History of Christchurch, Dorset
Christchurch is a town, civil parish and former borough in the county of Dorset on the English Channel coast, adjoining Bournemouth in the west, with the New Forest to the east.
The town has existed since 650 AD and its close proximity to the Cotentin Peninsula made it an important trading port and a potential target for invasion during the Napoleonic and Second World Wars.
[6] During its turbulent history, the town has witnessed battles between Saxons, when Aethelwold stormed the ramparts; between Royalists and Parliamentarians during the civil war, and between smugglers and excise men during the 18th century.
The small settlement that existed at the time on the headland now known as Hengistbury Head, proved unsuitable for the purpose of spreading the word of God because it was set back from and out of reach of the traders who used the busy port.
[15] Alfred the Great considered Twynham to be of such strategic importance that at the end of the 9th century, with the threat of invasion by the Danes, he made it a burgh (fortified town).
[7] In 1094 a chief minister of William II, Ranulf Flambard, then Dean of Twynham, began the building of a priory on the site of the original mission church.
[11][18] Local legend tells that Flambard originally intended the church to be built on top of nearby St. Catherines Hill but, during the night, all the building materials were mysteriously transported to the site of the present priory.
It seems to have been at this time, when it was rumoured that he had died overseas,[23] that King Stephen's former commander of Malmesbury, Walter de Pinkney, seized the opportunity to capture the castle at Christchurch.
[30] and during this period, due to a decline in leprosy, the hospital's charter was extended so that all profits could be disposed of in a charitable fashion[31] The charity's monies came from grants, the renting and leasing of lands and property, and from the collection of alms.
[35] Waller's men stabled their horses in the Great Choir of the Priory church and apparent evidence of their presence can be seen in the pews which show signs of having been chewed.
[36] In September 1644, the cost of maintaining Hurst Castle fell on the Hundred of Christchurch and Waller was ordered to impress 1100 horses for the war effort.
[38] Until circa 1735, boats of up to 25 tons were able to travel up the Avon as far as Salisbury[40][41] and indeed, in 1535, Henry VIII had ordered the removal of all fish weirs as they impeded navigation.
As part of his plans to improve trade in the town, he decide to resolve the problems with the entrance to the harbour by cutting a new one through the sandspit at the foot of Hengistbury Head.
He commissioned a report which outlined the advantages of doing so, which also suggested that 5th and 6th rate ships could be built there with wood from the New Forest and armed with guns cast from the ironstone doggers which lay in great piles nearby.
[48] When the workhouse moved to bigger premises in Fairmile in 1881, the property in Quay Road was purchased by the Druitts, a family of wealthy solicitors with a keen interest in history.
[56] In 1908 Christchurch Council rebuilt and re-fendered the Town Quay which then became the centre for the many pleasure boat companies that had grown to serve the tourist trade.
[69] In 1926 Surrey Flying Services started to offer five-shilling flights from fields close to Somerford Road (then called Street Lane).
An alternative scheme put forward at the time involved demolishing the whole of the East side of the High Street to create a 60' wide carriageway.
In advance of the northern line of defences, stood a lone, brick-built pillbox which would have been manned by the local home guard; 7th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment.
[76] When a supermarket and new car park were built on the north side of the bypass in 1977, another wave of archaeological digging took place which revealed two Bronze Age barrows and a 6th-century Saxon graveyard containing 34 graves.
[80] The borough had been enjoying a modest trade in tourists since George III visited in the 1790s[81] but the number of visitors increased after the arrival of the railways in the early 1860s.
[83] Farms, factories and boat yards have since been replaced with housing but Christchurch was once an important trading port and prospered due to its industry and manufacturing.
The nap was raised by water driven drums of teasels and it is thought that Knapp Mill, on the Avon, played a part in the production.
Some of the boatyards have gone, notably Tom Lack's Catalac Catamarans, liquidated in 1986, and Robert Ives which moved to New Milton around 1982 but many boat yards are still trading including: Elkins, Strides and Purbrook-Rossiter who have been building yachts and dinghies on the banks of the Avon since 1938.
[94] The work was extremely intricate; the chains were only fourteen-hundredths of an inch thick, therefore children as young as nine, from the local workhouse (now the Red House Museum) were employed in their manufacture.
Next door to the pub was a tobacco and snuff factory, owned by the by then 'respectable' John Streeter who had earlier been gaoled for his part in the Battle of Mudeford.
One 'seafaring man', Ellis Coffin left a house and a shop (now Lloyds bank) to the town on the understanding that the income derived from it should be distributed amongst the poor.
[106] George Holloway was already a successful businessman, having already established himself as a boat builder and merchant/trader, when in 1847 he applied for permission to remove the ironstone doggers at the foot of Hengistbury Head.
So profitable was this business that Holloway cut a channel between the harbour and the foot of the cliffs where he was mining, so that he was able to bring his ships closer and speed up the process.
Removal of the ironstone doggers on the sea side of the Head caused the Spit at the Harbour entrance to grow in length, extending to Steamer point by 1890.
