Poole Community

Standing on the Hamworthy-Poole lifting bridge, I found myself trying to remember the industries that existed there before Sunseeker arrived. Looking from the bridge, along the Hamworthy side of the quay stood:

Corrals – fuel oil distributors; R H Newman & Sons – boatbuilders; Wilkins & Wilkins – Marine Engineers; Stoneyard Ballast; The Shipwright Arms public house; J Bolson & Sons – shipbuilders and engineers; Hamworthy Engineering and, lastly, Wood’s coal wharf.

Businesses on the Poole side included:

Bradford’s warehouse; Christopher Hill’s silo; Yeatman’s mill; Burden’s coalyard; The Fish Shambles – where the local catch was sold; Poole Pottery, then the Gasworks.

A railway track ran from Poole station, down West Quay Road and along the quay itself. Various loads were transported in the wagons, like timber and grain, plus coal to fuel the paddle steamers: The Embassy, The Monarch, The Bournemouth Queen and The Empress of India. The railway lines along the quay could cause difficulties for cyclists. Bike wheels could easily be trapped in them, resulting in the rider ‘tasting the tarmac’ – my unfortunate experience on more than one occasion!

The first Poole bridge was a wooden structure, replaced in 1914 by an iron swing bridge (toll payable) which, in turn, was followed by our present lifting bridge. Previous to these, the crossing was via a ferry boat manned by two crewmen who hauled the ferry across manually using two fixed ropes spanning the water from one side of the quay to the other. They were able to take as many as seventy passengers at a time.

The lifting bridge, completed in 1927, was a often a problem for people whose place of employment was on the opposite side of the quay to their home, as its random closing could cause them to be late for work and, consequently, lose pay. If three blasts of a ship’s siren were heard, the public had to make a dash to beat the closure of the gates. The bridge was operated by just one man who endured many abusive comments being thrown at him as, by hand, he closed the gates. People’s frustration was usually caused by the fact that, at times, he had to close the gates when a ship was about half a mile away which seemed unreasonable to those waiting. Unpopular though he was (through no fault of his own) he was never bothered by it.

In the 1940s, as young apprentices, we lads would wait for the bridge-keeper to enter his operating tower, then lift our bikes over the gates and pedal like mad before the bridge began to rise. We were never caught as the keeper couldn’t leave his station while operating the mechanism! During World War II, our bridge remained unscathed, although a stack of bombs was dropped along the quay and HMS Sona, a training ship moored about fifty yards away, was sunk. The only means of defence of the bridge at that time were two Home Guard sentries.

Electronically operated barriers and lights now equip the bridge – a great improvement on one man’s hands! And, what of the future? The new ‘Twin Sails’ bridge has now been ratified to supplement the one we have – I do hope it meets expectations. After all the years of queuing, on foot and in car, perhaps a fixed bridge across Holes Bay may have been more convenient all along!