the conservation area

That part of Muscliff Lane designated as the Muscliff Lane Conservation Area owes its designation to its importance as a local example of early twentieth century history.

Seven pairs of semi-detached smallholders' dwellings were built along Muscliff Lane as part of the "Homes for Heroes" land settlement programme following the end of the Great War in 1918. The original plans submitted for the Bournemouth and District Ex-Service Men's Small Holdings Association were for a large estate of homes and allotments covering much of the area between Broadway Lane and Throop Road. This grandiose scheme was abandoned in favour of a smaller development cantred on Muscliff Lane with two or three other pairs of cottages dotted around around the Throop area. The seven pairs of cottages which were built along Muscliff Lane in the early 1920's were each provided with sufficient land and livestock to enable the inhabitants to make a living. The smallholdings respected and re-used the older field boundaries of the Enclosures and earlier, so preserving a more ancient landscape.

Six of the seven pairs of cottages remain today in near original form and are still mostly used to provide accomodation for smallholders and workers on the land, the purpose for which they were originally built. Although they are not "listed" buildings, the cottages are a well maintained physical representation of the later evolution of the hamlet of Muscliff at the western approach to Muccleshell village. They stand as excellent examples of early 20th Century social housing based on the philosophy of the Arts and Crafts movement express by the Garden City movement in architecture.

No. 253 Muscliff, a post war bungalow named "Berry Hill", on the northern side is included within the Muscliff Lane Conservation Area boundary defined in June 1992. It is proposed to transfer Nos. 255, 257 and Nos. 236 to 244 inclusive to the Muscliff Lane Conservation Area. The detached properties set in large verdant plots are a mixture of styles and ages, but would be considered as neutral contributors.

Muscliff Lane Properties

The following properties are within the Muscliff Lane Conservation Area:-

Nos. 141, 143, 161, 163, 183, 205, 207, 225, 227, 253.

Nos. 184, Nursery, 206, 208, 210, 216.

All land up to 60 metres from the centre line of Muscliff Lane between nos. 141 and 253.

The whole of the Muscliff Lane Conservation Area (and land beyond its boundary) is covered by a Tree Preservation Order. Click on the link to find out more......

Throop and Muccleshell properties

The following properties are within the Throop and Muccleshell Conservation Area:- as designated on 08-04-75

Broadway Lane:

Nos. 169, 171, 173, 175, 177, 179, 181, 183, 185, 187, 189, 191

193 - 203 "Broadway Rise", "The Manse", 211, 213, 215, 217, 219

Nos. 221, 223, 225, 229, 231, 233, 235, 237, 239, 241, 243

228 "The Shack", 230, "The Piggery"

Bury Lane:

Muccleshell Farmhouse and barn.

Muscliff Lane:

Nos. 236, 238, 240, 242, 244, 250, 252, 254, 256, 268, 255

257 Springfield House, Throop United Reformed Church & Sunday School, "The Manse"

Throop Road:

The Piggery, 1 & 2 Muccleshell Cottages, Meadow View, Little Mead, 1 - 5 Heron's Mead, The Old Barn, The Granary, The Malthouse, Stour View House, Stour View Cottage, Roi Mar, Caravan Park, Rosalie, Vine Cottage, Hick's Farm buildings and barn, Hick's Farm House.

Throopside Avenue:

Nos. 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30

Nos. 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50

Nos. 1, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 35, 37

Willow Mead:

Nos. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

The following properties are within the Throop and Muccleshell Conservation Area:- as included by the extension designated on 01-04-91

Throop Road:

Barn adjacent to Rosalie, River Farm House, River Farm Stables, River Farm Barn, Four Winds Stable, Four Winds Farm, Nursery Cottage, Throop House Cottage, Throop Mill, Throop House, Throop House Stables.

Listed Buildings within the Conservation Area

Broadway Lane:

The Manse, 228 "The Shack", "The Piggery", Gas Street Lamps

Bury Lane:

Muccleshell Farmhouse and Barn

Muscliff Lane:

Throop United Reformed Church and Sunday School, Throop Church Graveyard Boundary Wall, The Manse

Muscliff Lane:

The Piggery, 1 & 2 Muccleshell Cottages, Meadow View, Little Mead, The Old Barn, The Granary, The Malthouse, Stour View House, Stour View Cottage, Boundary Wall and Railings to Stour View, River Farm House, River Farm Stables, River Farm Barn, Vine Cottage, Hick's Farm House, Throop House Cottage, Throop Mill, Throop House, Throop House Stables, Thatched Cob Wall to Throop House, Gas Street Lamps.

Key Buildings

The "Homes for Heroes" strongly follow the building design principles of the Garden City Movement. The Muscliff Lane properties bear a striking resmblance to original designs for Garden City style houses built in Letchworth by the renowned architects Unwin & Parker. The Garden City Movement believed that a house should evolve organically from the function of the building and the requirements of the site. In other words, they designed from the inside out; form followed function as opposed to the classical principle. Local materials and crafts were used to create modern living conditions with the emphasis on the provision of light and fresh air. Importance was placed on the convenient use of the house, its aspect and harmony within the landscape.

The "Homes for Heroes" fulfil these ideals with their exaggerated horizontality, the asymmetrical arrangement of door and window openings rejecting the formal rigidity of the pre-War years. Windows are placed as though the building was one detached dwelling. The central placement of the first floor casements on the front elevation is intended to look like one wide low window, whereas the opening actually serves two residences. The central grouping of the chimneys, the sweeping gables and the steep pitch of the clay tiled roofs with laced valleys and wide overhanging eaves with batten ends showing in the medieval style , all express the fashion of the day, not just to imitate familiar vernacular styles but to add a modern twist.

Ostentatious ornament is absent, detailing provided only by the texture and colour of the natural materials used, in this case, white-washed local bricks, tile, and wood. The stepped corbels in brick whihc support the gable ends of the steep terracotta tiled roofs provide the most distinctive decoration. Unpainted wood used as weather boarding in the gables and picked up as cladding in some front porches, reinforces the rusticity. The square eight paned wooden lights of the window casements and the whitewashed brick walls evoke images of lime-washed cob walled cottages in ancient villages.

Whilst each house in the group is constructed in the same materials, there are slight variations in design. Odd house numbers on the northern side have cat-slide roofs to provide rear sculleries. Nos. 208 and 210 on the south, have substantial brick built enclosed side porches under pitched roofs supported by stepped brick corbels. These were originally intended as tool sheds but today have other uses. Original doors, where they survive, are of simple wooden plank and brace construction under lead covered canopies supported on plain wooden console brackets.

Each pair of cottages is orientated on a south-west / north-east axis, the principle concern being aspect from the main living rooms. To achieve this aim, the cottages are not necessarily parallel to Muscliff Lane in each case; for example Nos. 141 / 143 and 161 / 163 are placed at a 45 degree angle to the lane.