A Short History of the Village
Corfe Mullen is a village in Dorset, England, situated on the north-western urban fringe of the Poole-Bournemouth conurbation. The town has a population of 10,147 (2001). Although set on the edge of an urban area, Corfe Mullen is surrounded by the Green Belt and forms part of the rural district of East Dorset.
The name Corfe Mullen is from the Old English corf "a cutting or pass", and the Old French molin "a Mill" which refers to the old water mill on the River Stour, where the original village stood and was mentioned in the Domesday Book.
Although large, Corfe Mullen retains its village identity with six churches, four pubs, four schools, various shops and local businesses, a village hall, and a whole host of community and sports organizations which help to preserve the community spirit and sense of belonging.
History
Early Nomadic Tribes and Settlers
The first evidence of people living in the area consists mainly of a few flint axeheads, which date from the Old and Middle Stone Ages. Around 3,000 BC, the first real settlers came, cleared the forests and began to farm, although even they were largely nomadic. Later settlers, during the Bronze Age, built burial mounds or Barrows, examples of which may be found to the east of the village at Barrow Hill and at Naked Cross at the southern end of the village. These forms of occupation continued into the Iron Age; evidence of pottery manufactured around the first century BC may be found at East End.
The Romans
The Roman Second Legion under Vespasian arrived in the Corfe Mullen area during the Forties AD and built a 40 acre fortress just to the north of the village at Lake Farm. The location of this fortress was important; the River Stour provided a defensive barrier to the north and the site is only 3 miles from the Iron Age Hill Fort at Badbury Rings and cut this important tribal centre off from the settlements at Dudsbury and Hengistbury Head.
In order to subjugate the local tribes and keep themselves supplied and in communication with other Roman centres, the Legion built several roads that run through or close to the area. Probably the most important of these, and the only one visible today, is the road that connects the deep water anchorage at Hamworthy and Lake, which continues northwards to Badbury and Hod Hill. This road forms the eastern boundary of the village. In addition, traces of two other roads have been found, both of which are underneath or follow the course of modern roads. One of these linked Lake with Dorchester, and is roughly aligned with the present A31. The third road found ran through the spine of the village and followed the present road to Wareham.
Although the Roman occupation of Britain lasted nearly 400 years, the military presence at Corfe Mullen was very short lived, lasting until only the sixties AD. However, there is ample evidence that the Roman influence continued in agriculture and industry, even after they had left and the Celtic speaking people that descended from the original tribes took over the area again.
The Saxons
The Saxons probably settled in the area around the seventh century. Christianity arrived before 700AD and open air services were believed to be held on the same site as the old village church (see the Normans below). During the centuries leading up to the millennium, division of land into Hundreds and tithe took place and Manorial courts dealt with disputes. The name of Corf came into usage during this period and was located in the hundred of Cogdean, with the court being held at Cogdean Elms in the north of the present village.
A number of other land holdings dating from this period have been found around the village, the most notable being at Mountain Clump and the Knoll, where the remains of cottages may be seen.
The Norman Period and the Middle Ages
After the Norman Conquest, Corf's entry in the Domesday Book shows that it appears to have been a single manor, but was previously held by two Saxon lords. At some time during the next two or three centuries, the village became two manors again; probably Corf Molin and Corf Hubert. The latter manor was almost certainly named after its lord, Hubert de la Vielle. By 1469 the two manors were held by a single person again, although the two names were still preserved at that time. It was probably another century before the present day name came about; this merger was probably driven by the general depopulation of the country that occurred in the Middle Ages due to migraton to the towns and the Black Death.
A third part of the village came to be known as Corfe Mullen St Nicholas and the origin of this appears to date back to a land acquisition by St Nicholas Hospital (a Salisbury charity) in 1279. The present day areas of Lambs Green, East End and Brog Street were still called this until the early part of the 20th Century.
Construction of the original parish church, then called St Nicholas but now St Huberts, was commenced during the 13th Century, with the tower being added a little later.
Elizabethan to Georgian Times
After the major changes seen after the Normans, a period of stability came to the village for about 300 years. From Elizabethan to Georgian times, the story is mainly one of growing prosperity with a number of wealthy families being the major landowners as the years passed. None of these families built their homes within the parish boundaries and the major architectural legacies of this period are a few cottages and the original building that housed Lockyer's Charity School, formed in 1706 by Richard Lockyer. This building is still used by the present day Middle School of the same name.
One important change was the construction of a toll road by private enterprise during the latter half of the 18th Century. The present Higher Blandford Road and Mill Street (the A31 from the old church, past the Coventry Arms pub and mill) was part of a completely new route between Poole and Blandford. This development provided the people of Corfe Mullen with access to the major markets of these two towns.
The Victorian Period
During the reign of Queen Victoria, the whole of Britain went through major changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, and Corfe Mullen benefited from advances in technology. More toll roads were constructed, including an extension to Mill Street which provided a new route from Bere Regis to Wimborne. By the late 1800s however, the railways had arrived, with tracks first appearing within walking distance of the village at Wimborne and later with a route that went through the village. Even though the village had a number of tracks through it, it was well into the 20th Century before a Halt was provided, and even that was never a success.
The 20th Century
The story of the village through the 20th century is one of accelerating development. Prior to the Second World War, some new properties were built, with the populated area gradually extending up the hill from the river. Even a casual inspection of the housing in the village reveals that the original centre was along Mill Street with cottages also being found at Brog Street, Lambs Green and East End. Development between the wars is noticeable along Higher Blandford Road and Wareham Road, with few older properties in evidence away from those roads. Then, in the fifties and sixties, development took off, with major new housing estates around Phelips Road and Hillcroft Road. In the last forty years of the century, most of the area between Broadstone and the eastern boundary of the village has been filled in and a stranger could be forgiven for thinking that Corfe Mullen was part of Poole.
As the village has grown so the population has changed. It is probably true to say that very few of the inhabitants actually work in the village or the immediate area, with large numbers of people commuting to Poole, Bournemouth, Ferndown and even Southampton every day. Even so, pride in the village is high, with the general level of crime and vandalism being pretty low despite the close proximity of the Poole-Bournemouth-Christchurch conurbation with a combined population of three to four hundred thousand people.