Bear Cross - Early Settlement

Early Settlement

Though the ancient hamlets of East Howe, High Howe and West Howe lay to the south, with a farming hamlet called Cudnel to the east, settlement at Bear Cross itself only began after 1756 when the main route from Poole to Ringwood was diverted to its present position – that of the A348, or Ringwood Road. (It was this development which effectively created Bear Cross.) Prior to the cutting of this road, travellers between Poole and Ringwood would have been obliged to follow a circuitous route via Kinson (and thence to Longham), but this route had fallen into neglect by the eighteenth century and a straighter route was in any case considered more desirable. Work on the new route was orchestrated by the Poole Turnpike Trust, the new road initially operating as a toll road.