Introduction Conflicts divided several local interest groups as they competed to control early-Victorian Bournemouth’s structure and identity. In several cases, these conflicts became public confrontations, often fought out in the press. This made a sharp contrast to the settlement’s otherwise glittering media image as a tourist resort. Internal initiatives, however, created the basis for social […]
Introduction Local servants, from Poole, Christchurch, and the Greater Westover villages, worked at different domestic duties in the early Victorian Bournemouth local economy. Servants found in the larger vacation villas appear to have accompanied their employers. People local to the area, however, appear to have provided service to retailers, professionals, some lodging-houses, and the hotels. […]
Introduction Servants’ fortunes varied after their working stint at Bournemouth (1851), where data can track them. For some, record linkage enables partial reconstruction of their later life-stages. This analysis studies the later lives of found servants working in the row of sixteen holiday buildings known as Westover Villas. It explores how people comprising this important […]
Introduction Education in Bournemouth and the neighbouring hamlets, during the early period, took different forms, reflecting social variation across the area. Reverend A. M. Bennett applied his organisational talents and drive to establishing National Schools in both town and country. Towards the end of this period, however, some private schools and colleges appeared. Genealogical exploration […]
Introduction Lectures provided a means for delivering information across many audience types at early Victorian Bournemouth. For the most part, lecturers instructed or educated but they often introduced entertainment and interest by using visual material. Some used lecturing as ways to educate working people in a controlled context, while keeping them from the tavern. Subjects […]
Introduction The Belle Vue, a prominent hotel equipped with or connected to an assembly hall, featured often in community activities held at early Victorian Bournemouth. These events taken together illustrate the range of activities that gathered the town’s inhabitants, permanent and temporary. The Belle Vue Boarding house, hotel, community centre At first a boarding house, […]
Introduction Crime and punishment in early Victorian Bournemouth featured in the resort’s press coverage. The early settlement lay within the jurisdiction of Christchurch’s Petty Sessions. Felonies ranged from petty theft to arson, the latter causing much concern to local landholders. Magistrates consisted of local prominent men, for the most part landowners, but also a sprinkling […]
Introduction Cultural life began early in the public world of Victorian Bournemouth. Press references suggest that, for the most part, it emphasised music, but other activities occurred. The presence of pianos in auctioneers’ advertisements testifies to the symbolic as well as perhaps actual importance that music played in private lives. Advertisements by music teachers also […]
Introduction Social networks of people originating from the same Dorset district may have helped migrants achieve success in early Victorian Bournemouth. This post continues the focus on the hinterland framed by Cranborne and Wimborne. Social Networks Background Inhabitants of the area defined by Wimborne, Cranborne and the two rivers Allen and Crane migrated around it […]
Introduction A cricket team emerged in the settlement during the summer of 1852. It perhaps reflected an embryonic sense of Bournemouth’s cultural identity, but it may have had more to do with the settlement’s commerce. A curate’s egg of a season Beginnings At the end of May 1852 newspapers reported the appearance of a cricket […]