos from his phone. He'll have the memories as long as he keeps them digital. Wish I'd had this opp when I was 12, as adventures I had, and friends, are now v. foggy in my memory.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Some time ago I advertised a talk I was giving about RAF Beaulieu, a New Forest WW2 airfield. The tickets sold out and some asked if I could organise it again. The hall has kindly let me repeat the room booking... so, if you want to come along, you can book a seat for the second date.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Sick of the sight of turkey sandwiches (and your own family)? There is a handful of tickets left for this in Dibden Purlieu, New Forest, on Saturday 3rd January - you get biscuits nfhwa.org/events/
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
The BEAULIEU letters this morning. The letters were originally cut and filled with chalk circa 1910, when this land became the site of just the second flying school to open in England.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
On a trek this morning - this concrete ballast is all that remains from a Barnes Wallis 'Highball' bouncing bomb test.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Kids at Sholing Junior School in Southampton are trying to raise enough money to place a memorial in the city to James Nicolson, the only Battle of Britain VC, plus Martyn King, youngest Battle of Britain pilot KIA... both events taking place over the skies of Southampton. 1/2
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
If you're interested in the history of the New Forest's WW2 airfields, I will be giving talks on Wednesday evenings in the first quarter of 2026 at Brockenhurst Village Hall - Jan is RAF Beaulieu, Feb is RAF Lymington, March is RAF Needs Oar Point. 🧵 1/2
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Another packed hall in Dibden Purlieu tonight to hear the story of Battle of Britain VC, James Nicolson. It was a fantastic presentation, nearly 100 people came along, showing the interest in WW2 history in Hampshire.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
As it's Halloween, here's an unmarked grave in a New Forest cemetery, which is allegedly where a witch is buried. A cage was once over the grave, possibly to stop her escaping. But the cage has been cut off, poss for metal recycling during WW2. Happy Halloween 👻
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Beautiful sunset over Bagshot Moor at East Boldre this evening. This spot opened as the UK’s second ever flying school in 1910. Imagine how it was here with those magnificent men in their flying machines on an evening like this.
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Saw this horse in the forest today. Calling her Jen-neigh-fer Aniston
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Marc H (New Forest Ramble) @newforestramble.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Widened roads in the village of Pilley, New Forest. Widened to support the build-up of D-Day traffic in the area.
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