Walk 7, Community Facility to Parley Common via Barrack Road – Parley Common - Lone Pine Drive – Community Facility

Directions and local information, a a printable map (pdf)

Care – some paths on Parley Common can be muddy after rain.

Start at the West Parley Community Facility, Stocks Lane which is accessible alongside the Memorial Hall off Christchurch Road East. Walk back to Christchurch Road.

The Community Hub dates from the late 1940s when the land was cleared for playing fields and a small pavilion and changing rooms erected. The current building was erected in 1961 and opened by John Arlott, the cricket commentator. Parley Cricket Club and Parley Youth Football use the grounds and Parley Pétanque Club use their 2 terrains adjacent to the car park. A total re-roof of the Community Hub is planned; which includes removal of all first floor structures.

South of the Community Hub building is the Recreation Ground where the 2022 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations were held, trees planted for her Silver Jubilee and Millennium Gardens created.

The current Memorial Hall on the main road was opened in 1964 to replace a former Hall to the north that was opened in 1948. It contains the village WW1 and WW2 memorials. The Hall can accommodate up to 250 people at meetings and 150 seated at tables for social occasions and activities but suffered a fire in early 2023 so is not currently in use.

From the Hall turn left. The first building, the Curlew Inn, can be traced to 1841 as the farmhouse for Stocks Farm, a smallholding. It was built by a Wimborne banker and partner in a fishing company with 40 boats plying between Poole and Newfoundland. The front was given a Grade II listing in 1955. The village stocks were reputed to have been located outside the farmhouse. The junction here with Church Lane opposite is the original West Parley crossroads, until New Road and Ensbury Bridge were built in 1912. In the field opposite the Curlew was one of the largest ponds in the village as shown on an 1860 map but it has long been infilled and the Plymouth Brethren Hall has been built there.

There are some interesting houses in Christchurch Road. Have a look at numbers 366, 358 and 356 that are from the mid 18th century. 356 has old wall ties to keep it straight, one of the few houses in the village needing this support. Part of the wall is cob. Old maps of this area south of Christchurch Road show a number of other old houses but they are no longer here. They were probably cob farm cottages, but one was Reeks general store and there was a taxidermists workshop displaying stuffed animals in the shop window.

Continue east towards the Airport and take a short detour down the small lane nearly opposite the end of Barrack Road that leads to Wood Town Farm. Just to the north of the farm Iron Age finds were made in 1929 when clearing out a duck pond and 4th century Romano-British occupational debris has been found to south east.

The farmhouse has cob walls on footings of brick and heathstone. The original building is early 17th century. Early in the 19th century the main room was divided and a further room was added to the south end.

Return up the lane and cross over the road to Barrack Road. Follow the road for approximately 1 mile until you reach Virginia Cottage (50 yards past Ace Reclamation).

On the corner of Barrack Road was a smallholding called Barnes Farm. This is now in-excess Garden Centre and the coffee shop in the nursery was an old barn.

Behind the nursery, in Barrack Road and the adjoining paddock, there are some of the old trees, being around 250 years old. Barrack Road is named after 2 parish almshouses that were on the second bend in the road in what is now the Barnes Industrial Estate.

The almshouses were called ‘The Barracks’ to reflect the basic conditions in the semi -detached houses. They were built by the parish in 1830 with borrowed money to house the village poor but became an increasing drain on the parish funds and were sold in the late 1850’s.

Barrack Road itself follows a narrow strip of land almost 1 ½ miles long that was a parcel of land allocated to a John Bolton in the 1633 division of the heath when the common heathland was enclosed and allocated to the leading tenant farmers.

There is an unusual layout of land and properties as all the paddocks, commercial premises and houses are on the right side of the road. The reason for this is that a large parcel of land from Barnes Farm to almost the top of Parley Common was bought by a Mr Bowman in 1915 and then sold off in parts for development.

This land had been part of Wood Town Farm and it marks the boundary between West and East Parley Commons and was part of the former boundary between Dorset and Hampshire.

The first house in the road, The Oaks, was built in 1918. From the early 1920s a mixture of holiday cottages and cottages with market gardens or poultry sheds around were built. These were mainly built of timber and asbestos sheeting and had corrugated iron roofs. There was no electricity here until the 1960s and there is still no mains drainage. All the properties initially had a well.

Some plots were used for an assortment of businesses including vehicle breaking and builders yards. At the top of the road a business collected food waste from local schools and businesses and boiled it for pig food. The largest plots have been horse paddocks for many years.

Half way up the road is a property called West Lyn. Behind this property on the former East Parley Common there was a claypit and a kiln that supplied bricks for local use. Whilst this brickyard, shown on a late 1880s map, plus another on Poor Common towards Longham, were the brick manufacturers, clay was also dug from a number of other claypits around the village and transported to the 2 kilns and made into bricks. The smaller claypits filled with water when the clay ran out and were used as ponds for farm animals.

Barrack Road is called a private street. In the 1960s it was impassable in wet weather, like many other roads in West Parley at that time. There are stories from the time that if a car got stuck it was difficult to get out without the car flooding. Refuse and coal lorries would have to come across Parley Common from the north to get to Barrack Road.

To make it usable in all weathers the level was raised using 43 lorry loads of rubble and in some places the level is well above the surrounding area and it is quite normal for the woods and common on the left hand side to be flooded for weeks at a time. The Road is still maintained by Residents and businesses.

On west side of Barrack Road is Parley Common SSSI. This land was part of the Canford Estate but is now owned by the Dorset Wildlife Trust and leased to Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust. It has been cleared of most of the pine trees that used to be on it to restore the heath. Just as it always has done the heath floods easily but a lot of work has been done across the Common to create paths suitable for all weathers. One problem is that storm water created at Ferndown is released in heavy rain and that causes local streams to fill up readily that overflow into woods in the south of the Common.

Parley Common was well used even up to 100 years ago. There would have been a number of north/south tracks across the common as local people moved livestock from their plots in the Stour valley to the grazing land by the Moors valley and carried goods and livestock to market in Ringwood. The steady movement of horses and carts across the landscape meant that as one path spoiled another would be created and there were probably different paths to use in Summer and Winter as parts of the Common became waterlogged. The heath at the time would have been an open landscape. Trees would have been cut for wood and grazing by cattle, sheep and pigs would have kept tree saplings at bay.

In the 17th century there was a dispute between the freeholders over use of the heath. Some wanted to clear the heath and improve the land for arable use whilst others wanted to continue to use it for turf cutting and grazing. This dispute went to the Court of Chancery in 1619 but it was not until 1633 that the Court issued its verdict, splitting the ‘Wastes’ (Common) in West Parley and West Moors in awards between 13 freeholders in a north / south pattern that is still reflected in property ownership today and can be seen in parts today.

Turn left opposite Virginia Cottage and go through the large gate and take the path up the hill across the Common. You will soon be on the highest part of the Common. Look across the Common to the south and you will see the tall buildings on the skyline. These are flats on the clifftop of Bournemouth.

You soon reach a point where paths cross with a 36” water main concrete sign ahead of you. You can take 2 routes to return to the start. Firstly, if the Common is wet you can take a road route to return to the Community Facility by continuing through the gate ahead on to Lone Pine Drive. On the right is the Lone Pine Park of retirement homes. This is now described as a ‘truly enchanting 14.5 acre sylvan setting development of luxury homes. In the 1920s it was a group of small holiday lodges in the middle of the heath that was a nudist camp. Take the second left into Dane Drive, following it to its end (approx. 400 yards), turn right back into Lone Pine Drive then left at the mini roundabouts then left onto New Road.

Walk down New Road on the left hand side of the road passing St Mark’s Church and turn left into Oakland Walk in 200 yards and walk to the end to join a footpath that leads you back to the car park start point.

Secondly, if conditions are dry and you want to keep on the Common to return to the car park by a shorter route via Parley Wood, you should take the track to the left passing the Nature Reserve and ‘Route closed’ signs on your right. Go down the hill on the wide path for 25 yards then take the path to the right by the group of silver birch trees. Keep on this path (can be wet after rain). It gets quite narrow with gorse on either side and it drops suddenly in places so take care. Eventually you will see a metal gate in the distance.

Go through the gate on to the boardwalk and over the wooden bridge. Turn right and then turn left in a few yards and follow the path through Parley Wood that will take you back to the Community Facility and car park via the side of the playing fields.

Hope you enjoyed this walk!