50 years of BBC South. A series of 19 mini-features made by BBC South at Southampton in 2011 to celebrate the station's 50 year history.

Episode 19 The News. How the news has changed over the years. In the early days it was mainly voiced over captions and still photos. Also a look at Vox Pops and encounters with animals.

NFG are indebted to the BBC staff at Southampton for their help in sourcing items for the archive. See more episodes in the Category - BBC South.

The RAF train pigeons to send messages from aircraft, Calshot, Hampshire. Pigeons being tested by the RAF in Calshot, Hampshire. Full titles read: "CALSHOT" L/S's of a basket with pigeons being loaded onto and RAF (Royal Airforce) flying boat. Good L/S's of the large aeroplane taking to the sky. M/S's of a man releasing a homing pigeon from the cockpit of the aircraft. L/S's and M/S's of an RAF man collecting the pigeon after it has returned home, he holds it upside down and then and takes the message attached to it's ring off

18th century Agisters and pigs with rights to wander are just some of the ancient traditions celebrated in this beguiling look at life in the New Forest. Less familiar sights are captured, too, such as broom making and logging, forestry planting and sailing on the River Beaulieu near Buckler's Hard. No film about the area would be complete, though, without the famous Forest ponies – who are seen here in all their equine glory.

Black and White
Director Roy Layzell
Featuring John Snagge
Released 1952

https://www.fawleyonline.org.uk/forest-heritage/
A portrait of the landscape, people and traditions of the New Forest in the 1950s.

Forest Heritage is a poetic portrait of life in the New Forest in the 1950s.

The cinematography by Roy Layzell, music by Clifton Parker and commentary by John Snagge combine to make this a gem amongst the documentary ‘shorts’ of the period.

It was commissioned by the Esso Petroleum Company in 1952, just as they were establishing a new refinery on the eastern edge of the New Forest at Fawley, but Forest Heritage is entirely concerned with the natural beauty and traditions of the area: ‘A place out of this modern world where simple pleasures are enough – a miraculous survival of pre-Norman England’.

Ytene is an ancient name for the area now known as the New Forest. It was the site of the Jutish Kingdom and translates as "of the Jutes".

Filmed over a two year period by Manuel Hinge, Ytene explores the wildlife found in the New Forest in southern England.

The woodland, bogs and heaths of the area are home to wild ponies, fallow deer, badgers, foxes, wildfowl, and insects. Seasonal changes are shown, and some elusive species, such as firecrests, hawfinches, woodlarks and tadpole shrimps are pictured. The programme is interwoven with historical re-enactments and describes the change in land use from mediaeval times.

Filmed and Directed by Manuel Hinge
Music by Martin Kiszko
Film Editor Martin Elsbury
Dubbing Editor Angela Groves
Dubbing Mixer Graham Wild
Unit Manager Christina Hamilton
Production Assistant Elizabeth Toogood
Field Assistant Len Mummery
Sound Recordist Nigel Tucker
Produced by Steve Nicholls
Executive Producer John Sparks
Originally broadcast in The Natural World series 1995

This is the version as aired on BBC in 1995.
Our thanks to The Natural History Unit for supplying the original master.
Film upscaled by New Forest Gateway (Media Archive).