Poole

Poole is a coastal town, port and tourist destination in the traditional county of Dorset in southern England. The town has a population of 138,299 (2001) and is famed for its large natural harbour,situated on the shores of the English Channel. Poole is positioned on a very popular stretch of coastline, with the resort of Bournemouth to the east, Studland and the Jurassic coast to the south-west. The town has grown rapidly, and Sandbanks, a small sand spit across part of the harbour mouth, is so popular that it has the fourth highest land value, by area, in the world. There are exclusive homes both on Sandbanks and the whole of the area stretching east from the Harbour to The Avenue (the eastern boundary of Poole).

Prominent employers in Poole include Barclays Bank, Hamworthy Engineering, Poole Packaging, Sunseeker, Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Ryvita.

Harbour

Poole Harbour (said to be the second largest natural harbour in the world after Sydney) has been a working port for many hundreds of years, though the port has declined somewhat as the shallow water cannot take the largest ships. The harbour is noted for its ecology, supporting saltmarsh, mudflats and an internationally important population of wintering waterfowl as well as the Brownsea Island nature reserve, where the Scouting movement began. Today the port is amongst other things the home of Sunseeker, manufacturers of luxury yachts, and the departure point for ferries (Brittany Ferries and Condor) to France and the Channel Islands. The quayside and harbour was the place from which some ships departed for the D-Day landings of World War II.

History

The Poole Harbour area has been inhabited for well over 2,000 years. The local tribe were the Celtic Durotriges who lived in Dorset in the Iron Age, particularly around Wareham, five miles to the west. The earliest significant archaeological find in the harbour itself is the Poole Longboat, a 10 metre boat made from a single oak tree and dating to 295 BCE. At the time the harbour was probably shallower and any settlement would now be under water. During the last few centuries before the Roman invasion the Celtic people were moving from the hilltop settlements, such as Maiden Castle and Badbury Rings on the chalk downs to the north, and onto the lower vales and heathland around the River Frome. It may be this marshy area which gave the Durotriges, "water dwellers", their name. The Durotriges probably engaged in cross-channel trading at Poole with the Veneti, a seafaring tribe from Brittany.

The quay

The waterfront from the harbour

The main Sunseeker factory on the Poole waterfront. The company, employing 1400 people, makes luxury motor-yachts, one of which is seen outside (the larger of the three yachts).

In the Roman invasion of Britain in the 1st century, Poole was one of a number of harbouring sites along the south coast where the Romans landed. The Romans founded Hamworthy, an area just west of the modern town centre, and continued to use the harbour during the occupation.

Poole was a small fishing village at the time of the Norman Conquest, but grew rapidly into an important port exporting wool and in 1433 was made Port of the Staple. By then the town had trade links from the Baltic to Spain. However, in 1405 the Spanish burnt Poole to the ground because local pirate, Harry Paye, kept attacking Spanish vessels. The town, however, continued to grow in importance despite the effects of piracy and, in 1571, was made a county corporate. In the 17th century transatlantic trade and travel developed and at the start of the 18th century Poole was beating rival Bristol as the busiest port in England. The town grew rapidly during the industrial revolution as urbanisation took place, and the merchants put up tenement buildings, most of which were demolished during the ill-advised slum clearance activities in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Poole was granted exclusive rights to fish off Newfoundland by Queen Victoria, which drasticly improved the importance and wealth of the town, however, when this right wore off other ports were quick to get their share in the trade which negatively affected the importance of Poole.

At the turn of the 19th century 9 out of 10 workers in Poole were engaged in harbour activities, but as the century progressed ships became too large for the shallow harbour and the port began losing business to the deep water ports at Liverpool, Southampton and Plymouth.

In the 19th century the beaches and landscape of south-west Hampshire, as well as the Isle of Purbeck district of Dorset, began to attract large numbers of tourists and the villages to the east of Poole began to grow and merge until the holiday town of Bournemouth emerged. Growth accelerated and Poole and Bournemouth (along with Christchurch to the east) have become a large built-up area. This area is known by some as a conurbation, although this not a view held by the populations of either Poole or Christchurch. Although the three towns are well known as popular holiday destinations, each has its own individual character and attracts different types of holidaymakers. Despite the growth in leisure activities, Poole retains a considerable part of its industrial heritage.

The Town Centre retains a few of the old buildings put up by the wealthy merchants, such as the 1761 market house and Sir Peter Thompson's 1746 town house designed by John Bastard. The 18th and 20th century buildings hide earlier buildings, such as the mediaeval Wool house, Scaplen's Court and the Tudor almshouses. However, the town suffered from both bombing in World War II and the utilitarian town planning of the economically drained post-war Britain, and consequently has lost many old buildings. In recent years, however, some regeneration has taken place, with the demolition of Hamworthy (Poole)power station and the redevelopment of the old town gas gas-works.

On April 1, 1997 the town was made a unitary authority, once again administratively independent from Dorset, thus thwarting a take-over campaign by neighbouring Bournemouth, which lobbied the government for the creation of a super town comprising Poole, Christchurch and Bournemouth, which would have been administered from Bournemouth.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Bournemouth and Poole at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Note 1: includes hunting and forestry

Note 2: includes energy and construction

Note 3: includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Note 4: Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Culture, Recreation and Entertainment

Poole Harbour is a popular location for watersports because it is sheltered and calm. Poole Harbour is also one of the largest centres for sailing in the UK with many yacht clubs including Lilliput Sailing Club, Parkstone Yacht Club and Poole Yacht Club. Parkstone Yacht Club has recently been hosts of the OK World Championships, numerous large National Championships as well as being organisers of Youth Week and Poole Week, two of the largest dinghy regattas of their type in the country. In 2006 they will be hosts of the J24 European Championship Regatta.

Poole is also noted for its motorcycle speedway team, the Poole Pirates.

Poole's football team is Poole Town FC.which plays in Wessex League Division 1.

Poole has a variety of entertainment sites, from the out-of-town development Tower Park, the refurbished arts centre now known as The Lighthouse, Poole town centre itself and Bournemouth's many clubs, bars and restaurants.

Places of interest

• Brownsea Island
• Poole Bay
• Compton Acres Gardens
• Poole Pottery

Schools

• Ashdown Technology College
• Corfe Hills School
• Poole High School
• Poole Grammar School
• Parkstone Grammar School
• St Edward's RC CE VC School

Family Name

Poole : From Old English pol: A name given to people who lived near a small body of water such as a pool or pond. Variants include Pool, Pole, Poles, Poll, Polle, Polman and Poolman.

References

• Cochrane, C, 1970. Poole Bay and Purbeck, 300BC to AD1660. Dorchester, Longmans.
• Pitt-Rivers, Michael, 1968. Dorset. London: Faber & Faber
• Poole Harbour Commission, The history of Poole Harbour

Districts of South West England
Bath and North East Somerset | Bournemouth | Bristol | Caradon | Carrick | Cheltenham | Christchurch | Cotswold | East Devon | East Dorset | Exeter | Forest of Dean | Gloucester | Isles of Scilly | Kennet | Kerrier | Mendip | Mid Devon | North Cornwall | North Devon | North Dorset | North Somerset | North Wiltshire | Penwith | Plymouth | Poole | Purbeck | Restormel | Salisbury | Sedgemoor | South Gloucestershire | South Hams | South Somerset | Stroud | Swindon | Taunton Deane | Teignbridge | Tewkesbury | Torbay | Torridge | West Devon | West Dorset | West Somerset | West Wiltshire | Weymouth and Portland
Counties with multiple districts: Cornwall - Devon - Dorset - Gloucestershire - Somerset - Wiltshire