Bournemouth, Dorset

Charabanc trips

Reading through other people's memories is a great delight, it stirred my own memories of past times. Eastleigh Baptist church ran regular day trips to Bournemouth, a pleasure for those who would probably never have seen the beach. Our family neighbour, Mrs Elliot, in Factory Road was in her 80's when I remember her and although she only lived a modest... [more]

Warm Summer Nights

What happy days and nights, beach parties at Hengistbury Head, can it really be 44 years ago that this magical place came into my life, it was to have a life-long thread connecting to me. Oh, what can one say - the thrill of late-night fires on the beach, the smell of wood smoke from driftwood, a young girl's smile in... [more]

The House Beautiful

Does anybody remember the big house on the corner of Derby Road, it was at the junction of a main road, the name of which I cannot remember now. We used to call it 'The House Beautiful' whether that was the proper name for it I never knew. This house was where children used to go to for a holiday, my... [more]

Family Holidays

My dad always ensured that we had a "fortnight's"  family holiday each year. A fortnight was 2 weeks - ie fourteen nights. These holidays started in 1949, when I was seven  and continued to up to 1958 when I was 16. In 1949 and 1950 we went to Bournemouth.

We stayed at the same guest house for each of the... [more]

Summer of 64

In June 1964 a group of us Belfast grammar school boys crossed the sea to Liverpool and took the long coach journey south to spend the school summer vacation working in the Bournemouth beach cafes.
Three of us shared a bedroom at Pat and Alvin's, a short bus ride from the town centre. Our "digs" cost just... [more]

Family connections to 'The Baths'

The Baths was the family home during the First World War. My great grandfather was Albert Henry Milledge, formerly a schoolmaster at a school in St Michael's loft of Christchurch Priory, who gave up teaching to help Alfred Roberts manage 'Roberts' Baths' which were then just private baths, after William Roberts, his father, died. The Roberts were formerly coal... [more]

This is a view of Bournemouth Square taken from the end of Avenue Road.

Speculation

My brother and I think this maybe a photo of our Grandfather and our Great Uncle followed by our Grandmother and our Great Aunts (the two gentlemen with dark jackets and light trousers, one carrying a stick or brolly).

Dorset Revisited Photographic Memories

Bournemouth is a relatively new community, for all of this area was wild heathland 250 years ago.A Mr Tregonwell built a home here with the intention of establishing a resort. Others followed, and the Bournemouth of today is one of the largest conurbations on the south coast.

New Forest Photographic Memories

Bournemouth was a late starter as a seaside resort, for the land on which it stands was just wild and windswept heath until Mr Lewis Tregonwell built a holiday home there in 1810. By 1890, when this photograph was taken, the population had grown to over 30,000.

Bournemouth Photographic Memories

Not all invalid visitors were completely captivated by the sprawling health resort. Some were critical of the dryness of the company. Robert Louis Stevenson thought that life in Bournemouth was 'as monotonous as a weevil's in a biscuit', and spent much of his time here writing 'Kidnapped' and 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'.