Introduction

Immigration provided the majority of early Victorian Bournemouth’s residential population. Although sited in Hampshire, almost as many people came from Dorset as from Bournemouth’s home county. In particular, the rural hinterland separating Wimborne from Cranborne proved a fertile departure point for Bournemouth’s immigration. The stream of immigrants from Dorset to Bournemouth occurred at a time when the county became more connected to other parts of the country, London not least.

Many immigrants originated from Dorset and Hampshire

Dorset focus

Half of the settlement’s adult population recorded in the 1851 Census originated from Dorset and Hampshire, half from elsewhere in the kingdom, Ireland and the world. The latter, for the most part, provided the tourists, the former those that built the houses and operated the local commerce. Almost a third of the town’s 1851 adult population had originated from Dorset, while only a fifth came from the home county of Hampshire. Christchurch provided a third of the Hampshire born. More came from Poole, but even they accounted for no more than a fifth of all Dorset-born residents. A band of Dorset settlements, westwards and beyond Poole, supplied a substantial amount of early Bournemouth’s immigration. Notable areas which contributed immigrants included Wareham’s hinterland: Bere Regis, Corfe Castle and Swanage areas. Further to the north, rural settlements lying between Wimborne and Cranborne also accounted for a part of Bournemouth’s immigration.

The hinterland between Wimborne and Cranborne

This stretch of land lay within a box formed by the two towns and two rivers, the Allen and Crane. The population occupied several rural settlements, forming parts of a seigneurial economy divided between estates headed by wealthy families. One belonged to the earl of Shaftesbury, who, though often absent, perhaps occupied local society’s top rank. Villages in this area included the Critchels, Horton, Chalbury, Witchampton, Edmondsham, the Gussages, Wimborne St Giles, Woodlands, and Hinton Martell. People born in these villages accounted for around a quarter of Dorset-based immigration to Bournemouth from Dorset. William Joy, a carpenter and later builder, listed Hinton Martell as his birthplace. Samuel Ingram, the builder, his brother, and their father-in-law, a bricklayer called James Symmonds, came from Moor Critchel. John Hibidage, another carpenter who later built houses, came from Witchampton. Several female servants also came to Bournemouth by 1851 from these villages.

Dorset looks outwards

Carriers

Dorset’s contribution to Bournemouth’s immigration occurred at a time when the county experienced growing commercial connections within and without its borders. Analysis of trade directories of the period shows this happening for transportation, banking, and insurance. Carrier services operated at varying frequencies from many of the county’s towns. In 1851, on average, ten a day left Dorchester, about half as many departed from Blandford, Bridport, Shaftesbury, and Sherborne, a few less from Poole. By 1875, despite railway growth, the departures from some towns would double. Blandford’s carriers connected also with Bristol, Birmingham, Salisbury, and London. Dorchester carriers serviced a similar set of terminals, as did other Dorset towns. Each week carriers left eleven Dorset towns for Bristol, thirteen for London. Directories only list enterprises, not their business volumes. Supply, however, presupposes demand, so Dorset residents appeared to require contact with a wide array of towns, not least London.

Banking and insurance

The main Dorset towns had on average around three banks listed in the directories, two of which drew on London institutions. Two – Glyn, Mills, & Co and Williams Deacon & Co – appear to have avoided competition by having their local connections operating in different towns.  The Joint Stock Bank, however, had connections in the same towns as Glyn, Mills & Co. On average, according to a directory of 1851, the main towns of Dorset provided enough Life and Fire business to support twenty suppliers. By 1859, another source suggested that agents for this business category had doubled. For the most part, most of the insuring companies operated across the country. On a larger, commercial scale, therefore, during the 1850s, Dorset appears to have had many connections extending outside its borders. Perhaps this contributed to a momentum which also encouraged labouring people to venture over the county line.

Seigneurial push and pull

Push

Seigneurial actions, not least exactions, form a leitmotiv in rural histories. This appears to have happened in the Allen-Crane area. A note in the 1861 Census, applying to the area around the Critchels, observed that a local population decrease had occurred ‘because of employment scarcity, cottage demolition and ‘other usual causes’ which in agricultural districts induce the younger portion of the adult population to migrate to towns’. This applied to several parishes, suggesting a substantial decay in the local rural economy. Criticism of local estate owners from Census enumerators might surprise, but perhaps conditions had become too extreme to avoid notice. Hence, had economic conditions not perhaps become adverse, three of Bournemouth’s most important builders – Samuel Ingram, William Joy, and John Hibidage – might have missed the commercial opportunities offered by the resort’s success. Immigration as described in the census note occurred as a side effect of seigneurial action.

Pull

It seems, however, that at least one gentle family may have taken a direct role in Bournemouth’s immigration. This occurrence involved the Tregonwell family, landowners at Cranborne, who would therefore have had influence through parts of the Allen-Crane area. Henrietta Munro, a Tregonwell, and her son-in-law, both born in this area, occupied Portman Lodge 1851, a family property in Bournemouth. Her domestic staff consisted of a footman (born in Blandford), a coachman (Wimborne) and two sisters, Jane and Ann Coney, as cook and maid. The Coney sisters gave their birthplace as Cranborne. That gentry might take local servants away on vacation perhaps should not cause comment, but the Tregonwells played an important role in Bournemouth’s history by erecting many early buildings there. People described the family as Bournemouth’s founder. The presence of the Coney girls suggests that this title could extend not just to buildings but also to people.

Takeaway

In early Bournemouth, sited at the west end of Hampshire, people born in Dorset accounted for a similar amount of the resort’s immigration to those originating from the home county.

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