MAY I reply to the article about the bell from Bells?

Ms Newkirk states that her great uncle and father would be 'twirling in their graves' over the proposed cull of wild boar.

What wild boar? There certainly weren't any roaming the Forest when her great uncle and father were roaming the Forest because the animals hadn't been released into the Forest then.

There were released, or escaped, much later and they are not wild they are beasts that have been crossed with domestic pigs.

I assume that Ms Newkirk does not live or work in the Forest so doesn't have to suffer unsightly mess or worry about meeting these beasts when walking in the woods either.

The only reason there were ever boar in the Forest was for kings, queens and their courtiers to hunt them – which they did to the boar's extinction.

The beasts now roaming are hybrids and are not native to our Forest.

– L Marshall, Drybrook.