Supporting Local Business in the BH10 & 11 Postcodes
Kinson
Kinson is a former village which has been absorbed by the town of Bournemouth in the county of Dorset in England. The area became part of Bournemouth on 1 April 1931. There were two electoral wards containing the name Kinson (North & South). Their joint population at the 2011 Census was 19,824.
The village has a shopping centre and a pub, Gulliver's, known for much of the 19th and 20th centuries as 'The Dolphin', after the boat named Dolphin owned by Isaac Gulliver. Kinson nearly became part of Poole in 1931; however, a vigorous campaign by the residents saw the parish added to Bournemouth instead, necessitating an adjustment to the Hampshire/Dorset county boundary, which had separated the two areas.
The area center's on Kinson village green which is on the Wimborne Road (at this point the A341) next to Kinson Library (now part of The Kinson Hub).
The present green, which features a set of stocks, was once the site of the village school. The 1887 Ordnance Survey map for Kinson shows the school, which is now on a site to the south off Kinson Road. By the time of the 1949 survey maps, a library had taken the place of the old school.
It was only when the library moved to a new location nearby that the old school/library site was combined with the village pound to form a new village green.
A commemorative stone bench was officially unveiled by Mayor Benwell and his wife.
The older village green, where cricket matches were played, has now become a development of bungalows, with the name Wicket Road surviving to mark its older use.
Kinson School/Library
Photo's above top the old school later Library and bottom how it looks today
On 26th January, 1836, the Canford Estate land, ‘30 perches bounded north and west by Estate land and south and east by public roads’ on which the school at Kinson was to be built was held by a Deed which was an Indenture of Lease of 99 years at 2s. 6d. a year. The grantor of this lease was the Honourable William Francis Spencer Ponsonby (Lord de Mauley), Lord of the Manor of Canford, and Thomas Henry Graham. The trust was vested in the Reverend William Oldfield Bartlett, Clerk-Vicar of the parish of Kinson, John Way and William Footner, Chapelwardens of Kinson, and Edward Elliott and Pennel King, Overseers of the Poor of the parish and their successors.
Buildings costing £600 were erected as a Church of England Charity School for the education of the children of the poorer classes of the Parish and District of Kinson. The children came from as far away as Kinson Heath and Ferndown. They paid two pence a week but the school was supported chiefly by voluntary contributions.
The school room was licensed for Divine Service and on three days a week religious instruction was given. Oak Cottage, a thatched cottage in Millhams Lane, was used by the schoolmaster. Before this school was built some classes were thought to have been held in the church. The tower contains an iron fireplace and there was an additional building adjoining the porch - perhaps evidence to support this.
The Kinson schoolchildren were given a ‘pleasant entertainment’ on 30th December, 1847. A flag was hoisted above the schoolhouse and 100 children gathered and proceeded to the church for a service. They then returned to the school, which was entered through a door decorated with a crown and the initials V. R. fashioned in holly and the word WELCOME spelt out in ivy. In the decorated schoolroom was a dinner of beef and plum pudding, the gift of the Honourable and Reverend Walter Ponsonby, rector. The local gentry, churchwardens and teachers attended the jollifications. The meal closed with an address or a ‘few but forceful words’ from the rector, and the whole concluded with the National Anthem and three cheers.
Kinson Academy
Kinson Academy has the special status of being Bournemouth’s oldest school. It was established in 1836 and moved to its current position in School Lane in 1936. It is very much a community school with many parents and grandparents being able to relate their own memories of the school. We have a lively and involved staff who ensure a broad, balanced and exciting education for every child. Kinson Academy provides education for boys and girls aged between 4 and 11 years.
We are fortunate in having an attractive school environment with large grassy areas, as well as hard surface playgrounds that give children large wet and dry weather play areas. We have a garden and outdoor stage in our garden/eco-classroom. Our PSFA (Parents, Staff and Friends Association) fundraise with great success. They have provided many items, including lots of playground, sports and musical equipment.
The school actively encourages links with the local community; visits have included local business people speaking about their particular skills, Kinson Common Wardens, local dance and drama groups, local Police Community Support Officers etc. We also participate in the annual service of Remembrance at Kinson Hub. Past pupils of the school were responsible for the inspiring design of the Red Arrows Memorial that can be found on the East Cliff, in memory of the pilot Jon Egging who was tragically killed during the 2011 Bournemouth Air Show.
The Acorn
Was The Dolphin and then Guliver's
The Dolphin at the centre of Kinson is built on to an older building thought to be part of the original 17th-century coaching inn. By 1903, the licensee was able to advertise accommodation for commercials and cyclists as well as excellent stabling. The building we see today contains a small house of the last century with more modern additions.
Licensees on record are:
1840 Charles Spencer
1880 Mrs. Mary Spencer
1903 Charles Bennett
1918 Henry Eaton - (also R.A.C. scout in early
days of motoring).
The old inn at Bear Cross was a thatched cottage a little behind the site of the present hotel. It was strategically placed at the crossing of the two main roads, just gravel tracks with grass verges and overhung by trees. A large sign on the wall proclaimed its purpose. Supplies were brought in from Poole and on special occasions, when extra beer was needed, a donkey cart had to be dispatched in haste for further supplies. The new Bear Cross Hotel was built in 1931 in front of the old inn which was then pulled down. Two cottages at the back of the inn were all that remained of a little community beyond Kinson for many years; these, too, have now gone. The name of Bear Cross appears to mark the crossing of two roads near a dip in the land known as Bear Bottom. ‘Bear’ in this case probably being a corruption of the Dorset place-name, Bere.
Kinson War Memorial
Additional Information
Kinson war Memorial situated on the side of the Kinson Hub/Library
The Great War - Kinson Parish Memorial (St Andrew`s church) - Names and when they died
Died Service No. Name Age
13 October 1914 Lt. W. E. Parke n/a Walter Evelyn 23
22 October 1914 Pte. B. Bartlett 9546 Bertie Ernest George 18
9 May 1915 Sgt. C. Southwick 1212 Charles Thomas 28
9 August 1915 Pte. W. A. Bartlett 10655 William Albert 21
13 August 1915 Pte. F. Daniels 10843 Frank 25
25 September 1915 Lt. J. A. Parke n/a John Aubrey 23
21 January 1916 Pte. E. Jolliffe 305533 Ernest Reginald Jesse 23
10 August 1916 Pte. B. Lush 10668 B? Thomas Eugene 24
24 August 1916 Pte. O. White 35753 Oscar Egerton 25
4 September 1916 Pte. J. Wilcox 17460 James 33
14 October 1916 Pte. M. Mitchell 3524 Montague Arthur 21
25 October 1916 Fittr. P. Messenger 5141 William Percy 22
13 November 1916 Lt. E. R. Aston n/a Ernest Reginald 22
20 February 1917 Pte. J. S. Amey 53868 Jesse Samuel 36
23 February 1917 Pte. W. Slack 203287 William 21
24 February 1917 Pte. M. White 203203 Montague 20
16 April 1917 Gnr. A. S. Rabbitts 91868 Alfred Sidney 32
28 April 1917 Pte. R. Luff 26104 Reginald Herbert 36
30 April 1917 Gnr. W. Lee 60080 Wallace 23
28 May 1917 Sgt. G. Jeffery 104007 George 20
7 June 1917 Pte. A. F. Derryman 25772 Arthur Frederick 29
22 June 1917 Sgt. J. T. W(h)ittingham 30217 John Thomas 30
9 July 1917 H. Mitchell, O.S. R.N. J.39097 Harry Marwood 18
2 August 1917 Dvr. H. Legg 1028 Harry 23
6 December 1917 Pte. G. C. Earney 24136 George 34
7 January 1918 Rev. J.D. Dathan n/a Joseph Duncan ?
6 March 1918 Pte. G. Pitman 47413 ? 32
25 March 1918 Dvr. W. Pidgley 831546 ? ?
5 April 1918 Pte. H. J. Amey 532034 Henry James 31
10 September 1918 Col. H. Marshall n/a Harold 48
12 September 1918 Sgt. W. Warr 203201 William Langford 39
29 September 1918 Pte. F. C. Troke 28030 Frederick Charles 20
3 October 1918 ? Pte. T. Legg Research needed.
18 October 1918 Cpl. J. D. Montgomery 2760067 John Douglas 35
25 October 1918 Lt. E. Elliott n/a Edward 20
25 November 1918 Pte. J. C. Nimmo 152231 ? ?
27 February 1919 L/Cpl. W. W. Pettis 18874 Walter William 33
19 March 1919 Pte. A. G. Harris 11844 Alfred George 31
19 March 1919 Pte. J. Whiston 3625 John Patrick 33
12 September 1919 Pte. A. Slack 305556 Albert 22
Date not found Sergt.A.G.Thompson,K.E.H. King Edwards Horse. Research needed.
Names not on the Memorial
11 April 1920 Gnr. G. R. Robinson 286245 George Richardson 25
9 May 1921 Cpl. W. P. Hoole 532795 William Phelp 40
Where they Lived in Kinson
Pound Stone
Additional Information
The Pound, an area 12 feet by 15 feet enclosed by a stout wooden fence, was on the triangle of land formed at the junction of Pound and Millhams Lanes. The pound- keeper’s cottage stood next to it. Here were brought any cattle, horses or goats found straying or causing damage. They were rounded up by the pound-keeper and here they remained until their owners paid for any damage done, for their keep and the impounding fee. Gypsies were frequent offenders; Walter Barnes and Selina Light were fined sixpence with 2s. 6d. costs in 1895 for allowing their horses to stray. The keeper of the Pound, for many years Jesse Cole, who was also the road man, could not be prevailed upon to unlock the gates until the money was handed over. Attempts to pick the lock during the night were not unknown. The pound was taken away about in the 1950's, its last keeper being Ernest Sherring. The land on which it stood was the village green with the school and some cottages to the south. For almost a decade, when the cottage and the school had been demolished, the whole triangle was land open to any who would brave the goats kept there.
Pelhams House
Additional Information
In 1793, Pelhams was built by Mr. Tait, previously a tenant of Gulliver. The large, three-storied, well-proportioned Georgian house stood on the land belonging to Kinson Farm. It was purchased in 1795 by L. W. Brouncher, owned, with Kinson Farm, by Gulliver and was by 1840 part of the Castleman Estate (his descendants). After the death of Gulliver’s daughter, Elizabeth Fryer (1839), his property was divided between his grandchildren and the house was detached from the farm and stood in its own ten acres of pasture. It was, by 1867, owned by the Rolles Fryers, a wealthy banking family; the Fryers were a Newfoundland merchant family from Poole, the Kinson branch also descendants of Gulliver through his elder daughter. The Reverend Percy Newell lived at Pelhams for half a century until 1895 when the Reverend Arnold Mortimer Sharp bought the property; he had been living at Howe Lodge, not the vicarage at Ensbury. Arnold Sharp, Dean of Poole, 1929, Hon.Canon of Salisbury, 1934, was descended from Grenville Sharp the slave emancipationist. He died in 1938. With him lived his sister, Jessica, a strong supporter of the Girls’ Friendly Society.
A description of the house at the beginning of this century is given by the man who started as a boy working for Mr. Sharp and ended as his chauffeur, one of four servants indoors and four outside.
The house had the older one-storey building still attached to its south side and a further two-storied service wing extended east at the back. There were further out- buildings, one acre of walled garden and a tennis court. The small semi-circular porch was glassed in and the smooth gravel drives were bordered with shrubs. The house was, and still is, set amid fine specimens of trees including a large ilex, a giant plane and a magnificent tulip tree. In due course the carriage as a means of conveyance was replaced by the smart Daimler. Pelhams had a well but they, in company with other cottagers in Millhams, collected water from the stream which ran down from the higher land to the south through the ‘bunny’, a fairly deep ditch which followed the line of Lake Road and Millhams to the river. This is now covered over but irregular stone slabs along the roadside mark the stream’s edge. Until the last decade this stream was liable to flood, rendering the lane impassable its executive leadership. This is a good place to show off who’s occupying the corner offices. Write a nice bio about each executive that includes what they do, how long they’ve been at it, and what got them to where they are.
Portrait Harriot Brouncher
This picture is hanging in Pelhams House