West Parley is a village and civil parish in south-east Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour between Bournemouth and Ferndown and off of the B3073 road.

[2] West Parley is older than both Bournemouth and Ferndown, it features in the Domesday Book when it had 60 inhabitants.

In 1870–1872 West Parley was described by John Marius Wilson in the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales as "The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury.

[4] In the 1800s the main source of materials were gravel and clay and these were important in helping build within West Parley, the materials enabled the local community to create tracks that were passable and the clay meant that the workers could use the bricks to build houses within West Parley as well as supplying the city of Bournemouth with bricks for the construction.

[9] In 1881 the main employment for males was agriculture with 45 people, during this era this was the common practice and therefore this is not peculiar, however 37 females had an unknown occupation, the main occupation for females at this date was for domestic services or offices and this only had a total of 8 women which shows the inequality at the time.