Urban Islands

Throughout the expanse of one storey dwellings, which sprawl between Christchurch and Highcliffe, known as Bungalow Land, are numerous small natural oases and corridors. Remnants of a previous landscape or landscapes, consumed by modernity's creeping conurbation. Though if you look, these urban island still exhibit clues to their past, acting as windows through time. Take this small island, with it's numerous trees, it could easily just be estate landscaping, though take a closer look, a few of trees are easily in excess of 100 years old, there's a low bank and shallow filled ditch running through the middle of it too. The bank is recorded on an old 1885 map, and was still there on the 1969 map, you can clearly see the bank running across Chewton Common and through open woodland. In 1885, beyond the small main village Highcliffe was predominantly open woodland, pockets of open heath and farmland, with a few scatter of houses, and several big houses with grounds. This remained the story of the area until the post war period, when suburbanization got it's claws in, though it wasn't until the 60's and 70's that the area was finally consumed, the bank would have truncated and isolated in those latter tranche of developments.