Historic sites we are at risk of losing forever across BCP

Historic places of worship, ruins or old structures, can be costly to maintain and some sites are falling into disrepair through the years.

Historic England, the public body that looks after England's historic environment, oversees a register of listed buildings, sites and conservation areas it deems 'at-risk'.

Two round barrows close to Double Dykes

Bronze Age people gathered together for religious ceremonies and built circular tombs (known as round barrows) for important men and women within their communities.

Two of these round bowl barrows lay close to Hengistbury Head. Owned by BCP Council, the barrows condition is in decline due to scrub and tree growth.

Round barrow cemetery on Barrow Hill

The condition of this historic monument has been rated as ‘generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems’ according to Historic England.

It is located 150 metres south west of Brookvale Farm, Poole.

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In need of management due to its deterioration, we are at risk of losing this piece of Bronze Age history for good if one of its multiple owners does not step in.

Churchill Gardens, Boscombe

Churchill Gardens is a Historic England conservation area, the condition of which is listed as ‘very bad’ though it is now ‘improving’.

Churchill Gardens, Boscombe

Hundreds of thousands of pounds set aside by Bournemouth Council in 2016 to improve the appearance of a Boscombe conservation area finally started to be spent in 2019.

Half of the £400,000 fund was used to build a new community facility while the remainder will see delayed work to rebuild garden walls carried out.

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Church of St Clement, St Clement's Road, Bournemouth

A large Victorian church set in a public park, the tower roof is leaking badly and needs to be replaced.

The church was built between 1871 and 1873 and was the first major church designed by J. D. Sedding.

Sedding was an influential figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, many of whose leading designers, including Ernest Gimson, Ernest Barnsley and Herbert Ibberson, studied in his offices.

The rainwater goods are inadequate to carry water away from the building and the masonry is showing signs of damp.

Owned by the church, the property is in slow decay and no solution has yet been agreed upon.

Poole Town Centre

The centre of Poole dates back to Iron Age, Roman, Saxon and Norman times.

The massive Poole logboat dredged from the Harbour is one of the finest examples in Western Europe and has been carbon dated to about 295BC. The logboat can be viewed at Poole Museum.

Historic Poole Town Centre

Throughout the medieval period Poole was an important port trading with most of the maritime nations of Europe. Substantial stone buildings such as the Town Cellars date from this period.

Despite its rich history the centre of Poole has been listed by Historic England as being in ‘very bad’ condition.

However, the state of repair is ‘improving’ as the town continues to redevelop and grow.

Church of St Stephen, St Stephen's Road, Bournemouth

This monumental Victorian church with a faceted east end is set within a small, restricted site.

Designed by architect John Loughborough Pearson, as a memorial to Alexander Morden Bennett, first vicar of St Peter's Church, Bournemouth.

It is constructed with Purbeck stone and Bath stone. Its nave was built from 1881 to 1883 and the chancel was built from 1896 to 1897. The tower was built from 1907 to 1908.

There is some water getting into the building, and there have been falls of interior masonry due to rusting iron fittings.

The church has also been subject to heritage crime in recent years.

Church of St Michael, Poole Road, Bournemouth

The Church of St Michael is a substantial Grade II listed Victorian church with a very large tower.

This tower has significant problems and is difficult to access for maintenance. An added problem is that rainwater goods are not taking water away and interior wall paintings are vulnerable to water damage.

Royal Naval Cordite Factory at Holton Heath, Wareham

The Royal Naval Cordite Factory,was set up at Holton Heath in World War I, 1916, to manufacture cordite (a smokeless explosive) for the Royal Navy.

It was reactivated in World War II to manufacture gun propellants for the Admiralty and its output was supplemented by the Royal Navy Propellant Factory, Caerwent.

The Royal Naval Cordite factory at Holton Heath

After the end of World War II, the explosive manufacturing areas of the site were closed down and some areas of the site reopened as an Admiralty Research Establishment. A major part of the explosives site became a nature reserve in 1981.

It covers a large area of land, with lots of small workshops surrounded by earth banks, to contain any accidental blasts.

A large number of individual buildings and structures still remain, now in varying degrees of collapse, and a programme of works to identify and repair the most significant of these is urgently needed.

Much of the site is within a nature reserve and only open to the public by prior arrangement. The area included in the scheduling was extended in 2016.