Brooke Road

East Howe Lane is joined by Brook Road, then a lane, leading westward to a stream which drained down the valley between Kinson Road and Poole Lane and on through the village. There were two houses of note along here. Howe Lodge an elegant 18th-century house of simple design with fine windows. It is said that Isaac Gulliver lived here; perhaps he had it enlarged, adding the two wings and porch ornamented with crenelations. The house contained a concealed room reached through a door ten feet up inside a chimney. A trap door in the dining-room led to the basement from which a neatly bricked tunnel extended away from the house. A more recent tenant came upon the tunnel and was able to follow it, walking upright, for thirty to forty feet before coming to its bricked-up end. It is presumed that it extended further when in use, probably out to the heath to the south of the house. 

WOODLANDS

Next door stood Woodlands. In 1897 the Elliotts, farmers and owners of the pottery at West Howe, moved from Cudnell Farm to live here. This house, parts of which dated back 370 years, was built around the newer central block of similar style and design to Howe Lodge. Of the older portion thick cob walls, old windows and stabling remained. Woodlands was also associated with the smugglers and was, according to its occupants, haunted with a decided ‘presence’ being felt by those in the house. A skull was dug up in the grounds when they were being cleared for building. It was a woman’s and had a marline spike embedded

in it. Overseas soldiers, mostly from Australia, came here to convalesce during the 1914- 18 War. The property and its adjoining land were sold by compulsory purchase in 1951 to the Bournemouth Corporation for their building schemes. when they were stationed on Brownsea. The property was eventually bought by the Bournemouth Corporation and demolished in the early 1950s to make way for road widening and a block of flats.

Until recently a public house and formerly a villa called the Shrubberies. Well preserved & very pretty cottage or nee of circa 1820,white plaster walls, hipped thatched roof with scalloped pattern Symmetrical front, 2 stories, 3 windows wide. Trellised wooden porch with fancy patterning and tent-shaped roof, fanlight over door of half-wheel window type. Casement windows, diamond lattice glazing, with trefoiled lights in glazing bars to ground floor and intersecting ogees in glazing bars to 1st. Windows to north and south sides have glazing pattern of alternating horizontals. Lean-to verandah at south, rear addition at north, along Brook Road, lower but still 2-story, also hipped thatch.  

2015 - 2016, a sympathetic redevelopment of the site took place, ensuring the conservation and preservation of the Thatched House , an important part of the architectural history of the East Howe area.  

Research: Stone Hill Cottage/ Shrubbery or Shrubberies / Thatched House  

1840 - The West family, father deceased.  

1851 - Mrs. Susan Elizabeth West, Stonehill Cottage.  

1855 - Mrs. Susan Elizabeth West, Stone Hill Cottage.  

1859 - Mrs. Susan Elizabeth West, Stone Hill Cottage.  

1865 - Mrs. West, The Howe.  

1875 - Miss Louisa West, Stone Hill Cottage. 

1881 -  Miss Louisa West, Stone Hill Cottage.  

1889 - Miss West, Stone Hill Cottage.  

1890 - Miss West died at East Howe on 5th June.  

1895 - William Kent, The Shrubbery.  

1907 - James Marston, The Shrubbery.  

1915 - Miss R. H. Brooke, Thatched House.  

1916 - Miss Rosaline Brooke was still living at the Thatched House, Kinson.  

1920 - Property advertised for sale.  

1953 - Opened as a pub on 7th December 1953. First landlord, Mr. George Read.  

1957 - Thatched House Hotel. Mr. George Henry Read. Northbourne 547.  

2016 - Brook Cottage.