4Hotels.co.uk: Bournemouth Hotels Have The 'Bourne' Identity!

GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND, March 05, 2011 (Press-News.org) Great Britain has a wealth of interesting towns, cities and coastal curiosities to satisfy most discerning visitors, but there is one place that could be said to defy the norm and that's Bournemouth.

The town, which was only founded in 1810, is situated directly to the east of what is known as the Jurassic Coast, a 95-mile section of stunningly beautiful beaches and rugged pre-historic coastline at the very southern most end of the country providing a rich and complete geological record of the Jurassic, Triassic and Cretaceous period - or Age of Reptiles for those that prefer the more exciting tagline.

But before 1810 when Lewis Tregonwell built a house in 'Bourne', which in effect laid the foundation for the rise of the town and gave it its' identity, the area was largely a remote and barren heathland with the only human settlements surrounding it scattered inland in the Dorset and Hampshire regions. No one lived at the mouth of the Bourne River and the only people who frequented the area up until the 16th century were a handful of fisherman, turf cutters and bands of smugglers. The area then became used as a hunting estate during the Turdor period, but by the 18th century had once again become somewhat stagnant and under-developed, and was only used as "common land" (land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have access and other rights.)

After 1810 though, things changed dramatically. Lewis Tregonwell, a retired army officer, built his home and began developing his land erecting a number of "sea villas" for holiday lettings. He also supervised the erection of hundreds of pine trees to form a sheltered walkway to the beach. This became known as 'Invalid's Walk' and it is around these trees that the town that became Bournemouth was, well - born!

Within a few decades it was catching up its "neighbouring" towns along the coast such as Brighton in the east and Weymouth to the west, and becoming a seaside resort in its own right. This was largely due to physician and writer Augustus Granville who featured Bournemouth in his book The Spas of England (1841-2), a tome on the various health resorts around the country. The book drew people to the town of 'Bourne' seeking fresh air and medicinal waters, which in turn led it to becoming a premier tourist destination with a multitude of Bournemouth hotels to choose from at http://www.4hotels.co.uk/uk/bournemouth.html

Which it still is to this day.

Like most settlements Bournemouth expanded and during a 20-year period between 1840 and 1860, the Pleasure Gardens were designed and landscaped providing several miles of enchanting walks along the Bourne Stream. Then came the Winter Gardens, and the Bournemouth pier, and with the arrival of the railways in the 1880s the town now played home to 17,000 residents swelling to 60,000 just 10 years later, with thousands more visiting as tourists each year.

It was at this point that Bournemouth became a favourite location for artists and writers including J.R.R. Tolkein and Robert Louis Stevenson who lived and settled there. Oscar Wilde and Paul Verlaine both taught at Bournemouth preparatory schools, while Mary Shelley and her husband the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (as well as Mary's parents William Godwin and Mary Woolstonecraft) are all buried at St. Peter's Church. Thomas Hardy used Sandbourne in Tess and Jude The Obscure, and Roald Dahl featured the town in his book The Witches. Horror writer James Herbert went one step further in The Fog by having the entire population of Bournemouth run and drowns in the sea in a mass suicide.

Happily, that was only fiction, and Bournemouth continues to thrive today as a popular holiday destination for Britons as well as visitors from abroad, so much so that the town has seen a rapid rise in the number of English language schools and hence become a favourite location for students âEUR" which seem fitting given its literary associations.

Given its rather unusual and dramatic beginnings, and rapid rise from "common land" to conurbation, as well as its wealth of geological and literary history, beautiful gardens, and stunning coastline, it is perhaps not surprising that in 1985 Bournemouth became the first town in the UK to introduce and use CCTV cameras for public surveillance to ensure the protection of its streets, culture and people.

After all, it has to be said, the people of 'Bourne' have one heck of a unique identity to preserve. And you can join them in one of these Bournemouth hotels: http://www.4hotels.co.uk/uk/bournemouth.html