Bournemouth At War / QUEENS PARK ICE SKATING Traditional Cache

Bournemouth has a great history. I have documented many famous people, major events and occurrences in previous geocaching series highlighting the history of Bournemouth. This series focuses on many of the key incidents and stories in the town when Bournemouth was at war. A complete list of all the caches in this series are bookmarked.

1940 was the first full year of WWII. Whilst much of the start of the war was about getting ready for what was to come, and to keep the community of Bournemouth safe, 1940 started coming under attack half way through the year.



The year started with bad weather. In January, Bournemouth was freezing cold and suffering from heavy snowfall. The pond in Queens Park was frozen for three weeks, which gave the perfect opportunity for many people to use the pond as a skating rink.

It is difficult to imagine the pond icing over today, and even harder to imagine it being used as a skating rink, however, during the war, this would have made excellent entertainment for many who wanted to forget about the dangers associated with the war.

This cache is situated overlooking the pond and is placed with kind permission from Bournemouth Council Parks Team.