Supporting Local Business in the BH10 & 11 Postcodes
Millhams
Rectory
Originally called Brookside; Vicarage only since circa 1930. Early C19 villa, red brick with grey headers, 2 stories. 3 windows wide, segment-headed on both floors, to west (entrance) and south, glazing bars of sashes intact. Flat hood on brackets over 6-panelled door, glazed lunette over, shutters to flanking ground floor windows. Hipped slate roof on overhanging eaves with central chimney stack.
Brookside and some of those associated with the earlier building and the land surrounding it, also its later history to the present day.
The listed building now has a much smaller garden area. 1721: There is a newly erected dwelling house and garden on the site.
William Oakley of Cudnell and William Ford of Kinson are mentioned.
From 1758 to 1768: John Sabin or Sabben is mentioned on the deeds of the property known as the "Poole Sloop" in Kinson, long gone.
1763: Site of the Sloop Inn and the licensee was John Sabin. A check of the Kinson records of St. Andrew`s church reveals the following information: Susannah daughter of John & Elizabeth Sabin baptised on 3rd August 1760. Henry son of Hannah Sabin baptised on 28th February 1773. Henry Sabin buried on 22nd October 1775.
1777: John Potter of Kinson (The Dolphin Inn), appears on the deeds. 1796: Original property referred to as "The Sloop" public House in Kinson
. 1799: The Old Sloop House appears on the inventory of John Potter of the Dolphin Inn and is valued at £30.0.0d. C1830-1834: Christopher Hill is mentioned in legal documents and the property is referred to as formerly known as "The Sloop" or "The Poole Sloop" and garden/associated messuages.
1841: Christopher & Mary Hill. Also owned a West Howe cottage whose occupants were once involved with the smuggling trade.
1852: Mary Joyce of Wimborne Minster.
1858: David Atkins of Horton purchases from Mary Joyce of Wimborne Minster and the conveyance relates to five cottages and malthouse built on the site of "The Sloop" in Kinson. 1861: David Atkins (aged 51), wife Mary Ann (aged 24). David Atkins probably made additional changes on the site.
1881: William Abbott , farmer, 360 acres.
1895: Charles Spencer jnr and Jean Rose (formerly Williams). They married in 1892 when Charles was 42 and Jean Rose was 19. Muriel Marie born in 1897 and Irene in 1898.
1930: Vicarage for St. Andrew`s since the 1930`s. Previously the home of Miss Jessie Whitaker who left the property to the church
Grey Cottages
Grey Cottages Millhams Lane
Terrace of 3 cottages, c1840, 2 stories, grey roughcast, each cottage with 1 window on each floor plus door. Half hipped gables, slate roof 2 chimneys on ridge. Shutters on ground floor windows. North end plastered after recent demolition of Nos.63-65. At south end, pair of old brick gate piers, one with stone ball, on moulded base surviving. Another dwelling built to exactly match the original features of a cottage demolished in the past. New dwelling built to a very good standard. Of the four now standing, the middle two cottages are shown on an estate map dating from 1769 to 1773.
Millhams Splash
Millhams Splash looking away from St Andrews Church about the same time
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Wilhelm II (1859-1941), the German Kaiser (emperor) and king of Prussia from 1888 to 1918, was one of the most recognizable public figures of World War I, whilst visiting Dorset in 1907 3 years after the pictures of the Splash were taken, he got stuck in the Splash and had to rescued by the local villagers.
The German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Queen Victoria’s eldest grandchild, had a love-hate relationship with his British royal cousins. But he was a well-received guest at Kingston Lacy where he stayed for a week in 1907.
Millhams Mead Nature Reserve
This beautiful nature reserve is home to lots of interesting plants and animals.
From humble beginnings as a local tip, Millhams Mead now has varied habitats including mature woodland, grassland and scrub, It’s a popular spot for both wildlife and walkers.
Millhams Mead has 24 species of butterflies and around 200 spe
St Andrews Church Kinson
The churches up-river from Christchurch to Wimborne are on alternate sides of the River Stour. St. Andrew’s, Kinson, is on the south side of the river on the outskirts of the village, built upon a rise of land on the bend of Millhams Lane.
All signs of the Saxon church on this site have gone with the possible exception of the foundation of the tower. The Norman church which succeeded the Saxon building survived until 1893 when the nave was rebuilt, the north aisle altered and a south aisle added at the cost of £1,500. 32 The Early English chancel arch remains and this was reinforced by a lower arch in 1875 when the chancel was restored by Colonel Fryer, in memory of his father.
Isaac Gulliver
Continent to Poole Bay and came to control the coast from Lymington on The Solent in Hampshire, through Dorset to Torbay in Devon. He was known as "King of the Dorset Smugglers" and was also referred to as "the gentle smuggler who never killed a man". His men whitened their hair and wore smock-frocks and were known as the "white-wigs".
He owned several farms including one at Eggardon Hill in Dorset where he planted large clumps of trees to act as navigation aids for his ships.
An extremely wealthy man, Gulliver was also able to build many grand houses, among them "Howe Lodge", in Kinson, Bournemouth, a purpose-built smuggling stronghold. When it was demolished in 1958 several hiding places were found within, including a secret room only accessible through a door 10 feet up a chimney. (See location later in walk)
lieutenant was at Howe Lodge that he allegedly covered his face in white powder and lay in an open coffin. When they went away, Gulliver got out of the coffin and escaped.
Later, a mock funeral was held using a coffin filled with stones.
In a 1788 report from the Custom House, Poole, to His Majesty’s Commissioners of Customs in London it is mentioned that:
"Gulliver was considered one of the greatest and most notorious smugglers in the west of England and particularly in the spirits and tea trades but in the year 1782 he took the benefit of his Majesty’s proclamation for pardoning such offences and as we are informed dropped that branch of smuggling and afterwards confined himself chiefly to the wine trade which he carried on to a considerable extent having vaults at various places along the coast and "in remote places". Gulliver became a respected citizen gentleman and banker. He retired to Gulliver’s House, West Borough, Wimborne and died there on Friday 13 September 1822, leaving an estate of £60,000, with properties across Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset.
His body was interred at Wimborne Minster.
During Gulliver’s period as Wimborne Minster’s church warden, there is no record of any payment being made for sacramental wine. His descendants include.
Sir Frederick Fryer. Lieutenant General Sir John Fryer.
The banker Edward Castleman, owner of Chettle House. Captain Thomas Hanham instrumental in the campaign to legalise cremation in England.
Willibald Alexis’s historical romance Walladmor (1823) includes a smuggler character whom the novel’s English translator Thomas De Quincey recognized as based on Isaac Gulliver. De Quincey used the identification to add further material.
Gulliver appears as a character in Leon Garfield’s novel The Drummer Boy (1970).
Kinson Common
Kinson Common is a relatively small site of 16ha (40 acres) owned by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, and despite its small size it provides a rich and varied habitat. The Friends of Kinson Common work as Countryside Volunteers and help with the management of the site. An 1843 tythe map, held at the Dorset County Records Office, shows that the land then formed part of Howe Farm. Since 1933 the local authority purchased a number of parcels of land (mostly from Viscount Wimborne) for the purposes of a cemetery and as public open space. In 1988 Kinson Common was designated as an SSSI, becoming an LNR in 1995.
