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Bournemouth

A Day Out in Bournemouth

Jul 18th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The smart resort of Bournemouth is a relatively modern place, unlike the historic ports of Poole and Christchurch either side. Bournemouth was created by the Victorians, much aided by the arrival of the railway, which gave the masses previously undreamed possibilities of travel.

Today, Bournemouth is the largest conurbation in Dorset, with some 163,000 residents, part of the seamless urban belt that runs from Upton in the west to Barton-on-Sea in the east, with a slight break at the River Avon. Until 1974, Bournemouth was part of Hampshire, with the boundary at County Gates, were Westbourne meets Poole. Becoming a unitary authority in 1997, it still stands much apart from Dorset – indeed – some die-hard traditionalists still won’t accept it’s not still in Hampshire!

Sea bathing had become fashionable in the times of King George III at the nearby resort of Weymouth, but Bournemouth – literally where the meandering river Bourne joins the sea – was very much a late developer. Two centuries ago it was a largely empty length of coastline, with sand dunes by the sea and heathland at the rear. Captain Lewis Tregonwell built a summer home in 1811, on open land now occupied by the Royal Exeter Hotel. The Tapps Arms Inn of 1809 was the only other building hereabouts.

Today Bournemouth is one of the best known resorts in England. The strength of Bournemouth has always been the beauty of its seafront and gardens. Early landowners planted lots of pine trees and their distinctive scent is everywhere. Some say it sends them to sleep! The course of the River Bourne from Meyrick Park down into the Upper Gardens, then into the Lower Gardens forms the valley on which the town is centred. Quite steep hills rise either side of the gardens, wide roads in which the ladies will spend hours in the many shops and boutiques. Lots of super restaurants, from classic English to ethnic, line the streets and interleave with the smart shops and arcades. The Borough Council claims the highest number of Rolls Royce owners live in Bournemouth, which they say has more pubs and clubs than Soho.

Let us begin – as all seaside tours should – at Bournemouth Pier. A jetty was built in 1856, but the present iron pier had its beginnings in 1880. Looking inland from the pier head – where boats still call on day excursions to the Isle of Wight and Swanage, the green spine along the twinkling stream is clearly seen. On the right rises the majestic Royal Bath Hotel on the Eastcliff, with the steel box of the Imax cinema placed in front of it, rather like Dr. Who has just left his tardis there! Students of planning should include this architectural abomination in their studies, how could the planners allow it? To the right of centre, seen from the pier head, is the gracefully ageing Pavilion, the 1929 centre of entertainment, including a theatre, ballroom, restaurant and a tea room. To the left, along the Westcliff, is another modern building – the Bournemouth International Centre – which blends in with the hillside. The venue for national political conferences and major exhibitions, it brings much trade to the area.

Out at sea, the bay begins at Durlston Head in the west and ends at Hengistbury Head in the east, famous for its Iron Age forts. Boscombe Pier survives to the east. You may see the ferries and the fast “Condor” catamarans bound for Cherbourg or Guernsey, emerging from the narrow entrance to Poole Harbour in the west, having crossed the chain ferry at Sandbanks.

Walking through Lower Gardens is a special delight in summer, when the riot of colour and scent are at their height. The rectangular bandstand still hosts band concerts. Lots of seats give space to sit and enjoy the peace. The tall buildings of Westover Road dominate the east view, including the Metro Palace Court Hotel – my tip for a fine meal in smart surroundings – but not cheap.

The Square is the meeting point of six roads, today partly pedestrianised, but I well remember the yellow trolleybuses of the 1950s and 1960s, which all converged on this point. Many major stores are at once visible, not least Beales department store in old Christchurch Road – a great Bournemouth institution, with its own restaurant on the top floor. Outside in the road is a clock, a gift from the people of Lucerne in Switzerland, with whom they are twinned.

Here the two faces of the town are most evident. “Shopping Bournemouth,” with its fine shops and restaurants, is really busy all year round. At the other end of the gardens, the beach and the Undercliff – the level walk alongside the beach – are thronged only in Summer. In the winter they are the haunt of hardy dog-walkers. Behind the shops, in quiet Hinton Road, is the church of St. Peter, blessed with a tower and a spire, built in the Gothic style so beloved of 1843. In the churchyard lays Mary Shelly, author of the Frankenstein stories and wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose heart is buried here. In an historic county where ancient buildings are almost too common, it comes as a surprise that nothing in central Bournemouth is more than 170 years-old.

Coming to the west side off the Square, note Debenhams massive store at the start of Avenue Road. On this site in the 18th century stood a hunting lodge, called Decoy House, where the Lord of the Manor enclosed a few acres. Then rough heathland, he would be astounded to see the developments which have been achieved today. As Avenue Road curves up the hill – almost everywhere you go in Bournemouth is a hill – there are yet more shops, national names and local businesses cheek by jowl.

By now you may be tired and in need of refreshment. At the top of Avenue Road is Poole Hill and by turning left into Commercial Road, then right into West Hill Road, you will certainly arrive at the civilised Goat and Tricycle. Once two pubs side-by-side, the Pembroke Arms side is still evident from the inside and outside. It’s certainly the best real ale pub in Bournemouth. There may be up to 11 real ales to sample – many from Wadworth who own this listed gem and the lunches are pretty good too.

At the end of West Cliff Promenade, return to sea level by the steep path or better still, use the 1908 cliff railway (open March to October,) which is much less taxing. A little further on are the chines, steep ravines populated by the inevitable pine trees. The first is Durley Chine, then Middle Chine, Alum Chine and then Branksome Dene Chine. The beach along here is quieter than around the Pier. Some smart eating places and cafes have sprung up along the sea wall by the chines. Some are incredibly expensive, so check the menu before you sit down!

You’re never far from the park, an antidote to the frenetic activity of the town centre. These days, Bournemouth includes suburbs like Winton, Wallisdown, Southbourne, Westbourne, Newtown and Pokesdown, making it a big sprawling settlement. They say there are 2,000 acres of parkland in Bournemouth and the temptation has been resisted to build over them – so far! Yet Bournemouth fits nicely in the modern age and still attracts many visitors, winter and summer.

Book Review – Tig’s Boys

Dec 8th, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Go to Book Reviews Category for news of the book.

Go to Book Reviews Category for news of the book.

Book Review – Tig’s Boys

Dec 8th, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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NEW BOOKS REVIEW

Tig’s Boys
Letters to Sir from the Trenches

January 1901, the first full year of the 20th century, could rightly be called a milestone year in human history. That month, Queen Victoria and the great Italian composer Verdi died, leaving their respective countries in mourning. But that January also, a grammar school was opened in Bournemouth, then just beginning to expand its borders as a popular resort with a population that had then reached 60,000. The fifty-four boys who were the first pupils of the new grammar, besides their inspiring but severely disciplinarian headmaster, Dr Edward Fenwick, could hardly have imagined that, fourteen years later, those pupils would be pitched, out of a voluntary and patriotic sense of duty, into the bloodiest war the world had then yet seen.

The outbreak of the First World War on August 4th, 1914, inspired many young men to take up arms in what they believed was a just cause on behalf of the empire; but they were largely men already in employment or unemployed, with their schooldays behind them. However, senior boys close to leaving public schools old enough to join up were also inspired to do so, and the boys at Bournemouth grammar were no exception.

But these students did something more. During those terrible four years at the front, Fenwick’s boys, both those who would die and those who would return, maintained a constant correspondence with their beloved master. The re-discovery of these remarkable letters has lead David Hilliam to collate them into a 192-page paperback compilation.

Tig’s Boys is the product of that compilation. It charts in five main chapters reports from the boys on many aspects of day to day life – and death – in the trenches, in the Flying Corps and abroad in the Middle East theatre of war. Chapter five is a moving eulogy by Dr Fenwick on the 98 young Dorsetians from his school killed in action during the conflict. The letters themselves give, sometimes humorous but more often tragic, testimonies of service life, from billeting and blighty to trench-foot, lice, rats and “doing fatigues”; not to mention the outright terror of combat: the shells, machine-guns, snipers and heroic rescues under fire. Take for example the derring-do of Lieutenant H G Head, who describes in his letter on page 34 how he knocked out a German machine-gun post that was badly mauling his company, earning him the Military Cross. Or Private A C Stagg, who lay wounded and without food for 15 days in no-man’s-land before being rescued and treated (p83). The letters display great candour and devotion for the Headmaster who’s stern authority and dynamic energy earned him the pet name of Tig (short for Tiger).

Tig’s Boys opens with the traditional introduction, followed by a two-page timeline tabulating the major battles and other strategic developments throughout the war, then a prologue (Tig and his School) featuring an account of the development of the Grammar School from foundation to the outbreak of war. Centrally placed are 30 black-and-white plates of the headmaster, his former pupils, and war scenes. On the back pages are 1919 and 21st century epilogues, a short bibliography, index and two appendices, one being a month-by-month roll of honour for the dead, the second, a roll for those decorated for valour.

Tig’s Boys was published first by Spellmount, then in the present paperback format by The History Press (2011). It is £12.99.

We have posted a photo of the book cover in the photo section.

Lewis Tregonwell – the soldier who ‘invented’ Bournemouth

May 21st, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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As may be surmised the name of Tregonwell is of Cornish origin, though it is a moniker that has come to have a singularly significant resonance for east Dorset. By the 16th century this noble family was in possession of the Milton Abbey estate after having been granted to Sir John Tregonwell by Henry Vlll in 1539. Nearly a century later a scion or branch of the family arose which came into possession of the Anderson estate near Winterbourne Zelston when that estate passed to Sir John from Sir George Morton of Milbourne St Andrew in 1620. Tregonwell then built Anderson Manor on the site of a former Turberville residence in 1622.

It was at Anderson that Lewis was born in 1758 and given the full baptismal name of Lewis (alternatively spelt Louis) Dymoke Grosvenor Tregonwell, the son of Thomas Tregonwell of Anderson. As a young man Lewis enlisted in the Dorset Yeomanry and soon rose to the rank of Captain. His first wife, Katherine, was the daughter and heiress of St. Barbe Sydenham of the Devon/Somerset Sydenhams. By her Lewis had a grown-up son called St Barbe, who followed his father into the army and became a lieutenant. After the early death of Katherine on February 14th 1794, Lewis married Henrietta Portman, the wealthy daughter of Henry William Portman of Bryanstone House near Blandford.

By 1796 concern over the possibility of an invasion from Napoleon had become a major preoccupation in southern England. The Tregonwells were then living in Cranborne when, accompanied by his son Lieutenant Tregonwell, Captain Tregonwell was assigned the task of leading a detachment – the Dorset Rangers Coastal Division – to patrol and guard the coastline in the area of Poole Bay until 1802. This however was an early warning measure against an invasion that never materialised. In 1807 Henrietta gave birth to a son the couple decided to name Grosvenor, but the baby suffered a sudden tragic death on the very day he was to be baptised.

At this point the story goes that the distraught mother became ill from grief. On retiring from the Army in 1810 Tregonwell took his wife with him on the 14th of July that year for a stay by the sea at Mudeford, partly in the hope that she might regain some measure of health and contentment but also from nostalgia for the area he had come to love when guarding this part of the coast just a few years earlier. While there Lewis took Henrietta for a ride across Bourne Heath for a view of the sea. The couple stayed at the only inn then existing in the area, which may be identified as The Tapps Arms (later The Tregonwell Arms) completed just a year earlier. It was this nostalgia sojourn by the sea that would have far-reaching consequences in the years to come.

In the first decade of the 19th century the future site of Bournemouth was known as Poole Heath, an area of acid sandy soil and gorse criss-crossed by tracks, with a stream called the Bourne draining into the sea and wooded dells (chines) cut by other streams. The only settlement of the area was by cows, gypsies, and a few fishermen living in rickety timber-framed cottages. Much of the land was in the possession of Sir George Iveson Tapps-Gervis, Lord of Christchurch Manor, who acquired 445 acres after the passing of a local Inclosure Act in 1802 and an inclosure Commissioners Award in 1805 transferred the land into private ownership. Tapps-Gervis was responsible for the landscaping of some public gardens, but the only other home of any size recorded nearby by 1762 was Decoy House, a haunt for smugglers.

As it happened Henrietta was so captivated by the area that Tregonwell readily acceded to her suggestion that they should make a second home there. He duly set his sights upon an eight-and-a-half acre parcel of land overlooking the Bourne, situated between Decoy House and the sea, which he purchased from Lord Tapps-Gervis for £179. On this plot Tregonwell built a house which, when completed in 1812 he named The Mansion or Bourne Cliff. This was effectively the earliest building in the future Bournemouth. Although it is known from Henrietta’s diary that they did not occupy the house until 24th April 1812, her sister Charlotte recorded in May 1811 that: “a party of pleasure to Bourne Cliff…dined on cold meat in the house.”

Tregonwell also built a number of smaller homes in the grounds for his staff; one of these, called Portman Lodge, built for his butler, was destroyed by fire in 1912. Inspired by a popular Regency notion that the turpentine scent of pines had health-restoring powers, the captain planted a number of these stately conifers in the area. It was these trees, salt water and a balmy climate that in the 20th century would establish Bournemouth as a fashionable health resort.

The first eight years from 1812 saw Tregonwell inviting several high society figures to Bourne Cliff including the Prince Regent, later George lV, with whom Lewis apparently became acquainted. The Tregonwells would be living alternatively at Bourne Cliff and Cranborne Lodge for some years to come, the former serving as the family’s summer retreat. Later Tregonwell leased the home to the Marchioness of Exeter, whereupon it became known as Exeter House. Further extensions were added over the years so that today it is fully developed as the Royal Exeter Hotel.

In 1820 Prince George became King and from that year on Tregonwell bought up more land from Tapps-Gervis for building a number of cottages and stylish villas set along newly-laid streets for leasing to holiday-makers. These holiday retreats of course would establish the core function of the developing resort. By this time Captain Tregonwell was a JP, Squire of Cranborne Lodge and had been made Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset.

Development of the resort was continuing apace when in 1832 Capt. Lewis D.G. Tregonwell died, leaving his sons to carry the landlord-ship and property development process forward. Yet growth was initially slow. In 1836 George Tapps-Gervis Jr, who by then had successes his father, commenced the building of a row of villas on the east side of the Bourne. By the mid-1840’s most of the land west of the Bourne was in the possession of the Tregonwells, but by the end of the decade Bournemouth was still little more than a community of cottage-homes and villas which had not exceeded the status of a village. At the time of the 1851 census the resident population of the heath was still under 700, yet ten years later it had tripled!

Tregonwell was at first buried at Anderson but his widow later arranged to have him exhumed and re-interred in a vault in St. Peter’s Churchyard in Bournemouth. Evidently this move did not come a moment too soon, for just three weeks later Henrietta herself was dead.