The road to Canada

Less than a mile from home, northwest of Romsey you’ll come across the hamlet of Canada, and the substantial area of heathland known as Canada Common, which verges onto the New Forest.

Canada is officially just inside the New Forest boundary, although it falls within the Wellow parish and can only be reached by public road from a roundabout on the A36 at West Wellow, and merges with Wellow, Plaitford and Penn commons.

It’s a favourite venue for country walkers, wildlife, dog owners and for many years was a favoured backdrop for many of my car photographs which were subsequently published with car appraisals in newspapers across the south and south west as well as in the Cotswolds and south Wales.

The common is open grazing land for cattle, horses, ponies and donkeys and it was always easy to find a group of ponies as a backdrop for pictures focussing on a different type of horsepower.