Kinson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

St. Andrew's Church

Kinson is a former village which is now a part of Bournemouth.

The area centres on Kinson village green which is on the Wimborne Road (at this point the A341) next to Kinson Library. The village has a shopping centre and two pubs, the Royal Oak and Gulliver's. The latter's former name, the Dolphin, comes from the symbol of the town of Poole as the area used to be part of the neighbouring town.

Nearby is Kinson Common, a local nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the historic St Andrew's Church. Kinson Common is a relatively small site of 40 acres owned by Bournemouth Borough Council, however, despite its small size, it provides a rich and varied habitat. The Friends of Kinson Common work as Countryside Volunteers and help with the management of the site.

The area was historically used by the smuggler Isaac Gulliver whose men would carry the contraband up from The Chines in Poole Bay and take it across Cranborne Chase to be distributed to patrons all over Southern England. Gulliver had several properties in the area, however all of the contraband were stored in the tower of St Andrew's Church (the marks of the ropes used to haul it up can still be seen in the soft sandstone walls of the tower) and in several stone graves in the churchyard which were constructed for this purpose and never saw a coffin. A tunnel was also reputed to exist to allow smugglers to escape to the local river under cover (this has never been proved, however).

Also in the churchyard is the grave of one Robert Trotman, who was killed when trying to land contraband on the shore near Poole. Smugglers at the time were regarded by some as folk heroes as they circumvented high government taxes on goods such as alcohol, tobacco etc. The presence of this grave openly in the churchyard with its rhyming elegy to the deceased is an interesting comment on the social status at the time of people who were technically criminals.

Near this church is a bridge over Millham's Splash, a small offshoot of the River Stour. In the early years of the twentieth century this was a ford, and while travelling by carriage from Canford House to Highcliffe Castle the future Kaiser of Germany became bogged in the water and had to be rescued by the locals. They had cause to regret this act before very long with the out break of World War I.