September 30, 2025|Reports

“The Story of Wickham Common and the Purlieu” – Geoff Phillpotts

For the first meeting of the autumn programme, we met at Park Place Pastoral Centre on Winchester Road where 101 members and visitors came to hear Geoff Phillpotts, the Chair of the Society, talk on the history of Wickham Common and the Purlieu.

Wickham Common is a 73 acre public open space, managed by Hampshire County Council, it is accessed on the north by a track just opposite the Hundred Acres Road turning on Southwick Road, and on the south at the end of Forest Lane (off the A32 at Crockerhill).

The history of Common goes right back to pre roman times when the Forest of Bere (which then stretched from the Meon across to Rowlands Castle in the east) was used by communities from as far afield as East Meon and Portsea for grazing. Old drove roads (of which Forest Lane is one) crossed the Common leading up into the Forest. Eventually the Common became the eastern boundary of the Anglo Saxon Wickham manors (Shedfield Common was the western boundary) and was used by the community largely for collecting furze (gorse) and bracken, which both had a huge number of uses, right up into the nineteenth century.

Although the Common was owned by the lord of the manor, it was governed by local custom through the manor court with strict rules on when, for example, bracken could be cut with fines imposed for breaches. The Common was also used by the Lord of the Manor for clay and sand digging – this may have been the source of the first bricks made in Wickham for the seventeenth century Manor House on the Glebe (now demolished) and Queens Lodge on Bridge Street.

There was constant pressure on the Common from landless families and a community built up on and round the Common so that by the nineteenth and twentieth century the Common had its own shops, pub and chapel. In the early nineteenth century local landowners secured the right to enclose the “Purlieu” land. This was the part of the Norman Royal Forest of Bere that had been sold to local landowners but was still subject to “Forest Law” so it couldn’t be built on. In Wickham this included the area around Hundred Acres Road.

As a result local farmers lost their rights to graze stock on the Purlieu and grazing pressure on the Common grew rapidly, the Manor Court tried to regulate this by restricting who had grazing rights and fining offenders but with limited success. Finally as traditional uses of the Common declined and farming practices changed the Common fell into semi neglect in the twentieth century, being partially ploughed up during the Dig for Victory campaign in the WW2. It was however protected by the various Commons Acts and in 1991 ownership was transferred to Hampshire County Council who now manages it as public open space.

There was a lively discussion at the end with many residents contributing their memories including identifying the location of the old Drum and Monkey pub.