Where tme stands stl ISSN 1462-8503 SANDBANK NEWS

Issue No. 10 Summer 2005 £1.20

Beach-hut prices fall on Mudeford Sandbank

One shore beyond desire

On March 18th at auction (auctioneers Symonds and Sampson) a sleeping beach hut failed to meet its reserve of £80,000, confirming local knowledge that sales had stalled on the beach. Vendors have been keen to A frenzy of articles on the It is apparent from nearly sell this Spring because the sudden price slump appeared two-dozen “For Sale” signs progressive transfer fees pay- in the local media and the before the Easter holiday that able to Christchurch Council national press and even an although vendors are anxious rose on April 1st for a hut overseas newspaper just be- to sell, buyers are currently from £15,000 to £21,000 as fore Easter. Sales may yet few and far between. This is expected. Also licence fees recover if demand is restored. most unusual. have spiraled to close on But this would have to be in £2,000 per hut and although the face of vendors passing the beach has never looked on the increasing transfer fees better, the old cheap and in- to buyers. Historically, about formal ways are being sup- a dozen huts have changed planted by a new ruthless hands on average each year profit-led and cost-driven over the last 30 years. There worldliness. has been something of a

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 1 Summer 2005 buying frenzy in the last (even bad publicity over fal- hut. The simplicity of beach dozen years, despite the ling prices) has brought a hut-life is a more enchanting rising prices. new clutch of Easter weekend prospect than that of hut-less The 354 huts contribute visitors looking for an appar- financial excess. Honestly. £630,000 in annual licence ent bargain. This is a peren- I told would-be buyers of our fees. In 2002/3 the transfer nial phenomenon it seems to hut not to buy expecting fee windfall to the council me. prices to continue to increase, was £109,000. In 2004/05 it It is not just waves that en- but to give themselves and was £239,000. In 2005/6 it croach upon the shore. their children a sanctuary should be at least £309,000 in It is an exiting time, not least from the world. I believed the council’s favour. The because having sold my fam- they would be right to buy, following year the rate (if not ily’s sleeping-hut (after three for that reason. the total as it depends on the quarters of a century of occu- They probably were right to number of huts being sold or pation), admittedly at what buy in, for whilst the hut- transferred) should increase has been “the top of the mar- strewn sea-front at nearby by half again. The council ket”, Bournemouth has 100 arrests want to gradually achieve a on average each year, our 50% share of a hut’s profit own Mudeford Sandbank has on sale because it is the had perhaps one arrest in the (council owned) land that has last 100 years! the real value. Oh! for the simple happy Also any recovery in sales childish days of my youth, in would have to be in the face a sanctuary untroubled by the of uncertainties over the grasping hand of greed, fear beach lease from Bourne- of being displaced by ruthless mouth Council which is due market forces and troubling for renewal in either 2029 (or council policies. 2036 depending on who you I am no longer “Beach Hut But thank you to everyone speak to!) Man”. My plan to buy back who has made the decision to But the fact that the huts into a smaller hut more suited sell last August less painful have become a “golden to my needs and based on my than it might otherwise have goose” is an assurance that sense of what I or my family been. I currently may be the huts will continue to would be prepared to pay is found (at least out of season) colonise this beach, as the still in question. in a hired hut at the end of the values have been rising at Objectively I would not be beach plotting my comeback. least until the 2005 “correc- able to recommend “buy” or Due to council policies even tion”. “sell” to anyone else even if I that temporary solution is un- On the other hand, it is still a have just more than doubled der threat of becoming be- paradise down here. And will my new paper investments in yond my justifiable reach. be, people know, for genera- six months using the Ameri- Absence has made the heart tions to come. can NASDAQ stock market. grow fonder. I recommend a But efforts to reduce the (AAPL and PIXR if you must trial separation for anyone, transfer fees when passed know). however beautiful the “part- down within families, if suc- Distance from poverty does ner” you have. As Hart Crane cessful, may reduce supply lend enchantment to the view, wrote, in his poem The even more and force prices but it is a cold wind that Bridge, “the best shore is one upwards again. Publicity blows if you do not have a beyond our desire.”

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 2 Summer 2005 (www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 3 Summer 2005 The Water Mill

Listen to the Water Mill through the live-long day. How the creaking of the wheel, wears the hours away, Languidly the water glides, useless on and still Never coming back again to the Water Mill And the proverb haunts my mind, like a spell that’s cast “The Mill will never grind with the water that has passed”

Take this lesson to yourselves loving hearts and true Golden years are fleeting by, youth is fleeting too, Learn to make the most of life, lose no honest way, Time will never bring thee back chances swept away “Leave no tender word unsaid, love while life shall last” “The Mill will never grind with the water that has passed”

Work while yet the daylight shines, men of strength and will, Never does the streamlet glide useless by the mill; Wait not till tomorrow’s sun beams upon the way, All that thou cans’t call thine own, lies in this today! Power, intellect and strength may not, cannot last, “The Mill will never grind with the water that has passed”

Oh! the wasted hours of life that has drifted by All the good we might have done – lost – without a sigh! Love that we might once have saved, by a single word Thoughts conceived but never penned, perishing unheard Take this lesson to your heart, take, oh! hold it fast! “The Mill will never grind with the water that has passed”

From the German, (rescued and recycled from the Council tip by your editor) Printed in memory of Mr J Prosser who died in 2004 who was, introduced to the area by a Mr Luckett (who was given the pick of the beach to build a beach hut in 1947) and remembered by his son, a friend of this newspaper over many years [Ed]

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 4 Summer 2005 The Forgotten Regency Resort

Visit The Splendid Marine Village Of Muddiford (*** Also Known As Sandhills, Sandford and Summerford ***)

The French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic Wars ended the English upper class fashion for the European Grand Tour and holidays at continental spas. Instead, the new ‘sea-bathing’ resorts of Brighton, Lyme and Wey- mouth became fashionable Regency-era "watering- places," growing within a generation into popular Highcliffe was not adopted as for the European cultural tourism destinations. One a village name until 1892, the ‘Grand Tour’ and holidays at resort however, despite local hamlets being known continental spas, which of- meeting the basic require- before that as Chuton, New- fered mineral-rich water to ments for a fashionable town, and Slop Pond. On the drink and sometimes, mud- Georgian-Regency resort, other hand, names such as baths. and enjoying patronage from Mude or Muddiford had the the nation’s elite, never grew In , inland spas, no- advantage for the fashionable to become a household name tably Bath, were long estab- set of discouraging strangers .... lished on the Continental and keeping the resort exclu- model of health spas like perhaps it was due to its sive, away from the hoi pol- Lourdes. George II's old having such an unpromising loi. In fact, the district's other Prime Minister, Pitt the Elder, name that the Christchurch name was Sandhills, after the for instance in 1768 retreated district of Mudeford together large dunes stretching along to Bath suffering from the with neighbouring Highcliffe, the shore. flying gout — the age's polite in what was then southwest label for mental-health prob- never grew to be Wars with France and other lems. The new English sea- another Brighton or Margate. European countries over the side resorts would come into "Muddyford," as it was pre- Colonies, then the French popularity during the heyday viously, does not sound as if Revolution and subsequent of the up-and-coming Prince it has much of a beach, which ‘Terror’ of the 1790s, and Regent, in the years between may have made it uninviting finally the Napoleonic Wars the Storming Of The Bastille to the public who began to combined to put an end the in 1789 and Waterloo in frequent seaside resorts when English upper class fashion 1815, which ended the the railway age arrived. And French threat.

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 5 Summer 2005 The Highcliffe-On-Sea Saga

On the neighbouring High Cliff estate along the clifftop a mile eastward, a second aristocratic home stood, for a while anyway. Here until 1794 stood the stately home called ‘High Cliff,’ built in a medievalist style to a Robert Adam design in 1773. It was the seaside residence of George III's first Prime Min- ister the 3rd Earl of Bute, “Hydromania” John Stuart (1713-92), who From 1789 on, George III "watering-places” when it too had risen to power through suffered from mental-health received the necessary offi- his connections with the problems which could not be cial hallmark of approval – Royal family. The ex- Prime concealed, and his re- the Royal visit. Minister had retired here in appearance at Weymouth in At this time, Mudeford, pre- 1770 after being brought the summer of 1789 to take viously known as a smug- down by a lengthy rabble- the waters was a welcome glers' bolthole, had just begun rousing press campaign sight, for the situation in to acquire its first veneer of which marked the birth of France prompted a fear the respectability after a former crusading newspaper jour- English monarchy could also British Museum curator and nalism in Britain (a saga too collapse. Watched by a puz- retired director of the Bank of complex and dramatic to zled and fascinated crowd, England bought up much of even attempt a summary the King entered the sea from the district and began to in- here). a bathing machine for his vite members of the aristoc- Lord Bute was one of those royal dip while a band played racy down to stay. The house aristocrats prevented by hos- God Save The King. It was Gustavus Brander (1720-87) tilities with France from con- the King's regular public dips had built was in downtown tinuing to enjoy European at Weymouth through the Christchurch itself (in the ‘grand tours’ to look at art 1790s that helped popularise grounds of Christchurch Pri- treasures. As well as being an the new "spa" idea of salt- ory, in fact), but as a keen art enthusiast, he was also a water sea-bathing had cura- antiquarian and naturalist, keen botanist (a co-founder tive properties. Next, Brigh- with a summer-house on of Kew Gardens), and in ton was made fashionable by Hengistbury, he would soon 1779 he had paid the most the Prince Of Wales, who be showing various VIP famous landscape designer of would become Prince Regent visitors around the area. And the time, Capability Brown, when the King was forced the selling off, by the Brander to lay out a parkland on the into retirement by his mad- family, of High Cliff estate to High Cliff estate. The house ness. Even Southampton be- Pitt’s retiring Prime Minister itself was built on the clifftop came a ‘spa town.’ Mudeford Lord Bute would lead to a "to command the finest out- would also soon join the new chapter in the growth of look in England." In fact it short-list of fashionable new the resort. proved too close to the crum

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 6 Summer 2005 bling clifftop, and in the 1790s it had to be demolished stone by stone. Most of the estate was sold off following Bute’s death, after being in- jured in a fall trying to pick wildflowers on the clifftop. In the meantime, the only house on the estate was a modest dwelling called Bure Hom- age. The 4th Earl of Bute, Lord Stuart de Rothesay, grew up there while contem- plating his grand scheme to rebuild the family home lost King, Charles X, fled to she became persona non to the sea. A diplomat serving Poole. Louis-Philippe, the grata with her former pro in France, he bought back the Duc d'Orleans, was elected tector King Louis-Philippe. rest of the estate in 1807 and ‘King of the French’ by the Ironically, both would end began to build a magnificent new regime. He also became their lives in England. With house which he would fur- protector of the "Queen Of the 1848 uprisings, the nish with stained glass win- Chantilly" Baronne de onetime “King Of The dows from Rouen and other Feucheres, alias Sophie French” would flee here (dis- French art treasures ‘rescued’ Dawes, the Wight-born guised as a “Mr Smith”) and from the aftermath of the daughter of a local smuggler, often stayed in the area, at French Revolution. This — who had reinvented herself as Highcliffe Castle or with the present, now-restored a femme fatale. She had es- Gustavus Brander at Christ- Highcliffe Castle—would not caped the poorhouse perma- church’s Priory House, while be completed until 1835, the nently in her teens while the former "Queen Of Chan- eve of the Victorian era, but it working as a servant in a Pic- tilly” bought Bure Homage in would become the area’s cadilly brothel, where (it was the 1830s. The still-wealthy most fashionable house said) she was won by the social adventuress ordered it throughout the Victorian and exiled Duc de Bourbon in a rebuilt in the style of a subsequent Edwardian ages. card game. She gave up her French villa, but died soon Before the Castle was com- Nell Gwynn style London after. plete, another set of ‘royalty’ career as an actress and Pitt's Rose came to the Highcliff estate. orange-seller, and taught her- It was in the 1790s that the During the era of ‘The Ter- self French to make her way key residents in the story of ror’ as they fled the guillo- in the world as a courtesan. Mudeford’s rise to fashion tine, French aristocrats such After a ménage a trois with appeared. In 1790 George as the Duc de Bourbon had the Duc and her husband the Rose (1744-1818) became a settled in exile in southern Baron de Feucheres was ex- Member of Parliament for England from 1789 on, until posed, she was strongly sus- Christchurch. Rose first Napoleon’s fall made possi- pected of faking the suicide served in the Navy, where he ble the Royalist émigrés’ re- of the aged Duc, by then a was twice wounded in action, turn. A generation later, in Prince, in order to obtain title but left when promotion 1830, revolution again broke to the vast Chantilly estate. failed to materialise, and be- out in France, and the new Though she was never tried, came a civil servant instead.

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 7 Summer 2005 After buying Cuffnells Park (later a hotel, since demol- ished) in the New Forest near Lyndhurst, he became an MP for Lymington in 1788. Rose was by now such a close friend and supporter of the new Prime Minister, , he was known as "Pitt's Rose." (Pitt, who became Prime Minister at age 24 after his father's retirement, himself had Dor- set family roots.) Christ- church had two Members of Parliament, and from 1796 Christchurch’s other MP was ’s younger son, (1775- 1843). Rose‘s main family residence was in the New Forest at Cuffnells, where he wrote books on finance and policy, and from where he Seaside Villas At Mudeford House, the younger son Wil- even tried to run his cabinet liam Stewart Rose from 1796 post of Treasurer Of The In order to have a seaside lived during the summer in a Navy. He also entertained residence for himself and his row of seaside cottages com- both Pitt and the King there. family to indulge the new pleted in 1796 on the San- George III, an acquaintance fashion for sea-bathing, Rose dhills estate, just east of the since 1784 (the year Pitt around 1785 also built a main house. This house, and swept to power), visited him house just east of Mudeford in fact the entire row of at Cuffnells in 1789 on his Quay, named Sandhills, be- white-washed seafront houses first visit to Weymouth, and hind the large sand dunes (which still survive), would again in 1801, when he which then stood there. The be named "Gundimore," after stayed for four days at Cuff- two Christchurch MPs used which Gundimore Promenade nells the week both Rose and their seaside properties as between Mudeford Quay and Pitt announced their retire- summer residences. Sandhills Avon Beach is now named. ments, and again in 1803. Pitt House was occupied by would return to office in 1804 George Rose’s eldest son, Sir ‘Gundimore’ And The for two final, killing years to George Henry Rose, who was Literati engineer the political alliance elevated to the diplomatic The house’s famous talking needed to combat Napoleon, service through his father’s point was a room designed to staying at Cuffnells for a last influence with Pitt (Sir look like a Persian tent, this time the year of Trafalgar, George named his son feature being the outcome of 1805, Rose himself dining George Pitt Rose). With WS Rose’s interests as an with Nelson just before he George Snr at Cuffnells, and amateur poet and translator. sailed. George Henry at Sandhills The Romantic Poets of the

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 8 Summer 2005 time often used exotic East- Southey, composed his own stead, Rose wrote a poem of ern references (as with version. his own, commemorating Coleridge’s Xanadu), and Southey was just one of a these, and other, visits by dressing a room in Arabian series of writers to be invited Coleridge and Scott, called Nights style and giving the down to Gundimore. While "Gundimore." house a Kiplingesque exotic George Rose invited national name such as "Gundimore" leaders such as Pitt, Nelson (the heroine in a poem he and the King, William translated) would be in Stewart Rose preferred writ- keeping with this literary ers, and to Gundimore came fashion. One can compare the distinguished literati of the Brighton Pavilion, built for day. Having writers on hand the Prince Regent in the style had been a feature of court of an Oriental pavilion-tent life since the Renaissance with minarets and cupolas, established the idea of the and sometimes described, patron, and even for the aris- after a phrase from tocrat not interested in the Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," as arts it was what we would a Royal "pleasure dome." (It now call a status display. The The Royal Visits had a secret tunnel so he Prince set the example, and it When Southey later became could receive his mistress – became part of English Re- Poet Laureate, his mandatory actually his secret Catholic gency life, adopted officially memorial poem for his late wife.) Several of the surviv- via the still-current Poet Lau- patron George III was ridi- ing Gundimore row of houses reate scheme. Future Poet culed by Byron and others, today have low, round Laureate Robert Southey not who felt Southey might just domed-roof rooms or exten- only visited Gundimore, but as well depict the King en- sions. The Romantic poets took a pair of cottages at tering Heaven in a bathing also had a penchant for Burton a mile inland to use as machine. While George III’s Mediterranean Romance- a country retreat, 1797-1800. favourite seaside resort had language works as well as Sir was a Gun- been Weymouth, he did visit Mid-Eastern exoticism, and dimore visitor, while working Sandhills en route at George the word villa seems to creep on his poetry (‘Marmion’) Rose’s bidding. Rose had him naturally into descriptions of and later on his first historical stop over at Cufffnells on his these seaside houses. Pevs- novel (Waverley). Southey’s first journey to Weymouth, on ner's Buildings Of England brother-in-law, the decadent 29 June 1789, and some notes a Mediterranean feature Romantic poet Samuel Taylor sources say he also stopped at in the original Sandhills Coleridge, visited Gundimore Sandhills. He also visited House: it was built up with later on, in 1816, when Wil- Sandhills on 3 July 1801, but exotic features in the form of liam Stewart Rose had re- better known is his 1803 offi- a 2-storey Tuscan-colonnade turned (with an Italian wife) cial visit. In 1803 Rose ar- verandah. Rose was himself from his two years of living ranged an official Royal ‘in- translator of such exotic abroad. Coleridge grandly spection’ style visit to Mude- Romance-language European planned a poem about the ford, complete with military works as , house, but (as with "Kubla parade, on another stopover Amadis, and Ariosto, of Khan") never finished it – he by the royal yacht en route to which a future Poet Laure- was, as usual, recuperating Weymouth. The Christchurch ateand visitor, Robert from various ailments. In- Artillery fired a 3-volley sa-

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 9 Summer 2005 lute echoed by another on 1803 to inspect, and thank for The “Marine Village Of Wight opposite, while de- their service, the Christ- Mudiford” tachments of the Scots Greys church Volunteers who had and the local Volunteers stood lined up for his brother, al- Mudeford was classed as a lined up on the beach. So that though in the event rain can- “marine village,” a term the King should not get his celled the official parade. which seems to have evolved feet wet as he re-embarked on However after he became for such small new, purpose- the royal barge, the pier-less King, the former Regent did built seaside resorts. It sounds resort's three new bathing visit Gundimore and Mude- discreet and exclusive, with a machines were laid end to ford, in the 1820s. An early small-is-beautiful implication end in the shallows. Sir Ar- Cooke's guidebook of circa in the word village. But in- thur Me adds in his The 1835 refers to this visit: "the evitably, as seaside resort King's England guidebook admired spot, the favourite holidays became more com- series, "After that Mudeford summer residence of numer- mon, there were expectations brightened and increased the ous families of distinction ... that Mudeford-Sandhills number of its bathing ma- Muddiford, a beautiful village would grow. An 1820s guide chines" (apparently from on the sea-shore, possessing notes what we would now three to seven). "...A pictur- every convenience for a call an attempt at rebranding esque little story which will, watering-place, having good with a name change, from no doubt, ever be told of bathing machines, and a fine Mudiford to ‘the more appro- Mudeford," commented the sandy beach. His late Maj- priate name of Summerford.’ Bournemouth Times & Di- esty, George IV, honoured this (The adjacent modern district rectory. spot with a visit, and his ad- of Somerford is named after Despite these claims, that was miration of its scenery. The the medieval Manor of that the end of George's public air here is salubrious.... name.) A guidebook to patronage. The Prince Regent These qualities were appreci- Bournemouth and Mudeford seems not to have visited ated and emphatically re- of circa 1840 refers to a plan either: generally, he tended to marked on by his Majesty to build up to 90 residences steer clear of anywhere his George III, who with the as summer lodgings for disapproving father might be royal family honoured Mr ‘families of respectability’ on found. The Prince had pri- Rose with a visit at San- the Highcliffe estate, and vately married the Catholic dhills." comments, ‘Nature has done widow of the owner of Lul- worth Castle, but in 1795 he had to put aside his secret Catholic wife and remarry to help pay off his debts. This arranged marriage was disas- trously unhappy for both par- ties. His new Princess Of Wales, Caroline Of Bruns- wick, did stay at Sandhills in 1796 before she moved back to the Continent. The King's brother, HRH Duke of Cum- berland, also stayed with Rose on New Year's Eve

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 10 Summer 2005 To Highcliffe Castle came the now-exiled Louis Philippe, and Queen Victoria’s grand- son King Wilhelm II, alias the Kaiser. However any plan to make Mudeford “the first watering-place on the coast” would come to nothing.

End Of An Era The eclipse of Mudeford as the local resort was already well underway. In 1810 one of its summer residents had much – art and capital, judi The adjoining estate, at ventured over the heath to the ciously applied, will make Chewton Bunny, long notori- west as Southey had done in Mudeford the first watering- ous as a smuggler’s rendez- 1800. But where Southey had place on the coast.” Another vous, became the home of a complained he saw only meaning of ‘watering-place’ naval veteran turned chil- "desolation," Lewis Tregon- was that traditional spas had dren’s novelist, Captain Mar- well saw something else at healing wells or waters. ryat, where he wrote Children Bourne Chine, the possibility Where Bournemouth had to Of The New Forest. (He also of "an unreclaimed solitude" import French mineral water, did the original sketch of away from now-busy Mude- there was even a local well nude women bathers, bathing ford. There, at the mouth of (Tutton’s Well) nearby at machines, and lurking vo- the Bourne, he bought land Stanpit on the Harbour’s yeur, which the artist Cruik- and built a mansion in the so- edge, said to have curative shank turned into an illustra- called "Strawberry Hill" style properties. tion that became the forerun- of Horace Walpole's country house of that name in Sussex, New buildings appeared. The ner of the humorous seaside which a neighbour of Rose's old smugglers' inn on the postcard —‘Hydromania.’) at Cuffnells had adopted for Quay, Haven House (in 1784, The Castle would continue to what Pevsner calls the best the year Pitt had come to host aristocratic guests “Gothick” house in Hamp- power, the Navy had actually through the Victorian and shire, Foxlease. Tregonwell's bombarded it in a bloody Edwardian Eras, including manor house (now the Royal pitched battle) was converted members of the English Exeter Hotel) became to respectability. It became "a Royal family. There would Bournemouth's first respect- sea-bathing lodging house for come Gladstone and the fu- able residence. As a former fine company who came ture Edward VII (whose mis- High Sheriff of Dorset, based down from London for sea tress Lily Langtry would re- originally in Cranborne air," said Marchioness Louisa tire to Bournemouth). Both Chase and a guest and hunt- de Rothesay, who in 1845 the Prince and Princess of ing companion of the Prince took over Highcliffe Castle. Wales in fact would visit by Regent there, he was respect- An artist admired by Ruskin, yacht, sailing direct from Os- able enough to attract Louisa was also the pioneer borne. The Royal Yacht wealthy visitors, and soon of a colony of artists drawn to would also bring their Conti- Mudeford had a rival exclu- the area's picturesque views. nental cousins, relatives of the crowned heads of Europe. sive resort, the "Marine Vil-

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 11 Summer 2005 lage of Bourne," with a clus- commuting distance of Lon- Highcliffe-On-Sea were by- ter of cottages and guest don. In 1823, the journalist passed, saved from develop- chalets towards the sea. Cobbett noted it was home to ment and hoi polloi. Its at- The Georgian-Regency Era London "stock-jobbers" who tractions remained old- ended with Victoria’s acces- commuted daily by stage- fashioned, one local writer sion in 1838, and part of the coach. complaining that in speech failure of Mudeford to de- Nor did it develop as a health and manners it was fifty years velop could be attributed in spa. While Bournemouth’s behind fashionable Lyming- part to its lack of royal favour Mont Dore Hotel (now the ton. "Fashion has not made it during this lengthy era. The Town Hall) imported French a watering-place," added young Princess Victoria had mineral water, and neigh- another, "it possesses none of stayed at Highcliffe Castle bouring Boscombe exploited the recommendations of mod- with her family, one of her a clifftop mineral spring to ern dissipation." Even High- Ladies-in-waiting was Louisa reinvent itself as Boscombe cliffe Castle fell on hard de Rothesay’s sister Char- Spa, the local healing well on times and was sold. Gordon lotte, and her son Prince Ed- Christchurch Harbour was Selfridge, of Selfridge's ward visited several times never exploited. Locally, it stores fame, took it over in bringing VIPs from Osborne was Bournemouth that would the 1920s. Not content with on the royal yacht, but the become the popular resort of this ‘fairy palace by the sea,’ Queen herself never visited the general public, soon ex- he planned to build a private Highcliffe-Mudeford. [See panding to meet up with castle of his own the size of sidebar, “Victoria’s Seaside Boscombe Spa and another St Paul’s on Hengistbury Days”] In the subsequent upstart rival, Southbourne- Head. But his personal for- Victorian age of railway- On-Sea, on the other side of tunes fell, and the Head was driven mass tourism, the Hengistbury Head. saved from privatization and court set, including the young With no spa waters, no orna- development for the time Queen Victoria and family, mental gardens, and most im- being. Highcliffe Castle was would flee the commuters portantly no pier for the sold and re-sold, set on fire, and day-trippers on the steamers carrying day- left derelict, vandalised and mainland, retiring to Osborne trippers and other hoi polloi looted of its magnificent art- across the Bay from Mude- to land at, Mudeford and works. ford, and Wight likewise be- came a favoured retreat with the next generation's cultured set — Dickens, Lewis Car- roll, Macauley, Swinburne, Turgenev, and the new Poet Laureate, Tennyson, after whom Tennyson Down across the bay was named. The Prince Regent’s favourite watering hole, Brighton, be- came the premier seaside re- sort town, and even William Stewart Rose retired here, dying there in 1843. It had the advantage of being within

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 12 Summer 2005 The hut for Queen Victoria side villa Victoria and Albert went for an Italianate design which would give the place some of the appeal of a sunny Mediterranean resort. The Solent view reminded Albert of the Bay Of Naples, and they had the Georgian house there rebuilt in Palladian style, including campanile towers, a loggia balcony, a pavilion, and later a hall in the obligatory Eastern style, the Durbar Room. Terraced gardens with statues and fountains in Renaissance style cascaded down towards Princess Victoria’s father had local landowner and MP, the seashore, where Victoria originally chosen Sidmouth William Morton Pitt (a dis- had her own bathing machine for a lengthy family ‘sea air’ tant (rescued in the 1920s and put retirement stay when she was relative of Prime Minister Pitt on display). The result was so an infant, but ironically he and an official in his admini- attractive that the ‘Osborne got caught in a blizzard on stration), was developing it as Style’ would be imitated in Christmas Day 1819 and died a resort. This ‘retired little the USA and elsewhere. there of pneumonia, in the town’ had never had a Royal In any case, with her 100- same week as his brother Visit before, and the enthusi- plus entourage, staying at a George III. Victoria spent her astic public reception to the marine village was unrealis- next seaside holidays on the Royal visit helped launch tic. At Osborne Victoria had a Isle Of Wight, at Norris Cas- Swanage as a seaside resort. private estate guarded at tle near Cowes, from where From Swanage’s new pier, times by up to 200 soldiers she had begun her popular the Royal party sailed straight (and of course her fierce ‘Royal Progress’ trip of 1833 back to Cowes, bypassing Highland gillie John Brown) by yacht along the Dorset and Mudeford and Highcliffe-On- who kept tourists as well as Devon coast. Outbound, the Sea, neither of which had a anarchists out. (Her new Poet 14 year old princess sailed landing pier. Laureate, Tennyson, also set straight to Weymouth. The After she became Queen, up a home on Wight — hence return journey was partly Victoria had no need to visit ‘Tennyson Down’ across done overland, with crowds any ‘marine village,’ since Christchurch Bay— but was lining the roads to cheer the she soon had what was de- soon besieged by tourists.) royal carriage with its cavalry scribed at the time as her own Wight had the added attrac- escort. It was decided to visit ‘marine palace’ built over- tion of making her relatively one of the exclusive new sea- looking The Solent. She and inaccessible to her elderly bathing resorts, so the party Prince Albert bought up the ministers of state. (Later, stopped over at Swanage. estate next to Norris Castle, when her Prime Ministers, Though an early industrial at Osborne. Just as Rose had Disraeli and Gladstone, port serving the Purbeck gone for Tuscan colonnades needed a rest cure, she stone-quarrying industry, the at Sandhills, so for their sea- packed them off to the new

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 13 Summer 2005 resort of Bournemouth.) The EPILOGUE with the old-timers and local pair could also sail off on families being squeezed out their new steam yacht as they Thus, Mudeford never be- again as the resort moves did in 1843 to maintain the came a household name like back upmarket. On the Entente Cordiale by visiting Lyme, Weymouth, Swanage, mainland side, the established their Continental cousin, Bournemouth, or Margate. residents of Mudeford village King Louis Philippe, at his And although its aristocratic refer to the hut owners, how- summer-residence Normandy Georgian-Regency heyday is ever wealthy they are, as Chateau. Victoria would now all but forgotten, this is "sheddies." eventually die at Osborne in not a tale of rise and fall, but Highcliffe Castle was re- 1901. is in its own quiet way a suc- stored to its former magnifi- Today, due to this Royal pa- cess story. As another 19th- cence in the 1990s by the tronage the Cowes Yachting Century guidebook put it, Council as a public amenity, Regatta, originally frequented “The present inhabitants … while the one surviving by Victoria’s son the Prince possibly are not sorry that fragment of Lord Bute’s of Wales and her grandson Mudeford did not develop original 1773 High Cliff Kaiser Wilhelm II, as digni- into a second Margate.” It house, the gatehouse lodges, taries in their ‘Royal Yachting was an example of a became an upmarket hotel Squadron,’ is an international remarked-on phenomena and restaurant. Nearby, nov- event. It being a tradition that among seaside resorts, of an elist Captain Marryat’s for- Royal princes should serve a exclusive resort next to a mer family home would be- stint in the ‘Senior Service,’ ‘mass-market’ one, remaining come the area’s other five- Osborne became in part a content with being old- star hotel, the Chewton Glen. Royal Naval College where fashioned or behind the times Muddiford House, once home future kings served as cadets. — in the local motto, a place to retired army officers, be- Osborne House became a ‘where time stands still.’ came the harbour-front’s major tourist attraction, now Today, despite all the day- largest hotel, The Avon- kept by English Heritage as trippers and their quarter of a mouth. much as possible as it was million dogs to the adjacent In their 1937 retrospective when Victoria died there. ancient-monument site of piece about George IV's visit, See Princess Victoria In Dor- Hengistbury Head, Mudeford the local newspaper, the set, by J.F. Parsons [n.d., retains much of its exclusive Bournemouth Times & Di- Bournemouth Local Studies character. The bathing ma- rectory, noted with surprise Group, isbn 187 3887 09 4], chines which the wealthy that the obscure term "Mude- and Queen Victoria At Os- could hire for privacy have ford Beach" was used in the borne by Arnold Florance been supplanted, on the adja- national press without refer- [English Heritage 1987] cent sandspit, by a line of ence to Christchurch or beach huts which often fea- Bournemouth to indicate its ture in the national press for location. This policy is long- the record prices they bring in standing, and continues to- when sold. Originally owned day. Hengistbury Head, for long-term by local families example, is not promoted as a who passed their huts on tourism attraction. Neither is from generation to generation Mudeford, even in free pub- as family heirlooms, these are licity – as when it made a TV now increasingly bought up appearance, in Bill Bryson's by wealthy non-residents, Notes From A Small Island

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 14 Summer 2005 1999 ITV series. In it, Bry- fed by underground springs, today by new flavours and son, a former Bournemouth whose source is far inland under tastes but the internet pre- the high hills of the Forest. Echo reporter and now an Its wonderful purity and mineral serves her talent and a kind of English Heritage commis- qualities were well known to the homeopathic process seems sioner, interviews Victoria monks of Christchurch Twyne- still at work through earlier Wood, holidaying with her ham; throughout medieval times concentrations of her art and it was known all over the coun- family in a Mudeford Sand- tryside as a specific for diseases style still percolating in our bank beach hut, about Eng- of the eye, and water from this minds. lish attitudes to seaside holi- wellfor medicinal purposes was Nevertheless, although the days. However to discourage conveyed to towns far inland. It magic hook of finding water is something of the past almost anyone who saw the pro- forgotten now, but as late as (which when emptied by gramme wanting to visit, the 1832 a traveller wrote: “It is en- bucket from a source in the location was not identified. dowed with many medicinal vir- ground perpetually fills Even in this media-dominated tues; and held in estimation and again) was to be denied me veneration by the old inhabitants age, some standards of dis- equal to that entertained by the until middle age; the magic cretion are still maintained. Cambro Britons for the holy well from art and literature was of St Winifred’s.” still there, somewhere. And, it ©David Stanton is still available to us/our Sadly the very rare guide was children if you knew where to lent to a local publican (for a look. friend interested in the town) A brief journey back to the and was not recoverable after reservoir of our memory, the a while. However a copy ex- bridge over time, that is a ists in the special collections library; finds the following of Christchurch Public Li- from “The Water Babies” : brary, a public resource that should never be permitted to ”At last, at the bottom of a fail us when private sources hill, they came to a spring, not such a spring as you see here, dry up or become corrupted. which soaks up out of white I would have read of this gravel in the bog, among red fly- vestige of the well when catchers, and pink bottle-heath, Charles Kingsley’s “The and sweet white orchis; nor such a one as you may see, too, Water Babies” was a distant here, which bubbles up under On the Trail of the memory, but still a potent the warm sand-bank in the hol- Wholesome Well trace in my mind, if only for low lane, by the great tuft of la- by the editor the artist Jessie Wilcox Smith dyferns, and makes the sand dance reels at the bottom, day (who was responsible for As a child, drinking deep and night, all the year round; not another famous painting such a spring as either of those; from the books and tracts “Little Drops of Water” but a real North-country lime- available to me, I discov- which graced the front page stone fountain, like one of those ered a small pre-war in Sicily or Greece, where the of my Mudeford Sandbank old heathen fancied the nymphs guide to Christchurch News by happy coincidence sat cooling themselves the hot which had the following last year.) summer’s day, while the shep- passage; [see www.msbnews.co.uk for the herds peeped at them from be- hind the bushes. Out of a low By the roadside here and sadly archived copy] Jessie seems to have been cave of rock, at the foot of a neglected, is the one-time fa- limestone crag, the great foun- mous “Tutton’s Well,” which has displaced from the pool of tain rose, quelling and bubbling a constant supply of pure water our wider public memory and gurgling, so clear that you

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 15 Summer 2005 could not tell where the water “Cider with Rosie”: re-surface and which, like ended and the air began; and …”I discovered water – a very water, can neither be broken, ran away under the road, a different element from the green burnt or destroyed. stream large enough to turn a crawling scum that stank in the mill – among blue geranium, garden tub. Even if all that was denied and golden globe-flower, and You could pump it in pure gulps me then, the elemental force wild raspberry, and the bird- out of the ground, you could of water will not be denied cherry with its tassels of snow”. swing on the pump handle and it for long, even if a King might came out sparkling like liquid be referred to “as weak as Elsewhere in the local guide sky. And it broke and ran and water”. Surely this quip is an was a photograph of a ne- shone on the tiled floor, or quiv- ered in a jug, or weighted your insult to water. Water is wa- glected pump overgrown and clothes with cold. You could ter, for all that. It’s flow, di- unused just asking for a small drink it, draw with it, froth it with rection, purity and use are boy to re-discover it in the soap, swim beetles across it, or beyond evil intent, unlike 1960’s. fly it in bubbles in the air. You could put your head in it, man and open your eyes, and see Old citizens in the town rose the sides of the bucket buckle, and hear your caught breath up when sentiment for the roar, and work your mouth like a site of Tutton’s Well and the fish, and smell the lime from the remembered public good ground. Substance of magic – was threatened with a new which you could tear or wear, confine or scatter, or send down catalyst – a private aspiration holes, but never burn or break for an enlarged Girl Guide or destroy.” hut intended to be built over Laurie Lee what was recorded as the plot of this once revered re- Drinking cider and discover- source. ing the unfolding contours of The Girl Guide Hut, an age- the flower of holiday-time ing asbestos structure, needed encounters was denied me, at renewal of its own, and old least for a time, as a controversies over its prox- But, World War Two had de- Southampton-based school- imity to the old water struc- manded tribute from scav- boy. But the old-as-time sen- tures (there had been several) engeable ironwork and the sation of water, fresh or salt, were resurrected. A tiny con- old village green was bare. was already in my young centration of historians and The old pump was gone, the memory from Mudeford civic minded people tried to water was not to be seen and Sandbank beach hut and har- raise the subject of the old the water discharging into the bour and sea boating and structures and even sought to harbour people said came fishing experiences. influence the Guides to build from elsewhere. A concrete The magic of holiday ro- elsewhere. circle in the centre of the plot mances a la Cider with Rosie Your editor, wrote the fol- was dismissed by locals as were of course to come later lowing when the subject being “in the wrong place”! and the memory of such sto- broke through once again into About this time as a bespec- len moments might still es- the local press in 1996: tacled and blazered youth I cape the confines imposed in was introduced to the world small spaces behind huts, in of the sensate, if only through the backs of land-rovers and literature. I remember and under upturned boats. have re-discovered this from Memories that even now can

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 16 Summer 2005 reason for the surprising num- ter is like our memory, it must be ber of objections. recycled and shared or it will be There are several obvious ones. lost. The view, the site being on a A Water Diviner public open space, the pro- posed millennium footpath around the harbour, the restora- The reverential aspects asso- tion of an old public landing ciated with water are no fey place, the dispute over Fisher- man’s Bank, the fact that in imaginings, the most detailed 1958 the hut was only a tempo- and rigorous historical study rary solution, traffic problems, of holy wells yet published is the delay needed to sort out the by museum curator James other possible options and fi- nally sentiment for the well itself, Rattue called “The Living all spring to mind. Stream: holy wells in histori- We do know that untilk the water cal context” (1995). became mysteriously contami- Often less academically nated the water was crystal clear and had been for centu- qualified, but tapping into a ries. Were unseen forces at much older and pre-Christian work, then, to pollute the well tradition are the Dorset Earth and therefore deny public ac- Mysteries Group and the cess to it? Desk research sug- gests this may have simply Bournemouth Dowsers, (both been a periodic flushing of the of whom run local groups, well at exceptional high tides. often entwined, and both to Parish Pump Politics From pre-Christian times wells be found on the internet) Sir, – have been extremely rich in Is there an unseen hand at work symbolic and allegorical reso- where theories, experiments, shaping the fate of Tutton’s Well nances, never mind the practical practices and beliefs (often at the edge of Christchurch har- necessity for water. As such, somewhat outside prevailing bour? It has been something of water represents life, love, re- conventional scientific es- a pantomime in recent months freshment, generation, fertility, trying to divine not just where preservation, resurrection, order tablishment views) may the well is, but whether its pres- and harmony; whereas the lack flourish. ervation can be achieved in the of water represents denial, ste- What complicated the flow of face of competing interests. rility, corruption, disorder and ideas and recovered memo- Now a new pressure group (The death. It is an old battle. Tutton’s Well Preservation Soci- A Catholic Christchurch Priory ries about the Tutton’s Well ety) has had some success pre- who owned the well until 1539, story was the fact that the site venting the well being buried had a resident Templar knight, had had two water features, permanently under a replace- Stephen de Staplebrigg, who the well which at times had ment and enlarged Girl Guide would have drunk from Tutton’s Hut at Stanpit. The Guides, it is Well and probably would have had a pump upon it in the admitted on all sides, have been fought for its continuance if, in centre of the green, and a shabbily treated in so far as they the 14th century it had been dipping place lost about are not yet guaranteed another threatened. His order knew the three-quarters of a century suitable site. value of water and the penalty Christopher Chope the (then) for losing its source, both practi- ago. prospective parliamentary can- cally and allegorically. The Guide hut had been re- didate has intervened on their Before him, Vespasian, with or ported half a century ago as behalf, no doubt counting without his elephants, would threatening the dipping place, thereby on the votes of perhaps have needed and indeed alleg- 200 parents. The local residents’ edly did use Tutton’s Well on his sometimes presumed to be association decided after some journeys. After him came Oliver the well, an encroachment delay to do the same but won- Cromwell’s horses who watered presumed to be made worse dered if there was some long at this old well, or so it seems. by the building’s replacement term, as yet unknown to them We only know so much, for wa-

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 17 Summer 2005 etending even further towards structure and groundwater T h e r e s t o r a t i o n w a s the harbour. that was there was inconclu- announced in the local Also lost to history over the sive. New Milton Advertiser thus: last half-century was a stone History can conceal and Historic Tutton’s Well re- quay and public landing place mislead, never mind reveal opened Tutton’s Well at Stanpit, one of which campaigners wished to what you want to find. We Christchurch’s oldest land- restore if only through a may have been victims of, marks, was reopened on Satur- sense of history or heritage. and thus for a while, fresh day after a long campaign by The well campaigners perpetrators, of memories just conservationists. The Friends of Tutton’s Well probed, researched and exca- wide of the mark, and group was set up in the 1990’s vated, publicising the sorry moreover, relied on others when it was feared that the re- fate of the water features and statements that had been duly building of the nearby Guide’s the Guides were prepared to recorded in print. hut would destroy the well which had been used as a source of move to another site – better However, when constructing pure water since the bronze suited as far as parking was what was to be a tribute to the age. However further archaeo- concerned. central well/pump structure, logical investigations near the Former Councillor Reg the opportunity was taken to hut and in the centre of the plot suggested that the greatest flow Stones, a well campaigner probe the spot which discov- of water was from the latter, with who in committee often cut ered a rubble filled shaft nine over 5,000 gallons an hour, so it the Gordian knot had a pro- foot deep in which, when was decided to reconstruct it posal that the guide hut be emptied of the rubble, the (at there. Stockbroker Tom Tutton, who despite his name has no simply moved to the other first) murky water was so known family links to Christ- side of the plot; which al- persistent in faithfully re- church, funded the creation of though at the time had a newing itself, it could not be the stone features, with the rest Solomonic quality about it completely emptied by two of the work being carried out by volunteers. has proved to have been un- pumps pumping at the com- The re-opening ceremony was necessary. bined rate of 5,000 gallons an performed by Mr Tutton and the Sadly, despite many efforts hour. The campaigners had Mayor of Christchurch, Coun. and frustrations the best struck liquid sky. Sue Spittle, with around 50 sup- porters attending. Master of prospect for the Guides be- It now appears that the well ceremonies was Coun. Kevin came to stay put and happily was the main source and Dingley, the chairman of the as it turns out the old central probably fed by a high “over- Friends, and refreshments were well has proved the better flow” still in evidence (but provided by the Avonmouth Ho- tel. Local graphic designer Colin prospect for restoration. just beneath the then surface) Bolger designed labels for A stockbroker with the same the contested site of the dip- commemorative bottles of water surname as the well came ping place situated by the for which people gave dona- forward and offered to fund wall close to the guide hut. tions. It is hoped that, after test- ing, the Council will be able to some sort of restoration, al- exploit the water supply to sell beit likely now to be a wa- as bottled mineral water. terless one, as digging at the To mark the historic occasion dipping place, the supposed members of the Friends commit- tee dressed up variously as a spot from maps and memory, monk, a well wench, a water was frustrated by both the hawker, a leper, a fisherman, a new building and a supposed smuggler and Sir William Rose, resulting absence of the re- who donated the site as a public water supply in 1885. The nowned water. What ar- Friends are now hoping to re- chaeological finds, brick store the former fishermen’s

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 18 Summer 2005 those irritating 4 rogue but probably benign coliforms should be dispatched from Tutton’s Well, and it will become; as an untreated sup- ply no less, once more, “the Christchurch Elixir” of old, capable, if bottled and sold on terms favourable to the council, of making the bor- ough a wealthy, healthy and pleasant place to live. The Friends of Tutton’s Well have created a commemorative dock on the nearby edge of the with chlorine, or UV light website: harbour. like our own tap water, there www.tuttons-well.org.uk “At last one of Christchurch’s oldest links to antiquity has could be no objection from where you can find out more been saved from destruction,” the authorities from these and even make an electronic said Friends committee member first results. donation But if you have a Tim Baber. “The water looks Untreated it is arguably still wish-list, or a pipe dream, absolutely crystal clear and we hope the testing process has a better than what comes remember not to tell anyone. positive result.”(July 2004) through your taps, not least Or at least wish for what you The plan is to establish the because what comes through want by all means, but work wholesomeness of the water your taps – treated – becomes for what you need, if you can. beyond doubt, improve the a controversial cocktail in- We found a childish wish to circulation of the water by cluding known carcinogens see the water again did come improved means if appropri- according to biologist Julie true, but only after hundreds ate, and further improve the Stauffer in “Safe to Drink? of hours of voluntary com- vista now that more of its The quality of your water” mittee work and someone’s history is understood. (ISBN 1898049149.) hard digging! But please let A first water test has been With a little work (that we us know if your wish comes made thanks to our sponsor, overlooked in our haste) true, via the web-site (above). and apart from 4 rogue but probably benign coliforms that compromised a clean sheet in the first test, the wa- ter has all the qualities of an exceptional untreated mineral water, being exceptionally low in harmful heavy metals. Reputed to be a ”never- failing” supply, this water (given to the town as a public supply) could be relied on to furnish the needs of Christ- church in any drought or other emergency. If treated

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 19 Summer 2005 Editor Tim Baber PO Box 3420 Bournemouth BH6 4YY

email [email protected]

Telephone (mobile) 07966 183272

See the news website: www.msbnews.co.uk

Registered as a newspaper at Companies House ISSN 1462-8503 Registered also under the Newspaper Libel and Registration Act, 1881 Copyright ©2005 Mudeford Sandbank News All other rights reserved Printed by Linda Godden (Triangle Print) at Top Copy, Ensbury Park, Bournemouth

The sister papers the Hengistbury Head Times and the Christchurch Harbour Chronicle are in some doubt as this paper goes to press due to the editor having sold his beach hut in 2004. This Mudeford Sandbank News, sadly should be the only current copy sold on the beach in 2005 with the sister publications the Hengistbury Head Times and the Christchurch Harbour Chronicle suspended indefinitely. But for the keen reader some unsold copies of previous editions will also be made available in the news-box [Editor]

(www.msbnews.co.uk) Page 20 Summer 2005