There is no Sandbanks ferry service during November.
The vessel is being towed to Southampton for a refit.
There appears to be no alternative crossing available. Wilts & Dorset has an temporary timetable for the 50 route which is running from Bournemouth Square to Studland via Wareham and Swanage. Note that the bus is not starting at Bournemouth Station during November.
See page 20
BBC South Today is reporting growing local anger over an empty hotel on Bournemouth’s West Cliff.
The St George Hotel at the south end of West Cliff Gardens has beautiful red hanging tiles but the only occupants are pigeons. Neighbours running other hotels feel that it gives a bad impression. John Warwick, who owns the Hotel Riviera on the east side, says it puts off potential guests.
You see the hotel with missing windows when passing along the coast path between Durley Chine and the Highcliff Hotel. The views from the St George are as good as those from the Highcliff.
The St George has 25 bedrooms, most with a bathroom, and was a two star hotel with AA and RAC listing.
The building needs to be restored.
This enclave of reasonable tariff hotels across the grass from the cliff top is also handy for walkers.
See page 30.
Yesterday Bournemouth’s Mary Shelley Festival ended with a performance of a play at the Mary Shelley pub and a brief poetry reading at the Shelley tomb at St Peter’s.
At the end of this month there will be an opportunity to see another play about Shelley performed at the cliff top Shelley Park in Boscombe. The house was home to the poet’s son Sir Percy who built an indoor theatre where he staged his own plays. He even painted scenery.
Frankenstein – The year without a summer is being performed by candlelight in the as yet unrestored theatre on Wedesday 27 to Saturday 30 October. Booking is via the Regent Centre at Christchurch. The rest of the building, part of the town and coast path heritage, has recently been restored.
See page 46 and 47.
Following improvements to the cliff exit from Highcliffe Castle there is now news of a new surface for the Christchurch Coastal Path in front of the car park to the east. Work started last month on laying a long lasting surface to the path linking the top of Culmore Steps to the Cliffhanger Cafe.
See page 69.
In The Guardian this weekend Simon Hoggart deplores the fact that this year no party conference is at the seaside.
He seems to have enjoyed coming to Bournemouth and although he is rude about the seafront (meaning the IMAX) he speaks highly of “one of the finest coastal views in the country” from the cliff top.
Sandbanks Ferry will be out of action during November.
There will be no service from Monday 1 November for at least three weeks.
Wilts & Dorset bus route 50 has a special November timetable.
See page 20.
The Bankes Arms at Studland is named today by Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz as one of his top ten brew pubs
“Alongside the pub is the Isle of Purbeck Brewery, a substantial 10-barrel plant that started life as the Poole Brewery before moving to Studland. Other pubs are supplied but the complete range is on sale in the Bankes Arms: Best Bitter, Fossil Fuel, Solar Power, Studland Bay Wrecked and IPA, with Harvest Pale Ale in autumn and Thermal Cheer in winter.
“In good weather, you can drink and eat in a large beer garden over the lane from the pub, with stunning views of the sea, Old Harry Rocks and Bournemouth across the bay.”
The 2011 Good Beer Guide includes the Ship in Distress and the Nelson Tavern on the Southbourne-Mudeford winter route.
See pages 16, 60 and 61.
This weekend comes the astonishing news that the Point House Cafe building is to be demolished.
Permission for a replacement in the form of a block of flats has come from a planning inspector who says that a new building will be an improvement.
The Bournemouth Daily Echo has the story.
See page 52.
In today’s Independent Simon Calder looks at hidden gems for stay-at-home travellers.
He describes Mudeford Sandbank as “one of the most strangely wonderful locations in Britain” and just as good as Venice Beach, California.
See pages 55 and 59.
Moses Dock on Pennington Marshes has not only Creek Cottage but two Tudor buildings which may have been sea salt boiling houses.
Now the ground around them is being excavated over two weerks by volunteer archaeologists as part of the Festival of British Archaeology which starts on Monday 19 July.
The New Forest National Park Authority’s Archaeologist Frank Green says: “Salt was often said to be worth its weight in gold and has played a vital role in nearly every civilisation since the beginning of time. It has been used to preserve and improve the taste of food, for tanning hides to make leather and treating wounds. It wouldn’t be over-emphasising it to say that you could judge how sophisticated a society was by the availability of salt.
“The salt industry once dominated the New Forest coast and has shaped the natural and economic landscape which residents, visitors and nature lovers know today.”
At the industry’s peak in around 1730 there were 163 pans in the Lymington area. Between 1724 and 1766 Lymington exported 4,612 tons of salt in 64 ships – 12 cargoes were destined for Newfoundland, 33 to America and others to Norway, Ireland and the Channel Islands.
By the middle of the 19th century the coastal salt production industry died out because of the cost of fuel, because it could only be produced in the summer and because cheaper rock salt became available from Cheshire.
Frank adds: “What we do know from the 1840 tithe map for Lymington is that one of the buildings was much larger and longer than we see today.”
He believes it important that we find out as much as we can before the buildings and ground are lost to climate change.
The old buildings have planning permission for conversion into an office and storage, once the excavation is finished – ensuring they survive for future generations.
The excavation is part of the New Forest National Park Authority’s coastal heritage project which was set up to fully record the archaeology of the coastal area and to share this with as many people as possible.
Tours are available next week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 11am but booking is essential on archaeology@newforestnpa.gov.uk
The week after there is a tour on Sunday 25 July at 2pm and on Tuesday, Wednesday ad Thursday at 11am and 5.30pm. These later ones may offer greater finds as work will be much more advanced.
The site can be reached from near the Chequers Inn where salt was once weighed and sold.
See page 81.