Farther Common

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Farther Common is a rural area in East Hampshire, within the parish of Liss. It has greensand hills, woods and heath, and was once common land on the Money-Coutts estate around Stodham House. There is a Bronze Age ring barrow at Saxonwood House and at Peacewood. In the early 20th century, land was sold in parcels, and two lanes still serve the area. Some plots sit on steep hillsides; the original houses along the north and south lanes were cedar and later altered. Many other houses were built in the 1960s–1980s on larger plots that were subdivided. Farther Common is bounded by Bones Bottom to the east, Gravel Pit Bottom to the west, Stodham Lane to the north and the North track to the south. During World War II, Stodham House was used as a Special Training School for the SOE to train Norwegian saboteurs. The Far House on the South Lane is a 1960s wooden modernist house built by Selwyn Jepson, and Ponticum on the North Lane is a notable 1960s modernist house with views over the Chalk Hangars. Woodley House and West Gables are not truly part of the Common, though they’re connected to Grey Walls House. Later houses were built on smaller plots carved from the earlier ones, such as Fernhill in the 1970s. The site was once used for caravans for staff of Hill Brow Nursing Home, which is now gone.