Bournemouth 1810-2010: Smugglers to Surfers

To celebrate Bournemouth’s bicentenary year, a distinguished team of writers was commissioned to tell the town’s extraordinary 200 year history. The result is a remarkable portrait of a place that has grown from a handful of houses overlooking the Bourne stream into an internationally famous resort. Surfers ride waves that once carried smugglers’ boats high on to sands that today are amongst Bournemouth’s most popular attractions. Illustrated with over 350 maps, photographs, paintings, posters, engravings and portraits – many of them rare and never published before.

Histories of the town written in the past have tended to concentrate on the municipal record rather than that of the communities and their activities that have made Bournemouth so distinctive a place. The authors have written independently about themes that interest them and they have described some of its characteristics from their individual viewpoints. You are able to see Bournemouth through the eyes of people who have lived here through the years. The illustrations used include in particular some of the Day Collection of glass negatives dating from 1862 showing the early development of the town as well as images from the Russell-Cotes Art gallery and Museum and other repositories. This is a history of a place that, despite its heath-land location, grew because of its attraction for healthy and active living – a health resort – whose citizens have adapted to war, changes in social structures and employment at the same time as their town remade itself to meet new opportunities.

This project began in 2007 when a group of local historians and geographers came together as the Publications Group for the town’s bicentenary. The editors and authors are also working on material for the Streets of Bournemouth community-based website, due to be launched in June 2010.

The book is now available for sale in all Bournemouth libraries priced at £14-99.