The current railway station in Christchurch was opened on 30 May 1886, replacing one a little further down the line which had opened on 13 November 1862.
This dual map shows how the railway station has switched to the other side of the main road, with the railway line looking like it has been rerouted. It hasn’t, the bit shooting off to the right is the South West Main Line which was extended in the 1870s and 1880s to allow for an extension to Bournemouth that allowed tourists from London to access it. The line which goes up to the north on the old map was the branch line to Ringwood which was closed in 1935 as rail traffic had fallen away since the construction of the South West Main Line.
There’s our South Western Railways (SWR) train from Bournemouth departing the station.
The current station is functional and near to the town centre, with all services operated by SWR.
Located at the Red House Museum and Gardens in Christchurch is this Olympic Torch sculpture. A sign by the sculpture notes that this was designed by local artist Chris Davies and it was sculpted to mark the 70 day Olympic torch relay which took place in 2012 and which reached Christchurch on 14 July 2012.
It’s easy to forget how important events like this would have been for the community, even if it was just for one day. Judging from this video, the turnout on the main street in the town was sizeable.
Attached on a building to the side of Red House Museum, there’s a regularly changing gallery section. At the time of our visit, it was featuring the works of local artist Inga Street.
The artwork is varied and it seems to be an opportunity to both display the pieces and also put them up for sale at the same time. This seems a sensible way of the museum having something to offer in its gallery, whilst still being something very useful for the artist.
I’m not sure that I’m the target market here, and Ross (who is a well-known art critic) declared that he thought he could have painted some of them. But, variety is important and the artist is popular locally, so this feels like another reason for the venue staying open. I mention that as the volunteer suggested when we left that we left a positive review for the museum to ensure that its survival was assured given the challenging finances in local Government at the moment.
This stone memorial is located in the garden of the Red House Museum in Christchurch and it reads:
“SPICER STREET
To commemorate a most destructive fire which on July 20th 1825 in less than three hours rendered fifty two families houseless, and to record the spirit of compassion and liberality which the event awakened in the town and neighbourhood this stone is placed amidst the monuments of their benevolence.
By a committee appointed by the subscribers to the appropriation of the money raised.
Novr. 1825 John Spicer, Chairman of the Committee.”
The house that this memorial was attached to was demolished in the late 1930s, so it has made its way here. The day after the tragedy, a national newspaper published a letter written by a local:
“As you will hear of the distressing fire which happened this morning in this town, I think it best, to prevent your uneasiness on my account, to state the case as far as it has at present proceeded. The fire broke out at about eleven o’clock, in the New Town, a little above Mr. Aldridge’s, and had the wind continued as it then was, the destruction of the whole town it appears would have been inevitable; but very providentially the wind took the direction of the fields, and thereby is is hoped many houses will be saved. Some time since I heard there were at least 50 houses burnt down, and the fire, though much subdued, is still burning in various parts. You can scarcely think with what rapidity it spread, the houses being chiefly thatched, and many of mud walls—the intense heat of the weather, and the dryness of the buildings, no doubt contributed to the work of desolation.—What renders it very afflicting is, that the sufferers are chiefly poor people, who, although it is hoped they have saved many of their things, will still be great losers. The bellman has just been through the town, calling a meeting of the inhabitants this day, at four o’clock, to take into consideration what will be the best mode of providing for their present relief. They will, I should think, have to sleep to-night in the fields, which are strewed with beds, &c. that are saved. It is on this account a happy circumstance that the nights are so hot. I hope something will be done to reinstate them in their dwellings, and that the destructive element will be shortly subdued. Some person in each house will no doubt sit up all night, for there is a general alarm.”
The museum has a photo of where the commemorative stone was once placed, seemingly blocking up the view from Mrs Preston’s window. Anyway, it’s marvellous that the stone has been kept so that at least the memory of what happened 200 years ago isn’t forgotten.
Red House Museum and Gardens is located near to Christchurch Priory and is a volunteer led venue which doesn’t have an admission charge.
As the signage notes, the building was constructed to be a workhouse. The museum itself adds about the history:
“The building dates from 1764 and was the parish workhouse for Christchurch and Bournemouth. In 1886, as a result of the increasing population, a new union workhouse was built in Fairmile and the old house was sold to the vicar of Christchurch Priory, the Reverend T. H. Bush. Reverend Bush named the building ‘The Red House’ after the colour of the bricks and he demolished the women’s wards in 1887 to construct the stables, now the temporary exhibition gallery. Later, the building became the private museum of Herbert Druitt, an avid local collector. It was his passion for textile and fashion, bygones and archaeological material that created the Red House Museum collections. In 1951, the Red House Museum became a charitable trust and our doors have been open to the public ever since.”
There was a friendly welcome from the volunteer at the front desk who explained about the museum, with this being the ground floor that was once the living and dining area of the workhouse.
The displays are a little eclectic, but this is a provincial museum and it is trying to cover a lot of ground. It’s more quirky than formal, but there’s a place for museums like this.
A display on fusee chain making and this was part of the clock and watch making process. It’s explained here that someone living in the workhouse might be required to complete this task for over seventy hours a week. They wouldn’t have been paid directly for their efforts, but they would have living accommodation and meals provided, so they were at least safe if hardly living in great comfort. Although the Victorians often decided that there were benefit fraudsters and so conditions in workhouses often declined towards the end of the nineteenth century.
A display about architectural finds in the local region.
An old menu board from the workhouse.
And an example of the culinary delights that were served up.
A plan of the workhouse from an old Ordnance Survey map.
The rear of the museum.
There’s a small dinosaur garden to the rear of the museum and a path which winds around so that visitors can see them all.
To be fair, this is a great idea for kids to want to come to the museum. Well, and Ross liked them. The plan seemed to work, there were numerous families looking around the museum and although a visit isn’t likely to take more than an hour or so, it’s definitely worth a little pop in.
I was en route to Bournemouth Airport and so I thought that I’d visit a JD Wetherspoon venue that I hadn’t been to before. This is the Parkstone and Heatherlands and I’ll use the chain’s history of the pub name:
“This building is better known to Winton’s older residents as the long-standing Co-op, the original of which (on this site) was a branch of the Parkstone and Heatherlands Society. Following a public meeting attended by 100 people, in May 1903, the society’s new store opened for business the following September. Molesworth House, as the store was then called, was replaced by a high, domed building, which became a familiar landmark. The dome was later removed and the building refaced.”
It’s a relatively small venue from JD Wetherspoon opened a large number of venues like this around twenty years ago.
This is from the other end of the pub, with the bar being located on the right hand side. I ordered at the bar and was served in turn by a friendly team member, so positive first impressions.
I only went for a coffee here, although they had around six real ales available at the chain’s usual low prices. The new signage telling people not to have multiple hot chocolates was in place, although not enforced.
As I like to have a little look for JD Wetherspoon venues, the online reviews for the pub are towards the lower end of the scale for the chain.
“Bad food cooked by unqualified people. Scruffy staff that need tidying up. Seems that certain staff dictate to the manager who they like & don’t like. Ban men for looking at the opposite sex, but when I’m not there men chat my girlfriend up & she doesn’t complain”
Hmmmm.
“Called in for a couple of pints on the Saturday evening. Bell rang for last orders, didn’t even make it to the bar within 60seconds to get my last drink of the night before being told no more serving. Was told within two minutes of that to drink up. Other obvious regulars given plenty more time to savour their last drinks of the evening. Will choose a better establishment to drink in with more patient staff from now on. Would rather pay more for my pint and enjoy it than pay cheaper and be rushed to empty my glass”
Julian the elder is the expert on this, it’s a shame he wasn’t there, but he seems to know exactly what to get and when to avoid annoying bar staff. Well, generally.
“Customers generally not adhering to social distancing with lots of handshakes.”
The venue gets a 1 out of 5 review for this. May these days never be repeated….
“The food and service was great. However within half an hour or so I thought I was in a kindergarten. There were no less than half a dozen women and screaming children who took the place over. Not somewhere I would go for a coffee and a chat, couldn’t hear myself think!!”
I’m very tolerant of course, but I can feel this person’s pain….
“Have just come in to the Parkstone and Heather lands with my 13 year old son one of the members of staff have told me my son can sit how he was. Which was lent over basically with his head in his phone like most teenagers. im absolutely fueming. Disgusting behaviour. Usually this pub if fine I’m literally shocked”
I’m not sure that I even understand what’s happened here.
“Terrible, table next to us ordered food and they gave it to us instead, we ate it as anyone would do and then said you either have to pay or leave! Your fault you ordered it to the wrong table.”
No, nearly nobody would eat the food that was put on the wrong table.
“It’s cheap and not chearful, only place I know where they make you pay up front.”
I feel that someone might be new here.
“Worst wheaterspoons pub ever”
Interesting spelling. But, I digress and in terms of the cost, the price point here was the same as their two more centrally located pubs in Bournemouth.
There are also about twenty reviews complaining that the chips are being microwaved and numerous photos of soggy chips. Seems a bit odd. Anyway, I rather liked the pub although it feels more old-school Wetherspoons in the way their smaller pubs outside central London used to feel. They were a bit more focused on serving regulars and more wet-led, but this pub seems to be an important part of the community.
And I got several coffees (and obviously no hot chocolates as I don’t want to break the law) for £1.81 so that was rather lovely.
I was quite intrigued by this shop as they had decided the things they wanted to promote were snacks, cat/dog food and tobacco. I’m not suggesting that there’s anything wrong with selling any of those three, but I’m not sure that it’s a combination that I’ve seen before in terms of a shop’s focus. The 248 relates to the street number, they must have been slightly disappointed that they weren’t at 247 though.
I’ve already written about the excitement of Bournemouth Airport, but it was clean and organised so that was all to the good. It’s rare that I get to fly with Ryanair now given my new loyalty to Wizz Air, but this was a convenient departure location. The boarding process was efficiency, clear and the staff members were friendly.
Boarding on time. The aircraft was SP-RSU, a Boeing 737 which has been in use since 2017. It’s technically operated by Buzz, a fully owned subsidiary of Ryanair.
It’s not a very clear photo, but I liked this boarding arrangement which makes it easier for those with accessibility needs.
This Ryanair flight boarded immediately before our flight and was also off to Poland, to the rather lovely city of Krakow.
I hadn’t paid for seat selection and the seating Gods gave me a middle seat, which didn’t feel entirely optimal. However, fortunately, the person in the aisle seat of what was a fairly full flight, didn’t turn up and so I got the aisle seat.
The flight was uneventful and Ryanair didn’t appear on this occasion to try and annoy passengers as much as they used to by selling them all manner of things. It was a comfortable flight and I was rather impressed.
The only area where Ryanair couldn’t match Wizz Air was the cleanliness of their aircraft. The seat trays on the aircraft were sticky (well, mine wasn’t, but I could see three others were), there was litter on the floor and it was evident the crew just hadn’t had time to do what was needed.
Safely in Wrocław.
They put us in a bus to go all of 100 metres to the airport terminal. They’ve had us walk further distances before at this airport and it probably took longer to get there by the bus.
I have a shiny new passport now and didn’t experience the delays that I’ve had before whilst the border control staff have to sit and count the stamps. The airport hasn’t yet introduced the full new EES system for arriving passengers, but I doubt it’s far away.
I nearly never get taxis as they’re too decadent, but on this occasion I decided to get a cheaper Accor hotel (one of my favourite Ibis Budgets) and rather than take two hours to get there by public transport, I was there within thirty minutes. And, fortunately, taxis in Poland are very cheap, although I don’t really like using them as I like the excitement of public transport.
The flight was £15 and I was surprised and delighted by Ryanair, although they perhaps need to clean their aircraft a little more…
This was a cheap hotel to stay at on a Sunday night but was convenient for my planned flight from Bournemouth Airport. I genuinely have no idea why they’re trying to be part of Accor though, they need to leave or they’re perhaps likely to be thrown out soon enough.
There was a lot of noise from neighbouring rooms even at check-in, which reception could hear. I should have really upgraded as Platinum Accor and I say that not out of privilege, but because they didn’t really seem to care about anything. I’m also not sure why they’re trying to be part of Ibis Styles, there’s not really much here that fits into that brand.
There was a welcome drink which they didn’t pro-actively mention but I claimed anyway. There was no welcome gift, but I could be asked about does it matter? Well, it sort of does, because most hotels in the Accor chain are complying with the standards they request and the Polish hotels operated by Orbis are offering ridiculously high standards. They’re upgrading, giving welcome gifts and almost going too far in meeting their obligations. It must be galling to the decent hotels to know that some other locations are not interested in committing in the way that they should.
There was no-one else in the bar area, which is actually reasonably pleasant. They don’t offer food, but the bar is open throughout the evening. This feels sub-optimal really, some considerable money has evidently been spent here in providing a decent and nice environment, although the marketing is all over the place.
I like this, it feels like a better way to contact the hotel.
In what might sound illogical, I’ll rate the breakfast as a disgrace to Accor even though I liked it. There was no hot food other than bacon, sausage and mozzarella rolls. I had the very last sausage roll and it was terrible, just junk food. Other guests didn’t get anything hot.
The reason I mention that I might not be being fair is that I liked the breakfast as I didn’t want any hot options. I had a lot of chorizo, indeed, I had all of it. The muffins were OK, but the fruit was absolutely fine. The yoghurts were adequate and the juices, when they refilled them, were generic but OK.
My complaint is that integrity is important. Don’t advertise a hot breakfast when there isn’t a hot breakfast. The reality that the hotel happened to stray into what I wanted isn’t perhaps the point. The online reviews are also very poor, there are clearly substantial issues here where guests continue to be disappointed.
The breakfast room was large and clean, this is clearly what the hotel used to have as a restaurant area. Again, someone has pumped money in here and so an effort has been made at some staff.
The rooms next to me came back at around 03:00 banging about. I’m oblivious to noise generally, but there should have been someone at reception dealing with this.
If this wasn’t an Accor hotel and I stayed here, I would have been content for the money. But, they’ve signed up to certain standards by being part of Accor and they’re playing fast and loose with it as far as I’m concerned. I think it’s important that managed hotels understand that they represent their brand they’ve signed up to and not just their own venue.
I’ve already complained about how unnecessarily difficult it is to get to Bournemouth Airport unless you’re wealthy or like walking (I went with the latter). The airport is owned by the same people as who operate Norwich Airport, but at least that one is accessible. Although Bournemouth Airport doesn’t charge the ridiculous £10 per passenger surcharge in the way that Norwich Airport does (unless you’re flying Ryanair from Norwich which feels an unfair exemption).
No expense has been spared here with the security area.
There were three flights, mine was the 20:55 one to Wrocław.
Can travel get any more decadent? I didn’t take any photos in the security area as I imagine they wouldn’t like that, but the security area itself was actually inside and the staff were friendly and helpful.
Inside the terminal which had a bar, a coffee shop, a duty free and an expensive WH Smiths. There were plenty of seating, although an absence of power points other than in the bar for their customers.
It was spacious and warm, so I didn’t have any complaints. I was only flying from Bournemouth Airport as I was already in Bournemouth and there was a cheap flight to Poland. It was also all mostly clean and tidy, with all of the gates visible from where I was sitting.
Bournemouth Airport began life in 1941 as RAF Hurn, one of many wartime airfields that sprang up across the country during the Second World War. It was used by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces, mainly as a transport and fighter base, and it played its part in operations leading up to D-Day.
As the war started to come to an end, Hurn was quickly repurposed for civil aviation. In 1944 it became the temporary base for British Overseas Airways Corporation, which used it as London’s main airport until Heathrow was ready, which I think is quite a claim to fame. For a brief period between 1945 and 1946, Bournemouth and not London was the country’s principal gateway for transatlantic flights.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the airfield evolved into a proper commercial airport, with charter routes opening to holiday destinations such as Majorca. It changed hands several times, from local authority control under Bournemouth Corporation and Dorset County Council, to National Express in the mid-1990s, and then to Manchester Airports Group in 2001. The 1990s also saw the runway extended to 2,271 metres, capable of taking larger aircraft, and Concorde even made a glamorous visit to mark the occasion. Ryanair arrived shortly afterwards which must have been the icing on the cake for the locals after Concorde.
Ownership passed again in 2017 to the Rigby Group, whose Regional & City Airports division continues to run the site. The new terminal was completed around 15 years ago and if the expansion that is planned takes place then they might well need a terminal extension. However, perhaps their priority really should be actually getting public transport to the airport and sorting out the pedestrian access.
