Introduction

Early Bournemouth’s meat demand in particular helped revive Christchurch’s commercial health. For most of Bournemouth’s early period much of the meat consumed there may have come from farming and butcher families active in Christchurch’s hinterland. Family networks, based in Christchurch, but in some cases their links reaching into Dorset, appeared to maintain control of this trade, despite Poole, located at a similar distance from Bournemouth, having many more butchers.

New economy on Christchurch’s doorstep

An old town benefits from a new one

A short review of Christchurch’s fortunes published in 1843, noted how the old town had enjoyed an upsurge in commercial success, in part because of its new neighbour. ‘The contiguity and the increasing celebrity of Bournemouth, which is a component part of the borough of Christchurch, scarcely half an hour’s drive from it, and accessible without the annoying intervention of a toll-gate’. The point reappeared thirteen years later at the annual general meeting held by the Farmers’ Club of Stour and Avon meeting at Humby’s Hotel in Christchurch. A speaker, Charles Reeks, a local butcher, noted with approval the benefits of Bournemouth’s meat demand. Hitherto, Salisbury had provided the main market for their fat cattle, but because of ‘the increased demand for beef and mutton for Bournemouth and its neighbourhood, they were now able to meet that demand without travelling out of the locality’.

Bournemouth’s growing appetite for meat

The growth in early Bournemouth’s built environment reflected the success with which the site attracted tourists. People came to stay over different periods of time. Some remained for ‘the season’, while others departed after shorter visits. Press reports noted that on Coronation Day inhabitants of nearby towns – Poole, Ringwood, Christchurch – now celebrated in Bournemouth. Some thought that several thousand might come to the town for the day. Longer term tourists for the most part consisted of more affluent people whose diets would have included meat as a regular item. Day trippers, at Bournemouth for a treat, might purchase more expensive items than normal, for example meat consumed as a meal or snack. Salisbury lay four times further from Christchurch than Bournemouth. Quicker access to a growing meat demand would have meant greater profits for local producers, improving Christchurch’s economy as a result.

Bournemouth’s early butchers had Christchurch connections

Gubbins and Best families

The 1841 Census recorded John Best, a butcher, at Bournemouth. A young man in his twenties, without children, Best may have had kinship with contemporary like-named butchers listed at Christchurch. While the 1841 Census gave only county of birth – Hampshire – it seems possible that John Best also originated in that town. This name appeared several times in the 1841 census that covered Bourne and the rest of Greater Westover. Two other farmers, in Pokesdown and Iford, may have had kinship and commercial links to the Bests, butchers of Christchurch. Another butcher, George Gubbins, perhaps from Holdenhurst, recorded at Throop in 1841, had a subsequent documentary trail showing him as a butcher based in Christchurch. The 1851 Christchurch trade directory listed a butcher’s firm under the name George & William Gubbins, the 1851 Census showing William as George’s son. Thereafter William may have left and worked elsewhere as a farm bailiff.

Edwards and Hyde families

Thomas Edwards appears to have moved between Christchurch and the Greater Westover area. He may have married his first wife, a Christchurch woman, in that town as early as 1822. The 1841 Census recorded a butcher of this name at Iford, birthplace Hampshire. Subsequent listings gave his birthplace as a site on the Devon-Dorset border. Hence marriage provided him with a route into the area’s meat production business. After his residency at Iford the next three census reports located him in Christchurch. George Hyde, however, chose Bournemouth over Christchurch. Another migrant, albeit from nearby Ringwood, a directory placed him as a butcher in Christchurch for 1844. A press advertisement shows he had taken a shop and slaughter-house in Bournemouth by 1849. He also appeared in a Bournemouth directory as selling meat there at this time. The 1851 Census listed him as a butcher living in Rusina Cottages, Bournemouth.

Wider spread, but still a Christchurch influence

The Domone network

Directories recorded Joseph Domone, a Christchurch man, as having a butcher’s business at Bournemouth by the end of the 1840s. He may have divided his business between both towns. Attested in Christchurch for 1841 and 1861, Joseph Domone appeared in the 1851 census at Bournemouth. Two years earlier three vagrants had gone to trial for stealing two ribs of beef, property of Joseph Domone, Bournemouth. He left a respectable estate. Part of this success may have come as a result of his apparent wider kinship connections working in the meat trade.  The probate record for Domone’s estate recorded one executor as based in Blandford. A contemporary of that name found in the Blandford area had the occupation of cattle dealer. He had a brother as a butcher, a sister who married one, and a nephew in the same business, perhaps also a cousin.

An apparent entry from the west

Generations of the Taylor family featured in Bournemouth’s meat trade at least until 1911. They appeared to have broken the meat monopoly wrought by Christchurch farmers. Richard Taylor, described in his probate records as a yeoman, appeared in the census listings as a farmer and butcher. The same records located him during his lifetime in the area of Canford, Kinson and Parkstone. A directory for 1855 listed a man of this name as a butcher in Bournemouth. Despite this interest in the Bournemouth trade, the family seemed to have had their base at Poole. Nevertheless, one of Richard’s sons, also a butcher, may have married into the Reeks family, meat farmers at Christchurch. Charles Reeks had spoken in favour of Bournemouth at the 1856 farmers’ club meeting. Hence this family from the west in developing a Bournemouth meat business effected ties with the established Christchurch network of cattle and sheep farmers.

Takeaway

In Bournemouth’s early period, Poole had three times as many butchers as Christchurch. Nevertheless, cattle and sheep farmers in Christchurch appear to have dominated and thrived on the meat demand at Bournemouth. The harnessing of kinship to commerce may have played a role in this achievement.

References

For references and discussion, contact here. Access point to Victorian diets go here.