Pennington Village also has a leisure centre, which has a 25-metre indoor swimming pool, a sports hall, a gym, and an astro-turf football pitch.

Pennington and Oxey Marshes, historically the largest salt pans in the area, are popular spots for bird watching, walking, fishing, photography and cycling.

It was formed approximately 37 to 40 million years ago in the Palaeogene Period when the local environment was dominated by swamps, estuaries and deltas.

Where Avon Water and Yaldhurst stream have flooded, fine silt and clay has deposited in the vicinity of the river banks forming floodplain alluvium.

St Marks Church is approximately 24m above sea level, whilst Gordleton Business Park is approximately 28m above sea level.To the south of Pennington lie Pennington and Oxey Marshes, an area of marsh and tidal muds, formerly used as salterns for the local salt industry.

Pennington and Oxey marshes are divided into 11 designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (see Natural England website references 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17, 18, 19 and 23).

An excavation at Lower Farm in Pennington uncovered late prehistoric human activity (a burnt mound).

[7] Excavations at Manor Farm in Lower Pennington found evidence of medieval settlement including hearths, ditches gullies and post holes.

The report states that Oxey Marsh in Lower Pennington was the primary salt production site during the local industry's peak.

[10] The manor of Pennington was held in the 13th century by the de Clares, whose descendants continued to be overlords till it passed to the Crown following the execution of the Earl of Salisbury in 1499.

[14] Lymington Borough was subsequently abolished on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, becoming an unparished area in the district of New Forest, with Charter Trustees.

[citation needed] It was an industry that had existed along these shores for many hundreds of years, from at least 1217 and possibly dating back to Roman times.

Along the marshes were the salt pans, where sea water was evaporated by the sun; and boiling houses, where day and night smoky coal furnaces made the final extraction, causing a dirty smudge on the coastline…[20] Philip Fallé writing in 1694, saw Pennington Marshes as “a most unhealthy place, without fresh water.. with stinking vapours and smoke that arise out of the neighbouring marshes.” Per Stephens, the sea salt undertaking was finally abandoned in 1845 ‘when an inexhaustible supply of mineral salt could be provided from Cheshire.

[citation needed] Kegs of brandy would be brought by boats to the low water mark at Pennington Marshes.

By rope, men would haul the kegs to shore and transport them by donkey and cart to the Common or Upper Pennington.

In Pennington Remembered, Joan Stephens writes that whilst hanging washing to dry on the furze bushes (as was commonly done by women of the village to supplement their usual income) women would hide bottles of brandy in their washing baskets and use the disguise as a means of transporting it to their customers.

Cockram, Stephens and Williams’ book, Pennington’s Sacrifice in the Great War, recounts those fellows and the parts they had played in village life.

[citation needed] He married Amelia Ann Reinagle on 3 October 1797 at St Mary, Marylebone Road, London; and fathered six children.

He began his military career in 1795 with the Royal Scots (aka “1st Regiment of Foot”), during which time he was responsible for the “recruitment of free-born blacks and slaves in the West Indies”.

In 1801, the Chasseurs Britanniques unit was formed from French Royalist emigres under the charge of British officers, and served throughout the wars.

It had a good record in battle but later became notorious for desertion, and was not even allowed to perform outpost duty, for fears that the pickets would abscond.

[22] In “Snippets from long ago in Pennington”, Joan Stephens notes that ‘during the threatened Napoleonic invasion of this country bands of Militia were camped on the common.

At this time, the neighbouring town of Lymington was a dump for a turbulent and unruly mob of German, Dutch, English and French fighting units”.

It is to be remembered that up to this point, dueling with pistols had been considered the most gentlemanly way of resolving any kind of personal dispute or dishonor.

[24][25] On 15 April 1814, the two duelers, armed and accompanied by their assistants, or “seconds,” to ensure a fair fight, met at Pennington Common to settle once and for the grievances that divided them.

Souper had a wife and children and expected acquittal or short imprisonment, but the jury returned the verdict of ‘Guilty of Murder’.

The Justice, in addressing the Jury, lamented recent cases of a similar kind in that the court had not been able to deter gentlemen in the army from the odious practice of dueling; and explained that all persons concerned in a duel, either as principals or seconds, must, in case of death to either of the parties, be guilty of wilful murder, both by the laws of God and man, in as much as it was not the rash act of a passionate moment, but done generally deliberately in cold blood.

Stephens also notes that the Foreign Depot in Lymington had ‘long since gone but, until 1974 – when it was destroyed by vandals, stood the grim reminder in Lymington Churchyard of the Army’s last duel – a stone erected to the memory of John Dieterich late Lieut and Adjutant of the Foreign Depot who fell in a duel on the Common at Pennington’.

[citation needed] It is understood from local sources that this was due to the number of donkeys that would graze on Pennington Common.

An important role is played in Pennington's community by other bodies including the Residents Association, the Church, the Women's Institute, the Schools, and Natural England.