In
the early eighteen hundreds most of south east Dorset, apart from land
bordering the rivers, was mainly infertile heathland with pockets of
workable clay. At that time a scattering of potters were to be found
across the heath.
They constructed simple living and working quarters and when the
clay was worked out, moved on.
Some folk found larger areas of workable soil and set up house
with orchards and farms.
Their houses were usually made of "cob" - a mixture of
clay, gravel and straw - and had roofs thatched with straw or heather. A
small hamlet developed into a self-supporting community called VERWOOD.
Some think the name derives from “Fayre wood” from the many
trees in the area.
The community would have included a blacksmith, carpenter,
thatcher, shoemaker and basket and broom makers.
Also a butcher and baker.
Verwood’s
original centre was where the cross-roads is now and the building known
today as the “Potters Wheel” shop was part of the last pottery in
the area - it ceased to operate as recently as 1952.
The car park was once the site of a large mud pit, known as
"Ferret's Green" after a local family who were earlier owners
of the pottery.
Last year it was excavated prior to development as a car park.
An interesting discovery was made when it was realised that
pottery making had existed much further back in time than was first
accepted.
In
1866 the London and South Western Railway came to Verwood.
The station was a small affair and stood immediately on the
Verwood Side of the “Albion Hotel” pub.
The
coming of the railway encouraged new industry and the population grew.
The potters could now send their pots to market by rail - and so
could the brick-makers.
At least three brickyards were established - one at Black Hill and
the others respectively north and south of the station.
In addition tons of sand taken from the now closed quarry at
Stephen’s Castle by horse and cart to the goods yard were exported by
rail to the brick industry and for glass making.
There was also a brickyard at Ebblake manufacturing white bricks
from a seam of local clay.
These bricks were used for decoration and many examples can be
seen in the town today as well as further afield.
Although the “Stephens Castle” quarry is now closed, it was
still operating during the Second World War and many tons of sand and
gravel were supplied from it to help make units of the floating concrete
“Mulberry Harbours”.
It was these harbours which helped the success of operation
“Overlord” - the allied invasion of Normandy in 1944 - by ensuring
the rapid unloading of men and equipment from ocean going ships onto an
otherwise harbour less beach!
As
part of the general War Effort, Lower Common, Three Legged Cross,
Verwood was one of the sites where decoy runway lights were deployed.
When switched on they led German aircrews to think they were over
an actual airfield and induce them to drop heir bombs harmlessly on the
open countryside.
The Moors Valley Golf Club now occupies the site.
However, the two rows of lights were a long way from mains
electricity and were powered by a generator.
The earth-covered nissan type hut, with extension for the diesel
generator, complete with anti-blast walls protecting the two entrances
still stands fifty years later.
The raised concrete base onto which one presumes the generator
was bolted is still in situ.
In all probability it would have been the R.A.F. Group Controller
who would call for the decoy lights to be turned on.
Two R.A.F. men, Fred Hooper and Bob Chapple were billeted in a
house, still to be found at the corner of Lake Road and Woodlinken Road
– “Heatherview” - with their R.A.F. issue bicycles.
They would maintain the system in good order and cycle down to
switch it on when telephoned.
Two other aircraftsmen were stationed in Verwood for these
duties. They and their cycles were billeted with Bert and Mary Bailey in
“Howe Cottage”, Howe Lane, Verwood. The photograph shows the
earth-covered structure still standing today. Two more notes show how
‘rural’ Verwood was tied up with the Second World War ‘war
effort’.
The twelve and-a-half acre smallholding of Dennis Cannell - at
the time Chairman of the Town Council’s Parish Council pre-cursor -
was, except for his bungalow on the corner of what is now Noon Hill
Road, requisitioned and the land became the headquarters of a
searchlight
battery for the duration. Troops
and equipment needed for the D - Day invasion of Normandy were brought
into large areas of Southern England, eventually to be moved to ports of
embarkation such as Poole Harbour and Weymouth; they included thousands
of American soldiers. Some
of these were in a temporary camp put up on Dewlands Common.
Mr Dennis "Sunner" Lockyer recalls those days.
One day late in 1943 a black American G.I. asked him to buy a
home-made apple pie from the "Punch and Judy" Café, burnt
down in 1972 and now the site of Verwood's Post Office.
Having
brought many changes during its 98 years of operation, on May 4th 1964
the railway ran its last train, victim of the "Beeching" axe.
Many Verwoodians who are over forty years of age tell of their
daily trip by train to school and of the pranks some of them got up to!
Today's children travel to Ferndown and Wimborne by school bus.
In
1990 Station Road was rebuilt at the south side of the Albion Inn.
From this vantage point may be seen the preserved brick-arch
bridge which carried the original road over the railway and behind the
Albion Inn. The increasing
population in the second half of the last century helped turn the
erstwhile “Hamlet near Cranborne” into a village with its own
churches and schools.
Verwood
has always been fairly well off for churches.
There have been four independent later Congregational churches in
the village. By 1847 one
stood on Church Hill and also a small chapel in the ownership of Rebecca
Shearing stood on the Common. In
1877 the chapel, which is now the library, was built and the latest is
the present United Reformed Church which was built in 1906.
In 1829 the Anglicans built a small, mud wall chapel of ease on
the site of the present Parish Church.
In 1870 a brick chancel was added, then in 1886 it was rebuilt in
local brick. However, this
was extended in 1980 to cope with the growing population of the village.
A daughter church was built of iron at Three Legged Cross (All
Saints) in 1893 and this was clad in stone in 1957.
Unfortunately All Saints Church was demolished at the beginning
of August (1992) having been found to be unsafe.
A Church Centre plus Priest's House has been built during 1994 so
that All Saints is fully active once again.
Methodist worship has been strong in the village for well over a
hundred years. A Primitive
Methodist Chapel was erected in 1876 and was replaced by the present
Methodist Church in 1909, itself enlarged in 1993.
In
memory of those who died serving during World War 1 a wooden cross was
erected in the churchyard, later replaced by one of Portland Stone. The
Recreation Ground was purchased by public subscription as a memorial to
those who served in that War and is held in Trust for the town by the
Town Council. A second fund
begun before World War II culminated in the construction in 1959 of the
Memorial Hall, subject of a separate Trust which is vested in a
Management Committee.
Pubs
have been associated with churches in most places and Verwood is no
exception. However, the "New Inn" opposite the Parish Church
lost its licence in 1906 and afterwards continued as a sweet shop and
grocery store, but it exists no longer. The
oldest pub The Albion Inn still stands adjoining the site of the old
railway station It has
recently extended to provide a dining area for the increasingly popular
menus available. There is the Monmouth Ash in Manor Road, the Fayrewood in
Ringwood Road and the Three Swans opposite Safeways. In Three Legged Cross there is The Woodcutter's and The Old
Barn.
The
present First Schools both started in churches and it was John Carnegie,
Vicar of Cranborne 1841-72 who had a schoolroom built in 1847 (the
children actually having been taught in the church for the previous 10
years) and this was used right up unti11985, when a modern replacement
was built in Howe Lane. Children
from Three Legged Cross had a long walk to school in Verwood until they
too had a school room in 1873.
Some
time during the mid part of the century the non-conformists also started
day
classes which in 1880 became the British School. It became the County
School in 1967 and moved to modern premises in Hillside Road and this
too has had to be extended by the addition of mobile classrooms.
Verwood
was lucky enough to have a new Middle School built in 1988 which meant
the 9-13 year olds no longer had to be transported out of the village. It
has since been extended.
The
Verwood Carnival was started in 1929 by the then Vicar's wife, Mrs.
Jeayes, and has been held every year since (apart from the war years). The
Carnival is held in the Recreation Ground on Spring Bank Holiday (Whitsun)
and has now attained the status of a major entertainment event in the
South of England, drawing people not only from the immediate district
but also from a wide area including the counties surrounding Dorset. During
the last eleven years over £44,000 has been distributed to local groups
as a result.
In
the 1960's and 70's many new estates sprang up and by the nineteen
eighties. Verwoodians and
other inhabitants of South East Dorset feared that over-development
could lead to an uninterrupted urban area stretching from the coastal
arc of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch, inland as far as Verwood. The
tide was stemmed when the then Secretary of State for the Environment
signed the "First Alteration to the South East Dorset Structure
Plan" in April1990. This runs until the year 2001.
Until recently "Local Plans" including the Verwood and
Three Legged Cross, St. Leonards and St. Ives Local Plan, which is soon
to be formally adopted, were the means of clothing the skeleton of
Structure Plans. However, in 1994 central government decreed that local plans
should be District wide and all of the agreed parts of the Verwood &
Three Legged Cross Local Plan are being incorporated into the District
Council's District Plan. Although
two and a half thousand new houses for Verwood were mentioned in 1990,
plans have been passed and some houses built so that now, by late 1995
within the Plan only about one thousand remain to be built. Nevertheless,
the infrastructure will benefit due to developers having to make legal
agreements with District Council to the effect that one year from the
granting of planning permission they will pay over financial
contributions towards improved and extended roads, car parks and other
structures which will eventually benefit the whole town.
A
major construction in the early eighties, following a planning appeal
won by developers, was that of the "Safeways" complex,
together with the associated housing estates built up on either side of
Burnbake Road, itself only "made up" and taken over in 1981. Within
the complex, the Leisure Centre building, erected by the developer and
vested in the District Council was seen as a "Planning Gain". A
dedicated group of volunteers and a handful of paid staff, The Verwood
Community Association, have run it ever since. It is unfortunate that the floor area is only large enough to
accommodate four-a-side rather than five-a-side football and one looks
hopefully to the future development of Verwood for improved facilities
on a new site as envisaged by the Local Plan. The
Association is responsible for the management of Potterne Park, also
owned by the District Council. Both
these facilities are leased down through the Town Council to the
Association, which receives with grateful thanks substantial grant aid
from both Councils.
The
emergency services have in recent years raised their profile in Verwood.
A new Fire Station was
built in 1992, a modern warehouse on the Ebblake Industrial Estate was
converted for use as an Ambulance Station in late 1993 and a new Police
Station was built and opened in 1994. Of
course, each service has a Control centre linked to all their respective
crews by radio and in emergency any or all of these may be summoned by
means of a "999" call.
(History
written in 1995 by Colin Burgess)
