An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 5, East. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1975.
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'West Moors', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 5, East, (London, 1975) pp. 74. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol5/p74 [accessed 26 April 2024]
In this section
20 WEST MOORS (0703)
(O.S. 6 ins., SU 00 SE)
Covering 2,300 acres, the parish lies mainly between Udden's Water and Moors River; it is entirely on Bagshot Beds which give rise to extensive heathland at altitudes between 40 ft. and 80 ft. above O.D. The parish was recently created from part of West Parley and is largely occupied by modern houses, a suburb of Bournemouth. St. Leonard's farm, at the confluence of the two streams named above, occupies the site of the mediaeval settlement of Ruston; this, with associated lands on the N., formerly belonged to Cranborne and it has been suggested that it represents the Domesday Langeford (V.C.H., Dorset iii, 74; Dorset Procs., 64 (1942), 41).
Secular
(1) Woolslope Farm (08130223), house, with walls partly of timber framework and until recently with a thatched roof, is probably of 17th-century origin; the original plan was probably of class S. In the 19th century the house was extended on the E., W. and S., and the roof has recently been modernised.
(2) Gulliver's Farm (07800394), house, of two storeys with brick walls and with a tile-covered half-hipped roof, dates from early in the 18th century and has a class-I plan. The S. front is symmetrical and of three bays, with a round window over the central doorway and with three-light casement windows elsewhere in both storeys. Recently the house has been modernised, the brickwork repointed and the chimney-stack altered. Inside, ground-floor rooms have chamfered beams with run-out stops.
(3) Sturt Farm (07840447), house, demolished in 1968, was single-storeyed with an attic. The walls were of brick-nogged timber framework, much of it replaced by brickwork, and the roof was slate-covered. The original building had a class-S plan and was of the late 16th or early 17th century; an extension with brick walls on the S. was probably of the 18th century. In the E. front the upper panels of framework had ogee braces. Inside, the N. room had a blocked open fireplace, and both original rooms had ceiling beams with deep chamfers and ogee stops.
Prehistoric
A bowl barrow (08190484), on the boundary between West Moors and Verwood, but formerly in West Parley (Dorset Barrows, 140; West Parley 6), had been destroyed by 1954.