Researcher and author who wrote the comprehensive story of Hengistbury Head
Commemoration of Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce Ltd., around 12 July, being the anniversary
of his fatal air crash of 1910 in the First Bournemouth air Show
This home page is a limited selection from the main site
For some years, local interest has been a passion of
mine, especially those things which are less well-known and sometimes off-kilter. For example, in Bournemouth, a Labrador was personally responsible for the draining and landscaping of a large unsafe
pond - how can that be?! More conventional material covers the Priory Church in Christchurch and in the Hengistbury book, the serious issue of coastal erosion.
Then we have Christchurch Borough managing to lose its
former Town Hall site through adverse possession (squatters' title) of the rent-avoiding and freehold-gaining occupiers. An enlarged and revised second edition of this book is going to print in
December 2022, entitled Christchurch Controversies.
My parents' experience in the Blitz is a very different
story. It is sobering to think that but for a land mine parachute being shot away and its power directed more at the ground and less at the houses, I would not be here
today.
The outcome, of the UK Referendum 2016, has been a hugely
controversial event which has created all sorts of reactions. My idea is simply to provide a balanced review of how and why the country voted in this way. There really are understandable opinions on
both sides.
Another book, A - Z of
Bournemouth (publication March 2022), takes the reader through an alphabet of subjects and includes some 100
illustrations.
Finally, I have included
the purpose of the Charles Rolls Heritage Trust, i.e. to advance education about the
first British International Aviation Meeting in 1910, and also about the Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls who sadly died when his plane crashed at the Hengistbury
Head aerodrome in Bournemouth. Without Rolls, there would have been no Rolls-Royce Ltd. and without that company no Merlin engine to power
the Spitfires and Hurricanes which played such an important part in the Battle of Britain. A very well-attended heritage display was unveiled on 12 July 2022 (to celebrate both Rolls and the 1910
Meeting) near to the Hiker Cafe at Hengistbury.
These illustrations are together because there may be some affinity between the curious stories of Bournemouth and Christchurch on the one hand and the extraordinary
experience of the UK Referendum. All three deal with the unexpected.
Published in 2017, Road to Brexit looks at the whole affair including the political background, the publicity of the
campaign, the arguments, motivations, voting figures and not least, what was being said at the time. It is impartial throughout, so leaving the reader to test their own opinions against those of the
other side. There is no reflection of post-Brexit politics after the vote of 23 June 2016.
The Curiosities books cover material which has either never been published, or if it has, will benefit from some fresh slant. For example, the road to
Christchurch Quay runs right through the former monastery almshouse whose stone walls now face the road on both sides. That land was thus used to help the poor in the fourteenth century but to help
the traffic today.
Print 