Bournemouth memories
Here are memories of Bournemouth and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Bournemouth or a Bournemouth photo.
Wartme Bournemouth.
Bournemouth is remembered by many as a wonderful holiday venue. A place of golden sands, the Pleasure Gardens, shops, cinemas and theatres. I was born here in 1936, when it was in the county of Hampshire. Pre war memories are obviously vague. As I grew up I saw the effects the war was having upon my home town. The beach was still accessible, however the area of sea had been reduced with the introduction of scaffold bars laced with barbed wire. Designed to prevent landing craft. To the west of the Pier Entrance stood several 'Dragon's Teeth'. Concrete blocks about 4 feet square with a pyramid top. [Anti Tank defences.] In later years a large mine was added, this was in close proximity to the 'Dragons Teeth' and was painted a bright red. On the top an engraved slotted brass disc had been inserted, this was for donations, I think were for the families of the seamen both R.N. and Merchant Navy who had perished. Alongside the railway lines were scattered pill... Read 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 £1.10s a week each, out of a wage of £5 at the beach cafes. The cafe provided lunch and in the evening we dined at the Golden Griddle in the Square. We all smoked in those days and were able to buy clothes out of our pay packets:the fashions that summer were bell-bottom jeans, pink shirts and grey crewnecks. We grew our school regulation short-back-and sides down to our shoulders.
In the two months we stayed in Bournemouth it rained one afternoon, that was all. Of course we were incarcerated in the dark steamy wash-ups of the cafe during the blazing daytime hours. But the... Read more
Dancing at The Pavilion
My name is Brian Johnson and I was born in Bear Cross, Kinson, Bournmouth in 1934. Twenty years later I used to spend most Saturday evenings dancing at the Pavilion or The Town Hall. On a Sunday we used to go to the Afternoon Tea Concerts in the Pavilion before going to the Westover Cinema to watch a favourite film. Another place we went dancing was at the YMCA opposit the Pavilion, next to the Westover Cinema. I also remember the huge sparkling ball rotating over the dance floor of the Boscombe Pala. The other popular place for dancing was the Stokewood Road Swimming Baths, which were closed in the winter to the swimmers but opened for dancing, it had the only sprung floor in the town. As you can see most of our time was spent dancing. Happy Memories!
My Dear Home Town of Bournemouth
I was born there in 1928, in Boscombe Hospital, Bournemouth, and lived in Bournemouth till 1962. There is no where like Bournemouth, lovely beaches, stores, theatres, the Chines, and Shell Bay. An excursion to Poole and then to Canford Cliffs, and on a little ferry across to Shell Bay. Of course, you then wanted to go to Corfe Castle. Another favourite spot for my mother and I was Hengistbury Head on a Sunday afternoon with our picnic and the sometimes, a trip from Bournemouth Pier on the boat to the Isle of Wight. Also I remember, having a little boat and playing with this in the little river down thru the Gardens. Later on, thru the war years, my favourite place was the Pavilion, where being a dance nut, I spent all my free time listening to great music and dancing the n ights away. Of course, our town was a little different thru 1941-1945, with all the troops based there, thousands and thousands, but I just... Read more
Bournemouth Gardens
When I was a child, my parents and my two brothers went to Bournemouth every
year for 2 weeks holiday. I have nothing but happy memories of Bournemouth and Boscombe and the surrounding towns. I am now nearly 56 but I still long to go back in time and revisit the places as they used to be. I still go on holiday to
Bournemouth. I think its my favourite place in the whole world, and now that my father is no longer with us, all my memories feature him. I love him and miss him.
The gardens were wonderful. There was a small paddling lake and my brothers
would take their toy boats there and push them along. Happy happy days that
I miss so much.
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).
My Family
The photo is similar to one in my personal collection. The two gentlemen in the forefront of the picture are my Grandfather & my Great Uncle, two of the ladies behind them are my Great Aunts, the other became my Grandmother.
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 merchants. My great grandfather was responsible for building the original swimming bath opened in 1887. My other maternal great grandfather was Henry Newlyn, of Newlyn's Hotel which subsequently became the Exeter, and former mayor of Bournemouth.
My Great Grandparents
My great grandparents worked and lived at 3 Upper Terrace in Bournemouth in 1936 and they lived at 26 Grant Avenue in Bournemouth in 1935. Their names were Verena and Douglas Walters. If anybody has any memories of them i would love to hear them.
Selling Ice Creams on Beach
I remember fondly working during school holidays selling ice creams on Bournemouth beach. I worked for the Corporation and had to wear full length white overalls and push a large yellow barrow filled with ice creams. Used to park it on the west cliff and walk along the beach selling ice creams
Has anyone got a picture of one of us ?
House Beautiful
House Beautiful was a convalescent home run by the Sunday School Union. I was sent there in April 1942 and my sister Anna went in Oct. 1942 from Derbyshire. We were aged 8 and 4. My grandfather knew the matron and she allowed us to stay there for until the Second World War ended in May 1945. I took my big teddy with me but it was put on the piano in the playroom and I was not allowed to touch it and it soon disappeared. All I remember is deep unhappiness. There were two other evacuees who stayed on Patrick and Maureen Connolly. I also remember a Bernice Bevington from London. I nearly died there as I was given another girl's tablets for asthma and I must have been allergic to them as I was very ill and the Matron and deputy matron sat by me. We had to learn extracts from the bible every Sunday and if we had nothing to do... Read more
House Beautiful
I have some lovely memories of House Beautiful, me and my 4 sisters were sent there to give my widowed mum a break and us a holiday. I loved the daily walks to the beach, especially going down the zigzag path with shells in the walls, and when it rained sitting in the playroom listening to a recording of 'Peter and the Wolf'. I didn't much like the dorms with the peepot in the middle of the room though, lol. I loved playing in the garden on the swings and watching the overhead tram lines spark, coming from Surrey I hadn't seen anything like it before.
Bournemouth
We enjoyed a wonderful family holiday in the sixties, staying with Mrs Honeygold in a lovely house near Horseshoe Common. We still have a few photos of our visit to Compton Acres, a beautiful garden just outside town. Although it is nearly ten years since we last visited Bournemouth we have such happy memories of the town and nearby places where we always felt at home.
House Beautiful
My mother needed a rest and I had just had my tonsils out when I was sent to the House Beautiful for a fortnight. For some reason she told me it was a convalescent home but when I arrived I found it full of very boisterous children, mostly from London. I remember playing with a magnet on a piece of string in the garden and queuing up for a spoonful of thick green 'tonic' in the playroom each day and also each of us getting a sweet in the afternoon. I did get homesick but it had a cheerful atmostphere. I also remember the walks to the beach and going over a bridge on the way that seemed to go over a ravine!
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 5-6 miles from the coast, she never saw the sea. But I digress. Alum Chine and Branksome Chine are names I have not heard for over 60 years, but remember collecting coloured sands (or was that the Isle of Wight?, mobile ice-cream vendors, it was rarely raining, it was often hot but there was never a complaint. In later years Dad would drive us there and he had built a caravan and sited it at Highcliffe. Thank you Bournemouth residents for so many pleasant memories. As an afterthought, my use of the word 'hot' is relative as I have lived the last 40 plus years in North Queensland in... Read 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 the firelight - these feelings, like the moment a silk scarf passes across your face, will never come again. Singin Bob Dylan and Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed, strumming guitars and blowing harps... Where oh where are those young boys and girls now! This part of the south coast remains almost the same as it was 44 years ago, as I have revisited that part of the coastline many times and if I stand and listen as the sun is going down at the headland I can almost hear a buzz of the voices of the now old men and women who are just for a small moment in... Read 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 holiday there was arranged by our church at that time (we lived in London), my parents could not afford holidays in those days so mine was arranged by our church. It was a big place large beautiful gardens and all the children were looked after by nurses. At meal times we all went to the big dining room and I remember the Matron there always used to have a parrot sitting alongside her table on a perch, when Matron wanted to keep the children quiet the parrot used to schreech out "QUIET" and everybody became silent to listen to what Matron had to say.
When it was time to... Read 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 two years. It was in Portland Road, Bournemouth. The detached house was of 1930's design. The guest house was run by a Mr & Mrs Fox. Mrs Fox scared me. She was a stout woman in her fifties and had grey hair pulled back into a bun. Up close you could see hairs growing out of some large warts on her face which always wore a severe, unsmiling expression.
Inside, I remember only the dining room. It had dark furniture; and I recall a sideboard which Mrs Fox always kept locked. Remember, it was 1949 and 1950 when we stayed there and food rationing was still in... Read more
Memories of Dorset
Butchers Coppice.
Butchers Coppice. The site is still in good use by Scouts, the facilities have been vastly improved. We hear the Scouts from my house enjoying themselves, no matter what the weather.
14th Bournemouth Cub Scouts (St Saviour's)
I moved to Bournemouth in 1954 when my dad got a job there with Williams Deacons Bank. He bought a house at 84 Petersfield Road, Boscombe. I went to Southbourne Junior School which was about two miles away so most of my friends were the ones I met in the cub pack at the St Saviour's church hall - the 14th Bournemouth.
It was great fun - I was just 8 when I started so they taught me to catch a ball, go for long cycle rides, to skip, to play 'wide games' in the fields and to explore the area. There was so much that we eight and nine year olds could do together on light summer evenings. Sometimes we went as far as Boscombe Pier!
Our cubmaster was Mr Babcock and he had a son in the cubs too. I wonder where all those boys are now as we must all be senior citizens now!
Sailing Leaf Boats
I was born in August 1939, my brother was born in 1936, we lived at 5 The Crescent, Boscombe and my brother and I used to walk down Old Christchurch Road to the lake in Boscombe gardens quite frequently. We used to try and get the bamboo leaves that came from the island in the lake. If we got one we would push the stalk bit through the leaf and sail them as boats, how innocent and safe it was then even though the war was on. After sailing the boats we would go and play in the pond in the front grounds of the Lido in Old Christchurch Road as we made our way back home. Grand days for kids our age.
A 1969 Student
For a very enjoyable year I lived at no 17 in Florence Road, a turning halfway down to the beach and off Sea road in Boscombe (see photo). I became one of the first persons in the country to study for a Higher National Diploma in Tourism. My college was then called Bournemouth College of Technology, situated at the Lansdowne, Bournemouth. One of my classmates was John Donaldson who went on to be the Head of Thomas Cook's, the International Travel Agent.
38A Keswick Road, Boscombe
My parents Evelyn and Tom Williams rented this flat from the owners on the ground floor from 1961-1962. It was a lovely place with a marvelous view of the cliff top.
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- Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
- Neath, West Glamorgan
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- Gillingham, Kent
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- Bowness-On-Solway, Cumbria
- Orpington, Kent
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- Wrexham, Clwyd
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