Brief candle of independence

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (110) discusses the series of meetings and decisions taken during the mid-1870s that resulted in the town’s annexation of Springbourne, Boscombe, and East Cliff.

Victorian Bournemouth (110): Background

Land

‘Boscombe is now virtually joined to Bournemouth.’ This press statement accompanied notice about extensive building in the former. Attempts to extend the East Cliff’s road occurred as that area developed. These met with local objections. The new Local Government Board exerted pressure on Bournemouth’s Improvement Commissioners to overhaul the drainage system, a constant theme in the town’s short history. Now that building had drawn Bournemouth and the three eastern areas closer, hygiene concerns arose about the latter’s cess-pool drainage. Disease arising there could spread west to the town, threatening its revenue from affluent tourists. As Bournemouth approached the three areas, inclinations for independence arose. Residents considered that Springbourne and Boscombe might form a separate settlement, having its own drainage system. Thus, a range of requirements (residents’, local government) combined with concerns about drainage costs (and meeting them), drawing matters to a head in the summer of 1876. Several meetings occurred.

Money

To comply with the recent Public Health Acts, Bournemouth’s Improvement Commissioners, prompted by the Local Government Board, had to address the drainage system.  They approached engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette for a plan and costing. This took the sewage under the area east of the town before emptying into the sea at Boscombe. The cost lay far beyond the Commissioners’ resources, but they had to comply with legislature to source funds they could borrow. For this, they needed permission from the Local Government Board, deepening their involvement in the project. Another source lay in local taxes, the rate. If they tried to increase levels ratepayers would resist. On the other hand, if they could annex the eastern areas, they would have a large new source of local tax revenue. They might still have to borrow, but the increased tax income would provide greater security to the lender.

Victorian Bournemouth (110): the meetings

Local organisation

In late September and early October 1875, a series of meetings occurred in both Springbourne and Boscombe, the latter’s residents perhaps taking the lead. Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, a Boscombe landowner and Christchurch M.P., emerged as spokesperson for the two areas. The press focus fell on him and the Boscombe residents, middling people, perhaps more willing to participate in a public meeting. Nevertheless, ‘a working man’ (sic) from Springbourne did speak at the Boscombe meeting. At first, Wolff spoke against annexation, noting Bournemouth’s current debt, for which Springbourne and Boscombe would become liable. In the second meeting, he denied saying this. Even though the Local Government Board had ruled that Bournemouth could annex the areas without their residents’ consent, the most committed people persevered with opposition. The different parties appointed their lawyers in preparation for a public hearing which the Board chaired. This occurred in spring of 1876.

The public hearing

The lawyer for the Improvement Commissioners set out the situation. The Local Government Board had refused permission for Bournemouth to borrow for the Bazalgette project unless they annexed the new area. They attempted blandishments that promised the area would receive greater cash benefit than it would contribute under the rating system. In response, the lawyer for the new territories used the sanctity of local feeling and decision-making as his argument. The inhabitants, growing in number always, thought they had the infrastructure and commitment to form an independent area. At most they offered to share in the drainage but did not want annexation. If necessary, they preferred to fall under the control of the local Guardians, who supervised public health in rural districts. The Guardians, however, had already discounted any interest in this option. The East Cliff’s inhabitants divided on the issue, some favouring joining Bournemouth, others going with Boscombe.

Victorian Bournemouth (110): the aftermath

Continued opposition

The Local Government Board lost little time. They decided in Bournemouth’s favour. As part of the consolidation, the Improvement Commission received three additional members. Ratepayers resident in the new areas made their choice, two of the men having taken an active part in the process. This olive branch did not prevent continued disagreement amongst the locals. In 1877, many rate-payers resident in the new area met in protest. They complained against the levying of improvement rates before receiving any local benefit. A local builder helped to form a Ratepayers’ Association to raise money for proceedings taken against the Commission to recover their taxes. Mr Cunnington, a new Commissioner, publican at the Palmerston Arms, attended many subsequent board meetings. Nevertheless, his absorption did not prevent him from continue to campaign against the drainage extension. He attacked Bazalgette’s design. He criticised the standard of workmanship as the new pipes came into Boscombe.

Discussion: meanings and implications

Thus, institutional power enabled Bournemouth to annex the new territories and augment its rating base. The emotional power of local protest could not prevail against the law of the land. The annexation would smooth away local culture. People in Springbourne, for example, liked to keep pigs, but the Improvement Commission had opposed this for years. Now this would end. ‘The only chance a man has to get a bit of meat is to keep a pig, and they [i.e., Improvement Commissioners] won’t allow that now.’ If local culture evaporated before that of Bournemouth, the event may have helped to politicise the residents of the annexed territories. Several of the Boscombe committee continued their involvement in government and politics. At least three played roles in Boscombe’s Liberal Association. They had become more organised. Their society, therefore, perhaps came to reflect the discipline formed by its new subterranean drainage system.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (110) has observed the events which occurred during the enforced annexation of Springbourne, Boscombe, and East Cliffs into Bournemouth’s financial and logistical structure. It has found that local opposition, while powerless in the event, may have persisted in the form of increased organised political behaviour amongst residents.

References

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