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 my town. I live here. I love it.
BOURNEMOUTH HISTORY
This fourth cache in the 10YL series are based on the follow up series of caches that I created, after The Bournemouth's Past series. This time, Bournemouth History focused more on buildings and events of the past, rather than people. Bournemouth History was published on 27th January 2014. The series featured 10 stand-alone caches and a bonus cache. All caches were located around Bournemouth.
The most popular cache in the series remains today, and has provided the most favourite points of all my caches, with 127 as of August 2021 - GC4NTAV: Waterfront. Other caches in the series were: Boscombe Train Station, Tucktonia, The Shell House, Moordown Halifax Memorial, Redhill Racecourse, Moordown Tram Depot, Winter Gardens, Typhoid Epidemic, and The Great Train Robbery.
THIS CACHE - BOURNEMOUTH'S OLDEST DWELLING
Oldest Dwelling in Bournemouth, a Cob barn thought to be over 500 years old
In 1800 the area was largely a remote and barren heathland, used only by smugglers – most notably Isaac Gulliver, now considered one of the founding fathers of Bournemouth – and revenue troops. 'Bourne Heath' was also known as Wallis Down in the north and Little Down in the south and east, and was part of the Great Heath of central Dorset which extended as far as Dorchester. To the east was Christchurch, to the west was Poole and to the north east was the River Stour. There were villages at Kinson, Throop, Holdenhurst (where the oldest dwelling is located)[1] and Iford and a handful of buildings at Pokesdown but the area between these communities was just a wilderness of pine trees, gorse, ferns and heather. The area now called central Bournemouth and the Pier Approach was 'Bourne Mouth' – the mouth of the Bourne Stream. No-one lived at Bourne Mouth and the only regular visitors were a few fishermen, turf cutters and gangs of smugglers who landed their cargoes of spirits, tea and tobacco on the deserted beach.
The eastern part of the heath was called the Liberty of West Stour (later, the Liberty of Westover). It was divided into six tythings: 'Muscliff', 'Muccleshell', 'Throop', 'Holdenhurst', 'Iford' and 'Tuckton & Wick'. These areas were common land used by the inhabitants for livestock and by the poor for wood and turves.
The western and southern parts of the heath had once been a hunting estate 'Stourfield Chase' but by the late 18th century only a small part of this was maintained: the 'Decoy Pond Estate' (now known as 'Coy Pond' and being wholly in the neighbouring historic town of Poole) comprising several fields around the Bourne Stream and including a cottage known as Decoy Pond House, which stood near where The Square is today.