Walk 9, Community Facility – Chapel Lane – Tricketts Cross – Ferndown Golf Course – Lone Pine Drive – Community Facility (approx 7 miles)

Directions and local information, 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 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. The small lane nearly opposite the end of Barrack Road 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.

A local map of 1860 says ‘Traces of Folk Moot site’ on the track just to the west of the farmhouse. A folk moot is a general meeting place for parish residents in medieval times to discuss and resolve local issues and disputes.

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. 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 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 poor conditions in the semi detached houses. They were built 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.

In 100 yards is Portfield School, a specialist autistic school opened in 2002. Further on towards the airport is the Bournemouth University Sports complex, a 65 acre site owned by the University since 2019. Sports there include rugby, football, hockey, cricket and rifle shooting. Meeting and public rooms can be hired. The complex is the site of the annual Bournemouth 7s sports and music event that attracts huge numbers of people in May.

Continue east past the Karting Centre. Just before Chapel Lane there is a metal gate leading to a footpath which leads to Palmers Ford (at Tricketts Cross). The whole area around is still described as East Parley, a separate village to West Parley, and considerably bigger at one time before construction of the airfield took up a lot of land and many cottages and farms were allowed to fall into disrepair by the landowner in the 1920s.

The airport was built as RAF Hurn in 1941 and became a base for American squadrons from 1942. It played a key part in the D-Day invasion in 1944 but was put to civil use soon after and became the UK’s only international airport with long distance flights around the world until 1949.

The runway was extended and in 1996 Concorde made its first landing at the airport. For many years the BAC 1-11 was made at the airport industrial estate.

The old building on the right hand side of Chapel Lane is the former church of St Barnabus, now converted to 2 flats. Chapel Lane was once a quiet lane leading to a dairy farm but is now busy with heavy commercial vehicles serving the Eco Recycling plant and the recycling waste transfer station.

The footpath runs alongside the road until you reach opposite the Eco composting depot. Continue ahead and pass the Fencing Centre on your left and then a modern house before setting off along a wide gravel track.

All around you are the solar panels of one of Britain’s largest solar power sites with panels stretching from the River Stour to the south almost to the A31 in the north. The land had been used for dairy cows for many years then grew maize, strawberries and turf but the poor sandy soil, formerly heathland, was never much use for turf cultivation.

Continue on the track for until you reach the Palmers Ford sewage works and take the track on the right of the site. On a gate on the right is a ‘Trespassers will be prosecuted’ sign; take the next footpath to the left. This junction is almost immediately below an HT electricity line of pylons.

Follow the path up the hill and turn left when it joins a path that runs parallel to the houses and the pylons in a southerly direction. Keep on this path and in about 200 yards a sandy track goes off to the right. Follow this track for 100 yards until you meet another track going off to the west (FP signpost Red Arrow). In 100 yards or so at the highest point on the track (another Red Arrow) veer right and then left along the track (Red Arrow on post). Further along this track you will see Ferndown Golf Course, surrounded by a wire fence.

You are now in the north part of Parley Common. 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. This area was part of a huge expanse of heathland that stretched across Dorset before being replaced with commercial and urban development leaving scattered remains.

The Common has been cleared of most of the pine trees that used to be on it to restore the heath. 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.

Old maps show a track leading from the Stour crossing point at Longham over the Common here to the bridge crossing the Moors River at Palmers Ford to the north east. This was the ancient route from Poole to Ringwood before the more direct toll road was built in 1759 following the route of a Roman Road that became the A31.

Turn left and keep right to join the track which follows the boundary with Ferndown Golf Club. Keeping the Golf Club on your right follow the path southwards for approx. 400 yards until the fence turns westward.

The 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. Some of the roads on the Heatherlands estate have been named after each of these freeholders.

Continue along the track bearing right for 200 yards to enter a long narrow field. Walk along the left side of the field to the exit gate to Lone Pine Drive in 100 yards. On the right is the Lone Pine Park of retirement homes. This is now a ‘truly enchanting 14.5 acre sylvan setting development of luxury homes. In the 1920s it was a group of small holiday lodges with no development around it that was a nudist camp.

Go through the gate and continue on the path until you see a concrete post with ‘36” water main’ on it. You have 2 options here. Firstly, if the Common is wet you can continue bearing right up to the gate to Lone Pine Drive and take the second left into Dane Drive, follow it to its end (approx. 400 yards), turn right into Lone Pine Drive then left at the mini roundabout then left on to 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 do not bear right but take the track ahead. Before doing this take a few steps to the left by the Nature Reserve sign to one of the highest parts 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.

Return to the original path and go left past ‘Route closed’ sign 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 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!