Village Roads
The prehistoric trackways which began to evolve during Neolithic times, and which were extended and developed during the succeeding Bronze and Iron Ages, were mostly confined to hilltop routes, the valleys at that time being densely wooded, marshy and largely uninhabitable and when this footpath-like trackway system was supplemented during the Roman period by fine, wide, straight, well constructed roads, they too were orientated towards a system of hilltop settlements. This pre-historic and Roman road system is dealt with more fully in the Roman & Iron Age sections of this website, and is illustrated in the drawing below -
Click to enlarge
By Saxon times the old hilltop settlements had been discarded in favour of new villages sited generally in more sheltered valleys, resulting in the establishment of a new pattern of road ways to serve them, replacing the old hilltop routes which then fell into disuse. These Saxon roadways took no account of long distance routes but merely meandered haphazardly from one village to the next, and our present day road system owes much of its irregularity to this origin. From Anglo Saxon times until the 19th century the countryside between towns and villages was almost entirely unenclosed by either fences or hedges, and the roads, without any surfacing whatever, were nothing more than indefinite footpaths across these open tracts. When a particular section became muddy and impassable, a detour would be made, so causing the meandering nature still evident in present day roads. It is perhaps worth reflecting that what is often considered as the typical English scene of small hedged fields, has only been typical for the last hundred years or so since the old open fields were enclosed, which in this parish was in 1846.
The present lane across Black Hill to Turnerspuddle is a living example of a mediaeval road. Its route from the cemetery southward is well established in a cutting, denoting an ancient origin, until it reaches the open heathland of Black Hill, where from this point to the top it has followed two different routes during the last 30 years or so. It formerly ascended by way of a cutting through the clay, but during one winter it became so wet and muddy that this particular section was by-passed in favour of higher ground a little further west, rejoining the original track near the top. After a short time the disused section became overgrown with gorse and brambles, and the detour section has remained in use ever since.
Another undisturbed section of mediaeval road, now called Dark Lane, runs west from Shitterton Farm, and although it now loses itself in a field, it was before 1840 part of the main road to Dorchester. It has lain undisturbed since that time and clearly illustrates the lane-like character of such roads before the advent of the turnpike trusts, being no wider than the present Black Hill Lane or Butt Lane Hollow.
Click the image above to see photographs of Dark Lane
At the present time the term road implies a smooth surfaced carriageway with a width to suit its relative importance - motorway, trunk, main, secondary or minor road, etc., but in mediaeval times there were no such distinctions, particularly in rural areas. Any form of wheeled vehicle was not common, most goods being transported by means of pack-horses, and all country roads had a lane-like character where they passed between banks or hedges, and a footpath-like character where they passed over open down or heathland. Even the advent of the coaching era in the 18th century had little or no effect upon Bere Regis which did not lie on a coaching route, and occupied a singularly isolated position with no direct routes to either Wimborne or Poole.
The drawing below shows a map of the parish with its road system as it probably existed in mediaeval times, superimposed on a present day map.
Click to enlarge
The heath, none of which was at that time cultivated, extended over the hills to the south and east to within sight of the village itself, and the three open fields, which had remained unchanged for centuries, lay to the north as shown on Isaac Taylor's 1777 map, with the open downland beyond. By omitting the later 18th and 19th century turnpike roads our overall picture of the parish in mediaeval times is complete.
Most of the mediaeval inhabitants of Bere Regis would have had neither cause nor desire to travel beyond the confines of the village except to the three open fields lying to the north, and these very local routes would at that time have been the most used and the most important. Consequently there were three routes northwards out of the village - the present North Street, Butt Lane and Bere Down Lane, each of which passed through the middle of one of the open fields, east field, middle field and west field respectively, thereby acting as central distributor roads to the cultivated strips on either side.
The most easterly of these routes, having passed through east field, proceeded across open downland via Winterbourne Kingston to Blandford more or less as at present, and Wimbourne would have been reached by branching off at Kingston and proceeding by way of Anderson, Tomson, Zelston and through the middle of Charborough Park. The central northern route via Butt Lane, although of probably greater significance in prehistoric times when hill top routes were in use, served principally as access to middle field, but it would have continued beyond as an alternative route to Kingston and Whitchurch.
The most westerly of these three northerly routes was more correctly a north-westerly route with the Bere Down Lane section serving west field, but it continued in a north westerly direction to Deverel Down near Milborne, and formed part of a route known as the `coal road' by which coal was transported from Poole to Milton Abbey. This was probably at that time the only road to Milborne Stileham which then formed part of Bere Regis parish.
The westerly route out of the village to Puddletown and Dorchester differed considerably from the present route. The mediaeval traveler would have left the village via Shitterton and Dark Lane to follow more or less the present route from the top of Dorchester Hill to Rogers Hill, but at this point instead of veering to the right as at present, the road continued straight alongside a hedge which still exists to join the Affpuddle road at a point about 100 metres south of its present junction with the A35, accounting for the very sharp bend which now occurs at this point. From here the road lay along the present route to Affpuddle and thence to Southover where instead of turning right to Tolpuddle, it continued straight along what is now a farm track to join the present A35 near Athelhampton church, from which point it followed the present route to Dorchester.
There were two southerly routes out of the village, one over Black Hill to Turnerspuddle already referred to, and the other by way of Rye Hill on the present route, both of which lay over heathland soon after rising out of the village. The branch off this latter road to Hyde probably followed a similar route to the present in order to serve the river valley farms in this area, some of which are known to have existed in mediaeval times.
The easterly route out of the village was by way of Woodbury Hill, from Townsend after 1765, but probably from Blind Street before that date, although there were doubtless a number of lanes or `droves' leading to Woodbury Hill from various directions for use during the week of the fair, when the lanes for miles around are said to have been thronged with sheep, cattle and horses. This easterly route had two branches, one a vague track across the heath to Wareham, and the other across the top of the hill, forming the main fair concourse, and continuing by way of Bere Wood to Bloxworth, Morden and eventually Poole. Look at one of the 'droves' to Woodbury Hill in the photograph below -
Click to enlarge
This pattern of roads in and around the parish probably remained basically unchanged, throughout the mediaeval period, and due to their unsurfaced and indefinite nature, no particular body seems to have been required to be responsible for them. In 1555 however, an act was passed making each parish responsible for the roads within its boundaries, and repair work was then carried out by statute labour which required each able bodied man to give six days labour each year in working on the parish roads, or pay the equivalent in cash. As may be expected the work was badly organised and ineffective, but nevertheless the system continued until 1835 when statute labour was officially abolished.
In Dorset, the open arable fields which had existed as such for centuries were enclosed at various times between 1734 and 1868 (1846 at Bere Regis) and this meant that muddy and impassable sections of road could no longer be by-passed, and the old method of depositing large stones in bad patches was not satisfactory, particularly as wheeled vehicles were by then becoming more common. It was MacAdam who, in about 1811, immortalised his name by inventing a method of surfacing by means of small well packed stones, which then became generally used for road surfacing.
Tar was a much later innovation and was first used, not to achieve a smoother surface, but to combat dust in dry weather, and as a matter of interest, Bere Regis was one of the first villages in Dorset where tar was used on the streets in order to combat the excessive dust generated by the continual driving of sheep through the village.
By the 18th century when long distance travel was becoming more common, it became increasingly apparent that a purely parochial road system between villages was inadequate, and companies known as turnpike trusts were set up with the object of forming new, more direct routes between certain towns. This they achieved by widening and resurfacing some existing sections of road and building entirely new stretches where necessary, and the trusts recovered their capital outlay by levying tolls to be paid by the road users at certain points. For this purpose toll houses and toll gates were set up, and in Bere Regis there were two.
The first one was at Townsend where the west end of the present farmhouse formed the toll keepers cottage. See it in the photograph below -
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The second was at number 72 West Street, by the junction with Butt Lane. See it in the photograph below -
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Both of them were still operating in 1871 as the two toll gate keepers, Edward Langden and Mrs. Emma Lane, are referred to in Mercer and Crocker's directory for that year.
Although the turnpike trusts were not the financial success they were intended to be, they did effect a tremendous improvement in the road system, achieving standards which had not been reached since Roman times, and the term "turnpike road" implied a main, reliable, well surfaced route. The turnpike system began to decline in the latter half of the 19th century, finally ceasing when county councils came into being in 1888.
Now to consider some of the Dorset turnpike trusts which affected Bere Regis in particular. In 1765 the Wareham Trust was set up and concerned itself with ten routes, one of which was from Wareham to Bere Regis, going over Woodbury Hill and terminating at Townsend. This had previously been a vague track across the heath, and as in other areas on the heath where there were few if any cultivated or fenced areas, the trust was able to construct the road in long straight stretches. The section from Townsend to Woodbury Cross became largely disused in 1841 when the new Poole road was constructed, and apart from its tarred surface, is exactly as it was in its heyday as a turnpike road. You can see an old photograph of the largely disused Townsend to Woodbury Cross section below -
Click to enlarge
The road from the present A35 to Snatford Bridge and possibly beyond seems to have been built at about the same time, as on Isaac Taylor's 1777 map it is described as the "new road to Bloxworth". The old photograph below shows the Poole road leading out from the village -
Click to enlarge
The Puddletown and Wimborne Trust was set up in 1840; and its work resulted in the route as it now exists. The principal new sections were from Athelhampton to Rogers Hill by way of Burleston and Tolpuddle (although some sort of route may have existed on this line before), a short section from the top of Dorchester Hill to West Mill, by-passing Shitterton, a new section from Wimborne Hill to Red Post, and another new section around the north of Charborough Park.
A glance at a map, however, will reveal that this latter section resulted in making the route less direct, the original road, a portion of which still remains in front of the Worlds End Inn, having gone through the middle of the park. The resulting unification of Mr. Drax's estate is not referred to in the inscription over one of the gateways into Charborough Park:
This road from Wimborne to Dorchester was projected and completed through the instrumentality of J. S. W, Sawbridge Erle Drax Esq., M.P, in the years 1841 and 1842.
Another new section of road built by this trust at the same time was from the Royal Oak, Bere Regis to Lytchett Minster, the portion as far as Morden Park Corner being entirely new. Again, being across heathland the trust was able to build the road in long straight stretches. Before this time Bere Cross was a tee junction only. West Street and North Street were considered as one and known collectively as "The Street" - and it is interesting that over one hundred years later this expression still survives locally. The 1840 Puddletown and Wimborne Trust was the last in Dorset, but its work was the most far reaching in the whole county, having in particular a profound effect upon this village.
In 1982 the Village had a bypass completed which did wonders overnight to relieve the centre & bring some village tranquility back. Find out more about the bypass by clicking the photograph below -
Who knows what the future holds for transport in our village - sky lanes with drop of points in local fields for commuters to Poole & Bournemouth?!!
© Bere Regis Village Website 2005 - Site by Chola Design
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