EARLY HISTORY
Prior to the Norman Conquest, Canford ( including Kinson) was held by Ulwen, a Saxon thane. William the Conquerer bestowed the manor on Walter de Eureux, whose family later became Earls of Shaftesbury.
In 1611, Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, sold Canford to John Webb of Salisbury, who was created a Baronet and the estate remained in family hands for two centuries.
John Potter, a local smuggler, farmed a considerable area of the Common during the time when Isaac Gulliver owned property and land in Kinson.
During the 19th century, Charles Spencer and Thomas Williams, of the Dolphin Inn, Kinson, farmed most of Kinson Common as tenants of the Canford estate. In 1844, the Canford estate was sold to Sir Josiah John Guest, a South Wales iron-master. All the land we now call Kinson Common remained in the ownership of the Guest family until gifted to or purchased by the Borough of Bournemouth.
Gravel has been extracted from the Common and the outline of an old farm building may be found near the eastern end of Two Barrow Heath.
In 2002, there were 22 ancient earth boundaries still surviving reasonably intact.
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