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Boltons Bench.

Lyndhurst is a small town in the New Forest, Hampshire, England. It is often called the "Capital of the New Forest" and is a popular tourist location with many shops, cafés, pubs and hotels. Lyndhurst is also home to the New Forest Museum. The nearest city is Southampton located around nine miles (14 km) to the north-east. In 2001 Lyndhurst had a population of 2,973 people [1].

Alice Liddell, also known as Alice Hargreaves, the inspiration for Alice in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, lived in and around Lyndhurst after her marriage to Reginald Hargreaves, and is buried in the graveyard of the church of St. Michael & All Angels, Lyndhurst.

The church itself is a major landmark, being built of many different colours of brick, on one of the highest points in the village. The church was built in the 1860s, and contains famous paintings and stained-glass. Other major landmarks include Bolton's Bench, a picturesque hill to the east of the village; and a row of much photographed thatched cottages on the road to the neighbouring hamlet of Emery Down.

View in the New Forest near Lyndhurst (1815) by Patrick Nasmyth.

The village is the administrative capital of the New Forest, with the district council based in the village. The Court of Verderers sits in the Queens House in Lyndhurst. The headquarters of the Forestry Commission, the body that handles the maintenance of the softwood plantations, forest roads and paths, and controlling the spread of invasive plants, such as Rhododendrons and Gorse is based in Queen's House in the Village.

The headquarters of the privately owned British chemicals company INEOS are located in the village.

The village itself is the meeting point of the A35, running east to west from Southampton to Bournemouth and the A337 running north to south from the M27 to Lymington on the south coast. To deal with the large volume of traffic that is created by this link, a one-way system is used. This in effect turns the major roads of the village into a traffic circle. During the summer months, the traffic through the village increases hugely because of the tourists who visit the area. This can create queues into the village from all directions. The parish council has suggested that a bypass around the village may rediuce the problems caused by traffic in the centre of the village.[2] Although Lyndhurst itself does not have a railway station, it is only four miles (6 km) from Brockenhurst and three miles (5 km) from Ashurst, both stations on the South Western Main Line to London and Weymouth.

• New Forest Online page on Lyndhurst
• New Forest District Council website
• Photographs and Description

Coordinates: 50°52′N, 1°35′W