Christchurch (Dorset)
| Christchurch | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Location in Dorset (boundaries until 2019) |
 Old Town Hall from 1860 |
||
| Basic data | |||
| region | South West England | ||
| Unitary Authority | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | ||
| Ceremonial county | Dorset | ||
| Traditional county | Hampshire | ||
| GSS code | E04012814 | ||
Christchurch is a city and at the same time a municipality ( Parish ) with the title of a Town in the Unitary Authority Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole in England . Christchurch has traditionally been part of the county of Hampshire , but since 1974 it has been part of the ceremonial county of Dorset .
geography
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The historic core of Christchurch lies between the right bank of the Avon and the left bank of the Stour . Both unite immediately to the south to a common, from salt marshes fringed estuary , the Christchurch Harbor , the few kilometers to the southeast in the the English Channel counting Christchurch Bay opens. The landscape on both sides of the floodplains is part of the Dorset Heaths , a heathland that is not very suitable for agricultural use due to the heavily sandy soils. Due to its location and the natural environment, Christchurch formed an island of settlements away from traffic in an otherwise sparsely populated area. It was not until the 19th century that the city and the coastal area became an important retirement home and tourist destination. Due to the emergence of Bournemouth to the west as a seaside resort and its development into a large city, Christchurch is today on the eastern edge of a conurbation of around 400,000 inhabitants that extends westward beyond Bournemouth to Poole .
Adjacent, starting to the west and going clockwise, are the urban area of Bournemouth, which begins immediately west of the Stour, and the parishes of Hurn , Sopley , Burton and Winkton and Highcliffe and Walkford .
history
Early history
The gravel ridge, which is slightly elevated above the mouth of the two rivers, invited people to linger for a long time even in prehistoric times . Archaeological excavations in the 1970s and 1980s in Bargate, a medieval suburb just north of the walled core area, revealed a total of four different periods of settlement , beginning with the late Neolithic . A burial ground from the end of the sixth or the seventh century , which was also discovered here , was subsequently abandoned and the area was later used for agriculture. Numerous finds of pottery shards from Roman times suggest the existence of a homestead, but no archaeological evidence has yet been found for its location.
Prehistoric and early historical activities can also be demonstrated outside the inner city area. On St Catherine's Hill , on the northern city limits, there are among other things the remains of eight barrows and a Roman military camp . At Hengistbury Head , a headland that separates Christchurch Harbor from the English Channel, human habitation has been traceable since 10,000 BCE . In the course of the Bronze Age , the location developed into an important port, through which long-distance trade was carried out to Italy and which only came to a standstill with the withdrawal of the Romans around 450.
Anglo-Saxon time
Today's Christchurch dates back to an Anglo-Saxon settlement in the early Middle Ages. It is first mentioned in a document in 900 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Tweoxneam , later the names Twyneham and Twinham appear. The names refer to their location: Old English betweoxn (between) and éam (rivers). To protect against raids by the Vikings , the place received a wall and is therefore listed in the Burghal Hidage . The Domesday Book , written in the late 11th century, counted the settlement as a crown property .
A monastery was also built in Anglo-Saxon times. The client was possibly Birinus , who wanted to promote the proselytizing of the still pagan inhabitants here.
High and late Middle Ages
Around 1094, under the rule of William Rufus , Ranulf Flambard began the construction of a new monastery, Christchurch Priory , which was only completed under his successors. Parts of the previous building were integrated into the monastery church, the remaining buildings were demolished. The new landlord , Baldwin de Redvers , handed the complex over to a predecessor order of the Augustinians around 1150 , who replaced the existing 24 secular canons with monks from their own ranks.
About 1100 was northeast of the monastery under Richard de Redvers with Christchurch Castle is a castle in the form of a moth and Bailey . In 1148 it was besieged and captured by Walter de Pinkney in the wake of the anarchy . Its fortifications were then strengthened, around 1160 it was given a building on the banks of the Avon with a knight's hall , the Constable's House , after 1300 a keep was built in place of the moth . The castle played only an insignificant role in armed conflict and served mainly as a residence, after the English Civil War the complex was razed as a result of a resolution of the English Parliament of 1651.
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Beginning under Richard de Redvers, Christchurch was granted a number of individual privileges over the course of the Middle Ages and thus developed into a minority town . Under his son Baldwin, an existing weekly market was held for the first time on Mondays in 1150 . The associated market rights lay with the monastery. In the 12th century, permission was given to hold a fair on Trinity Thursday, and another in the fall of Saint Faith in 1257 . Between 1306 and 1308 Christchurch was able to send an MP to the English Parliament . Since at least 1486 Christchurch had a mayor (Mayor) . The economic situation of Christchurch was considered bad, in numerous reports the poverty and the low importance of the town and its surroundings, sparsely populated and off the main traffic routes, emphasized. The city's port was only relevant to local fishing. The reason for this was its poor accessibility: A chain of rocks stretching off the coast from Hengistbury Head to the Needles of the Isle of Wight prevented the entry of ships with a higher draft.
The city grew in two directions in the Middle Ages, settlements outside the walled area were first mentioned in 1278. On the one hand this was in front of the northern city gate, the Bargate, on the other hand it was east on a river island in the middle of the Avon. Referred to as between two bridges , this was also the earliest evidence of the existence of bridges over the river. By the 14th century , these developed into suburbs .
Early modern age
With the dissolution of the monasteries , Christchurch also came into the hands of the Crown in 1539. She left its church to the Anglican congregation for use as a parish church , which they will continue to do in 2019. Little changed in the economic situation of the town, only the catch of salmon and the production of silk stockings had a certain importance at times. Numerous attempts to grant city rights failed, a charter that was originally planned to be granted in 1670 was withdrawn at short notice, and this was not to come until 1886. In 1571 Christchurch was promoted by Parliament to Parliamentary Borough , the city could send two or more members to the lower house; when the Reform Act 1832 came into effect there was only one.
During the English Civil War , Christchurch was taken in 1644 by a parliamentary army led by William Waller , but had to be returned to royalist troops in January of the following year.
Due to the River Avon Navigation Act passed in 1664 , the Avon was provided with a series of locks and bridges until 1684, making it navigable to Salisbury . A 1695 built and breakwaters -provided puncture of Mudeford Sandspit improved the accessibility of the port from the sea. Shipping on the river was stopped again in 1715. An attempt made in 1771 to resume it with the help of a canal to be built in parallel failed because Salisbury had meanwhile been connected to Southampton by a similar one . The puncture was also silted up and no longer usable.
The complicated access conditions from the sea favored from the 17th century to smuggling , as a result, a further manufacturing has established itself. Particularly noteworthy here are snuff and beer production in the 1770s. Grain legally imported from Cowes was milled in town. The profits from these activities were invested in the city, which is reflected in the large number of listed houses from this period in Mudeford, Purewell and Bridge Street. In 1803 there was another one in Mudeford in addition to the port of Christchurch. At the beginning of the 19th century, smuggling was brought under control, to which the crews of the barracks established at the end of the 18th century also contributed. The mentioned economic development did not last, a state commission reported in 1832 that there was neither industry nor trade worth mentioning and that the city also showed no industrial activities.
The construction of a mansion in the adjacent Highcliffe to the east also fell in the 1770s . Its successor from the 1830s, Highcliffe Castle , is considered to be the most important surviving building of the Neo-Gothic style influenced by Picturesque and Romanticism in Great Britain in the first half of the 19th century.
The town itself developed in an easterly direction along the road leading there, reaching successively the towns of Purewell, Stanpit and finally Mudeford.
From the middle of the 19th century
In accordance with the provisions of the Poor Law , a Poor Law Union was established in 1835 , which, in addition to Christchurch, was also responsible for neighboring communities. She took over the municipal workhouse , which had existed since 1764, and continued it. Since the end of the 1860s there was increasing space problems, a new building complex was completed in the north of Christchurch in 1881. With the exception of the sanitary building added in 1913, which later became part of the hospital built there, the facility was converted to social housing after 1930. The complex was later demolished and instead designated a new building area, only the entrance building with a striking archway remained. A facility for children from poor backgrounds, which was completed in the northeast of the workhouse in 1869 and expanded in 1926, consisting of six residential buildings, a school and an administration building, was demolished in the 1960s. The original workhouse from 1764, later renamed the Red House , now houses the town's local history museum.
A precision engineering industry that emerged from the small beginnings of the 18th century led to the establishment of several factories in Bargate from 1845 onwards. Clocks and parts for them, especially chains for snails , were produced here. In this area, Christchurch was soon seen as a leader in England. The production took place not only in the factories themselves, but also in home work and in the workhouses. After new technologies reduced the need for such chains, production in Christchurch ceased at the end of the 19th century.
Through the Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway , Christchurch was connected to the railway network from Southampton in 1862. As a result, the first planned suburb of Christchurch emerged. After the Member of Parliament George Rose was one of the first to discover the advantages of the coast around 1785 and built Sandhill House in Mudeford as a summer resort, Christchurch was to take a significant boom as a holiday destination with the establishment of the rail link. From 1878 onwards there was a significant increase in population, combined with a noticeable expansion of the city's settlement area.
During the First World War , Christchurch was a hospital town , and at the same time St Catherine's Hill became a military training area. In the interwar period, the foundations of an aviation industry that still exist today were created around an airfield that was inaugurated in 1926. Airspeed began production there in 1940 , making Oxfords , Mosquitos and Horsa gliders .
In the course of the Second World War , several military airfields were built around Christchurch . In addition to the defensive systems installed in other coastal areas, such as anti-tank traps and bunkers, the pillboxes , some were built along the railway line to secure the city on the side facing away from the coast. Christchurch was to serve as a center of resistance in the event of a successful invasion. Many of these buildings are still there today and are under monument protection.
Recent time
After the Second World War, Airspeed was taken over by De Havilland , who continued to manufacture aircraft until 1962. Today, Christchurch is home to BAE Systems and Beagle, a component manufacturer for maritime, space and military equipment. The Signals Research and Development Establishment (SRDE), which is subordinate to the Ministry of Supply , moved to Horsham in 1941/42 and then to Christchurch in 1943, and from 1948 began researching the further development of military communications technology. After merging with the Royal Radar Establishment , the facility was relocated to its Malvern location in 1980 . The barracks became the home of the Military Engineering Experimental Establishment , which, among other things , further developed the temporary bridges made up of standardized individual parts that have become known as Bailey bridges . The site was abandoned in the 1970s and later largely demolished. Today there is a residential area as well as an industrial park with a shopping center.
Christchurch's development as a holiday resort continued with the designation of the first resorts and campsites in the 1960s. Christchurch is also still popular as a retirement home, which means that the city is one of the UK's with the highest average age. The peripheral location of the historic old town within the district favored urban development in modern times in the areas adjacent to the north and east. This, as well as the bypass road built in 1958, contributed to the fact that the old town is still in a largely unchanged condition and can have numerous listed buildings.
Politics and administration
In the system of the traditional counties of England , the parish (at that time still in the sense of a parish entrusted with state tasks) belonged to the Christchurch Hundred within Hampshire in the 19th century . Their area covered almost 100 square kilometers and extended along the sea coast over a length of almost 13 kilometers from just before New Milton in the east to the mouth of the Bourne in the west. In 1886 the core area of Christchurch was upgraded to a Municipal Borough (MB). This gave rise to the situation that the community was now divided into an urban and a non-urban area. Similar conditions prevailed in the far west, where Bournemouth had also received MB status since 1890, without there having been a separate parish, and which now belonged partly to Christchurch and partly to Holdenhurst . With the entry into force of the Local Government Act 1894 in early 1895, this was eliminated: both ceded their shares to the newly founded parish of Bournemouth, Christchurch also other areas to Holdenhurst. The rest was divided into the newly created parishes Christchurch East and Hurn and the Urban District Pokesdown , the three parishes mentioned and Sopley further north were combined into a rural district , which was also named Christchurch .
The Municipal Borough merged on April 1, 1974, with part of the Rural District Ringwood and Fordingbridge to the Christchurch district . Christchurch became its administrative seat, but at the same time lost its communal independence. Instead, it became an unparished area , which means that there was no parish council, the tasks assigned to the parishes were taken care of by the district administration. On April 1, 2019, the district went into the newly formed Unitary Authority Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. In order to preserve the traditions associated with the historical city law, such as the election of a mayor as a representative of the city, but also to strengthen the loyalty of the residents to their city, a commission commissioned to do so recommended the division of the unparished area into two independent municipalities, next to Christchurch still Highcliffe and Walkford, and also the assignment of the end of Mudeford Spit, the eponymous village on the other side of the approach to Christchurch Harbor, to Bournemouth. The idea of a third parish, comprising Mudeford and Stanpit, did not meet with sufficient popular approval and the area remained with Christchurch.
The proposals were implemented at the same time as the disbandment of the district, and Christchurch has since formed an independent municipality again, with the title of a town . The 19-member city council was elected for the first time in the local elections on May 2, 2019.
Conservative Christopher Chope has been MP for the UK House of Commons for Christchurch constituency since 1997 .
Town twinning
There are city partnerships with
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Aalen , Baden-Württemberg , Germany -
Christchurch , New Zealand
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Saint-Lô , Normandy , France
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Tatabánya , Hungary
Transport and traffic
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The A35 from Honiton to Southampton runs through Christchurch from west to east . It crossed the old town in 1958 until a bypass road further north was opened. The A337 branches off from it on the eastern edge of the city. This leads first along the coast and then via Lymington to Cadnam . The connection to the motorway network is provided in Holdenhurst by the four-lane A338 leading north, and at St Ives it joins the A31, which is the western extension of the M27 .
Christchurch has a station on the from the capital London via Southampton and Bournemouth to Weymouth leading South Western Main Line . A route branching north towards Ringwood was closed in 1935 for passenger traffic.
In 1905 Christchurch was connected to the Bournemouth urban tram network. After operations were discontinued in 1936, trolleybuses ran until 1969 , a turntable from this time still exists. The main burden of local public transport is now borne by two bus companies: the Transdev subsidiary Yellow Buses , the successor to the Bournemouth municipal transport company with its yellow vehicles, and Wilts & Dorset, which belongs to Go-Ahead, and under the brand name morebus with its red vehicles. In addition, Southbourne Buses is a local company that offers regular services to the districts of Burton and Somerford.
Around 1926, Christchurch Airfield, an airfield located in the southeast between the city districts, was opened and, as a result, scheduled operations began. In the course of the Second World War, a military airport was built there. After the end of the war, private and company flights were still carried out, and the facility was closed in the 1960s. The nearest airport is now Bournemouth Airport , a few kilometers northwest in Hurn.
Daughters and sons of the city
- Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford (1243-1295), English peer
- Peter Allam (* 1959), regatta sailor
- Shaun Wallace (born 1961), British cyclist
literature
- Research results on Christchurch as part of the Dorset Historic Towns Project from 2011. Detailed reports on developments up to the present day, also on the individual districts.
- William Page: A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5 . Victoria County History, London 1912. (English)
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Christchurch information on the Dorset Tourism Association website
- Christchurch Historic Society (English)
- Christchurch at Vision of Britain (English)
- Extensive collection of newspaper articles about local events (english)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interim Parishes (April 2019) Names and Codes in England and Wales on the UK Government Statistics Portal. Complete list available online CSV file, 574 kB, accessed May 8, 2019. (English)
- ↑ Presentation of location and limits on the Ordnance Survey map server, accessed on May 17, 2019 (English)
- ↑ Report on the excavations on the Pastgate website operated by Historic England , accessed on May 12, 2019. (English)
- ^ St Catherine's Hill camp and round barrows . Historic England Listed List , accessed May 17, 2019
- ^ Hengistbury Head Pre-History and Hengistbury Head from the Roman Period to the 16th Century on a Hengistbury Head history and geology website, accessed May 17, 2019
- ↑ Entry on Christchurch at Opendomesday.org, accessed on May 11, 2019. (English)
- ↑ Christchurch Castle at Pastscape, accessed on May 17, 2019.
- ↑ The Priory Church of the Holy Trinity on the Church of England website, accessed May 14, 2019.
- ↑ Avon River Navigation Entry at Pastscape, accessed May 17, 2019
- ↑ Christchurch (& Bournemouth), Hampshire on a website on poor legislation in England, accessed May 16, 2019. (English)
- ↑ Location description on the BAE-Systems website, accessed on May 15, 2019. (English)
- ↑ Product overview on the company's website, accessed on May 17, 2019
- ↑ To the story on the website of the Friends of the SRDE, accessed on May 15, 2019 (English)
- ^ About the association on the website of the Friends of the SRDE, accessed on May 15, 2019. (English)
- ^ Sean Coughlan: The town thronged with old people. BBC , May 9, 2014, accessed May 17, 2019.
- ↑ Representations on the website of the Borough Council: Original draft from May 2018 , recommendations from October 2018 and map of the boundaries for this , accessed on May 17, 2019 (English)
- ^ Josh Wright: The candidates for the new Christchurch Town Council. Bournemouth Echo, May 2, 2019, accessed May 8, 2019
- ↑ Jason Lewis: Local elections 2019: full results for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. Bournemouth Echo, May 4, 2019, accessed May 8, 2019
- ↑ Christopher Chope on the UK Parliament website, accessed May 17, 2019.
- ↑ A31 , A35 , A337 and A338 on the Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts (SABER) website , accessed May 15, 2019. (English)
- ↑ Bournemouth and Poole Tramways on the Western Power Electricity Historical Society website , accessed May 17, 2019.
- ↑ Bus routes and stops in Christchurch at Bustimes.org, accessed on May 17, 2019 (English)
Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ N , 1 ° 47 ′ W