This series of stand-alone caches looks back at the first ten years of Lost2011's caches - 10 Years Lost. The geocaches chosen in this series hold strong memories for me, are creative, and have given me the most enjoyment, and I hope you have experienced similar too.
This is the 82nd geocache in the “Beauty In Decay” series, which I created in 2015 for anyone to contribute. The support from local cachers to all over the world has been incredible - thank you!
The series highlights abandoned objects that once had purpose and now take on a different life, left to ruin and decay in their current surroundings. Use this link to discover more about “Beauty In Decay” and how you could add to the series.
This cache is situated at the location of a concealed old Unigate staff entrance gate, which is now obscured by a large bush, but can still be seen if you are looking for it.
HISTORY OF THE SITE
In the mid to late 1800s, and into the 1900s, there were many independent dairies in Bournemouth, one of which was Malmesbury and Parsons.
They supplied milk and dairy products via a chain of local shops, and also had a network of daily delivery rounds.
They benefited from the typhoid outbreak in 1936 by being the only local company already pasteurizing their milk supply.
c1950 they opened the Malmesbury and Parsons Dairies' Egg Packing and Grading Station at the end of Belmont Avenue, a cul de sac off of Castle Lane West in the north of the town.
At that time it would have been on the very edge of the greenbelt farm land that still existed between Castle Lane and Throop.
By 1955, as well as the egg packing and grading department, it also listed a milk bottling department and, for reasons unclear, a tinsmiths department.
c1970 it was taken over by Unigate Dairies.
The taller part of the premises, bearing the Unigate sign, could be seen from Castle Lane West, and the company's lorries were a familiar sight as they came off the A338 at the Cooper Dean and travelled to and from the premises.
The milk was brought to the site by tankers for bottling, the articulated lorries would collect the bottles and take them to various depots across the south, for distribution.
Most of the greenbelt that backed onto the premises was lost in the 1970s and 80s when the Chesildene Estate was built., and a new entrance from Chesildene Drive was created.
The site closed in c2001 and was redeveloped with new housing on Belmont Avenue and Seagrim Rd, which was created from the Chesildene Drive entrance, in 2003 / 4.
The Belmont Avenue site had also been home to the local home delivery floats, once a common site on Bournemouth's streets, the Unigate name has disappeared.