The Latchmore Brook is a significant stream in the New Forest

New Forest

The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It rises from the elevated gravel plateaus in the north of the Forest, north of Fritham

Fritham

Fritham is a small village in Hampshire, England. It lies in the north of the New Forest, near the Wiltshire border. It is in the civil parish of Bramshaw.-History:...

, and drains into the River Avon

River Avon, Hampshire

The River Avon is a river in the south of England. The river rises in the county of Wiltshire and flows through the city of Salisbury and the county of Hampshire before reaching the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour in the county of Dorset....

 north of Ibsley

Ibsley

Ibsley is a village in Hampshire, England. It is about 2.5 miles north of the town of Ringwood.-Overview:The village of Ibsley lies to the east of the River Avon on the main road between Ringwood and Fordingbridge, and has some picturesque thatched cottages...

.

The stream's catchment is open heathland, deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

 woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

, silvicultural inclosures and, in its lower reaches, small scale pastoral farmland; as such there are no consistent sources of pollution and the stream's course and character has largely remained free from artificial modification. Historically, the greatest human impact on the brook was connected to the Schultze Gunpowder Factory which was established in the 1860s at Eyeworth Lodge near Fritham

Fritham

Fritham is a small village in Hampshire, England. It lies in the north of the New Forest, near the Wiltshire border. It is in the civil parish of Bramshaw.-History:...

. The factory required large volumes of water and this demand was met by damming the brook to create a reservoir (which still survives as Eyeworth Pond

Eyeworth Pond

Eyeworth Pond is a pond located near Fritham in the New Forest, in Hampshire, England.The pond was created in the 1860s by damming Latchmore Brook, with the purpose of supplying water to a nearby gunpowder factory...

). The problem of sulphuric and nitric acid discharges contaminating the river, killing fish, only ended when the factory closed in the 1920s.