Exploring the Bournemouth Coast Path

Two hundred years ago this month poet John Keats sailed from London to Italy where he died the following year.

What was that journey like? It was slow and although we all know that Keats died in Rome he was sailing for Naples, a city familiar to Shelley.

His ship, the Maria Crowther, left Tower Dock on Sunday 17 September and sailed down the River Thames. After passing through St George’s Channel, the captain took her into Portsmouth where Keats went inland to visit old haunts.

So it was not until Saturday morning 30 September that the Maria Crowther sailed into The Solent and past The Needles.

The passengers had a good view of the mainland as the captain cautiously sailed into Poole Bay for shelter before anchoring in Studland Bay.

Here Keats paddled in the water whilst his companion Joseph Severn, who was to nurse him in Rome, lingered on board painting the view of Old Harry Rocks.

In the bay, where a brief sandy cliff gives way to chalk there is a feeling of being enclosed by Bournemouth’s Poole Bay, Hengistbury Head, Christchurch Bay, the looming Isle of Wight and Old Harry Rocks at the southern entrance to Studland Bay.

Today the gap into the English Channel between the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Purbeck’s Old Harry Rocks appears filled by two giant ocean liners sitting out the virus.

This day in 1820 may have been Keats’ last moment in England unless the rumour is true that their ship also went into Lulworth Cove before turning south into more dangerous water.

They arrived in the Bay of Naples on 21 October but, due to reports of typhus in London, the ship was quarantined until Tuesday 31 October, Keats’ last birthday.

Keats and Severn reached Rome two weeks later where they were greeted by Dr James Clark who had found rooms for them next to the Spanish Steps.

John Keats died there very late on Friday 23 February 1821.

Dr Clark later came to know Poole Bay. He believed that the pines in Bournemouth contributed to the town’s healthy environment and he lived in a house on the West Cliff called Eagles Nest with a view of Studland. The Eagles Nest site is now the BIC’s Purbeck Hall.

During 1920s men unable to find work in South Wales were employed to transform Branksome Chine.

The valley entrance was reconfigured with lakes drained and the stream channelled with stone banks.

Wednesday 16 September is the 90th anniversary of Minister of Labour Margaret Bondfield visiting to see the almost completed scheme and declare the Chine reopened.

Her period in office was dominated by a battle with unemployment.

A few weeks before coming to Branksome in September 1930 she was at Croydon Airport to welcome Amy Johnson back from Australia after becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.

Margaret Bondfield was also a record holder being the first woman cabinet minister and first woman privy counsellor.

In 1930 she was to have just another year in Parliament before losing her seat in the General Election.

Work on stabilising a section of Canford Cliffs starts this Monday.

It is expected to continue until next summer.

The site is between Flaghead Chine and Canford Cliffs Chine.

During the winter Cliff Drive will be closed to traffic but remain open to walkers.

Full fascinating details are here.

Work has begun repairing the Westover Sea Wall at Milford-on-Sea.

Walkers from the west must now divert inland just before The Beach House.

The coast path remains open in front of The White House but this can only be approached from the high promenade on its east side.

There is no through coast route between The Beach House and the White House. As reported earlier a date for reopening the path has yet to be announced.

Boulders from Norway, as used on nearby Hurst Spit in the 1990s, are piled above Paddy’s Gap ready for laying below the crumbling cliff.

Diversion: Bear half left to join the parallel road just before The Beach House. Walk past the pub (right) and continue to St Francis Church (right). Go right along Westover Road. After passing The White House entrance gates (right) bear right at a car park to reach the promenade.

Two path diversions are expected later this month between Milford-on-Sea and Lymington due to work on embankments.

As urgent restoration work begins on the Westover sea wall at the western approach to Milford-on-Sea there is a long term diversion now in place.

New Forest District Council says that “no date can be given at this time for when the footpath may be opened up” as the land is unstable but adds that “ideally the urgent works will enable the footpath to be opened again”.

Walkers will encounter a works compound at Paddy’s Gap before seeing the main repair compound, with just arrived Norwegian stone, ahead by The White House. Bear half left to join the parallel road just before The Beach House pub.

Walk past the pub (right) and continue to St Francis Church. Here go right along Westover Road.

There is soon a view of The White House (right) which is under threat from the crumbling coast.

It is possible to rejoin the coast path by a bowling green and the Needles Eye Cafe.

**The Westover sea wall owes its name to The Beach House which is the former Westover built in 1897 for electricity pioneer Alexander Siemans.

A report on the poor state of coastal sea defences at the eastern end of Christchurch Bay cliff is being considered by New Forest District Council.

The NFDC commissioned Jacobs Report warns of “a significant cliff retreat” if extreme weather hits the coast during the coming winter.

The Milford-on-Sea clifftop subject to urgent discussion between NFDC, Milford Council and residents is the few but crucial hundred yards which runs from approximately just below The Beach House pub to The White House.

The path, diverted earlier this year, should run downhill to pass in front of The White House which was built in 1903 to a design by Romaine Walker.

In 1938 the landmark white building became a children’s hospital. It is now divided into residences.

The New Milton Advertiser/Lymington Times has a full report and picture.

The Beardsley exhibition at Tate Britain in London is reopening today.

The once in a lifetime major exhibition includes work undertaken by the artist when he lived in Boscombe and Bournemouth.

The show was open for only a very short time in March due to the virus and should have closed in May. The closing date is now Sunday 20 September. Timed tickets must be booked in advance.

The Church of England calendar entry for today 14 July is John Keble, Priest, Tractarian, Poet, 1866 [Lesser Festival].

Keble’s death in March 1866 came at Brookside opposite the pier in Bournemouth where he had been staying for six months having come for his wife’s health.

Brookside is now part of the Hermitage Hotel. The name Book-side indicates the position of the boarding house being close to the Bourne Stream about to flow across the sand next to the pier. John Keble crossed this stream in the ‘chine’ daily on his way to St Peter’s Church.

“We do not at all repent of having come here,” was his verdict on the town in January.

At the house he corresponded with John Henry Newman, who now also appears in the ecclesiastical calendar, and William Gladstone who was at the time Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Keble had a huge influence on the direction and nature of Church life during the Victorian era with his sermons, hymns and best seller poetry book The Christian Year. As a result his death was widely reported.

This year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of Keble College Oxford which was his national memorial. But for the virus there would have been a programme of celebrations featuring the great church figures of today including Rowan William and Richard Coles.

But it is good to know that John Keble’s last home survives as a place to stay with a view of the sea thanks to the Hermitage Hotel.

Medieval music expert Dr Mary Remnant died last week at the age of 85.

Editor of The Tablet Brendan Walsh writes in this week’s issue: “Her mother was a music teacher and her father was an art historian and architect who designed Benedictine abbeys and chapels in France. Mary grew up surrounded by medieval bric-a-brac…”

Her father was Eustace A. Remnant who wrote an important study The Abbey of Jumieges and Highcliffe Castle long before there was much interest in the link.

In 1955 the British Archaeological Association awarded him the Reginald Taylor Prize Medal for his essay on The Problem of the Cloister of Jumieges which looks at the association with Highcliffe.

Pieces from the monastery include cloister bosses found at the castle’s grand entrance.

Mary always lit up at any mention of Highcliffe Castle.

Although she lived all her life in the same house in Chelsea she died whilst on the Isle of Wight having arrived just before the virus lockdown.

The island is of course framed in the view from the Castle and has strong historical links with Osborne.

Brendan added that Mary “made a unique contribution to British cultural life” as did her father.