Minstead is a small village and civil parish in the New Forest, roughly 2 miles north of Lyndhurst. In the village, there is a shop and a pub, the Trusty Servant. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s grave is under a large tree at the back of the 13^th century All Saints’ church. The majority of the parish area is a complex of woodland, heathland, acid grassland, scrub and valley bog, supporting a great richness and diversity of wildlife. The area of Minstead has been populated since prehistoric times. Evidence of this includes palaeolithic tools found and several Bronze Age barrows within the parish. The population of the parish is 690 across an area of 39.23 km².