Author Archives: Leigh Hatts

The May Festival at St Stephen’s Church in Bournemouth starts on Saturday 4 May with a focus on Percy Whitlock. Whitlock’s biographer Malcolm Riley will be giving the festival lecture called Percy Whitlock at 110. This is followed by the … Continue reading →

An online petition calling on the Throop Mill owners to allow the building to be saved and opened has been launched by a schoolboy who passes daily.

The picture of Ali Kemal in tonight’s BBC2 programme Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise is a reminder of the Mayor of London’s Bournemouth connection. The Turkish leader who was assassinated lived for a time in Lorne Park Road. His son Osman … Continue reading →

I have put a note on the Bournemouth Coast Path blog about a new Bournemouth book’s comment on a Shelley Park incident involving an unconscious sailor.

St Valentine’s Day has seen the publication of a book on Neville Heath who befriended and dined a lady before murdering her. It is a strange case which has never before been clearly explained. The events took place on the … Continue reading →

The Bournemouth Evening Echo and my Bournemouth Coast Path blog have been looking at Gordon Selfridge’s local connections.

This morning’s news of the fire at Cliff End in Manor Road is bad news. I hope that the main building has not been too badly damaged. Calls for the derelict building to be pulled down are a mistake. Cliff … Continue reading →

On Friday 24 April 1812, two hundred years ago today, Lewis Tregonwell and his wife arrived in Bournemouth to spend their first night in the first house to be built overlooking the bay. It’s a day for quiet celebration. We … Continue reading →

Artist Eustace Nash bought a house in Poole when he won a prize in the village sign competition with his Christchurch sign. Now another artist, Cherie Wheatcroft, has produce a hand-painted copy on stainless steel.

News that the Bournemouth International Hotel, the former Abbey Mount in Priory Road, is to be pulled down means the loss of the last vestiges of an 1860s house. It was built about 1867 for the former rector of Downton … Continue reading →