A healthy heritage trailRoute map and points of interest

Common LanePart 4 – Brackett’s Coppice Reserve (38 Hectares)A Dorset Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve a Site of Special Scientific Interest with access from Common lane. This is ancient woodland swathed with wood anemones and orchids providing colour. The hay meadows are cut annually and the pasture is grazed, creating fields of wild flowers.

Part 5 – Wood Fold Hill, Farmers End and Corscombe

Early Purple Orchid Pearl Fritillary

Bechstein Bat

Return from Brackett’s Coppice to Ocean Hill, proceed towards Wood Fold Hill, one local name that Thomas Hollis left unchanged, and commonly written as ‘Woodfole’. The hill provides easy burrowing which throws up the under soil often containing fossils.Farmers End, at the junction of the two Corscombe branches, was the site of labourers cottages, occupied until the 1930s, now in ruins.Branch right towards Pitts Farm, one time the George Inn and later the Corscombe Steam Bakery, or branch left along Brick Kiln Lane. Pass the lost Victorian brick works kiln to Pines House. The house, and parts of the garden wall, are made of local bricks.

Farmers EndJunction

PittsFarm

PinesHouse

PittsFarm

PittsFarm

CorscombeNestling on a peaceful chalk hillside , it has a varied history. Visit the Fox Inn on the road that returns to Halstock.

Fold here

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To become a sponsor and help restore the laneContact: djw5@btinternet.com

Linking Halstock and Corscombe in West Dorset, Common Lane is a medieval lane traversing two miles through an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty.The lane is undergoing restoration and is currently a track, suitable in most parts, for well equipped walkers, horse riders and mountain bikes with care. It is closed to vehicles.

The Common Lane Project Group is creating a partnership between the Friends of Common Lane, Dorset County Council and Sponsors to restore the lane. This will provide a sustainable recreational route for a range of users, safeguarding its environment, history and nature.

Part 1 – HalstockWe recommend that you park in the village, which has a shop stocked with local produce; visit or stay at the Golf Club, which is a few hundred yards from the village along a good road. The Club House has food, refreshments and accommodation. Proceed along the unmade part of the lane passing the driving range, crossing the site of a Roman Villa. The site was excavated in 1967-1985.

Start Here

Halstock Golf Club

The lane starts in Halstock, 6 milesFrom Yeovil

The villa is pre-dated by evidence of early Bronze Age activity, and Durotrigian (pre - Roman Celtic tribe) settlement. The Roman villa, was established in the middle 2nd century AD, 3 miles west of the Roman road, between Ilchester (Lindinis) and Dorchester (Durnovaria). Four Roman periods of development have been discovered, with impressive halls, mosaic flooring and a bath house.

Part 2 – Clarkes GorseThe next section of the lane passes 0.5 mile through ancient woodland, through a Site of Nature Conservation Interest. The bordering hedges and woodland form managed ancient woodland, which existed before 1600 AD.

Roman Villa Plan and Common Lane

Coppiced Hazel

Lesser Celandine

Panoramic viewsFold Here

LaneBranches

Here

To Brackett’s Coppiceand Ryewater

To C

orsc

ombe

Native Bluebell

Part 3 – Ocean Hill (121m, 400 ft approx)Thomas Hollis named this, like many of the local fields based on his philosophical connections. Branch for Brackett’s Coppice or Wood Fold Hill.

Roman Villa Reconstruction