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Property Search - Talbot WoodsTalbot Woods:Today Talbot and Branksome Woods is a large residential area to the north west of the centre of Bournemouth large properties sit in wide tree lined avenues the majority are detached villa style houses with gardens full of colour from the rhododendrons azaleas camellias and magnolias. Some of the most prestigious homes in Bournemouth are located within Talbot Woods lying mainly in roads such as Glenferness Avenue East Avenue Elgin Road Leven Road Little forest where many of the houses are valued over £1 million and back on to the Meyrick Park Golf Course. Talbot Woods betray the area’s history as a remote heathland which for many years was used only by smugglers customs officers and by the few local commoners for fuel. The pine trees which dominate the area and give it its name also reflect a period from 1810 when Sir George Tapps planted pines trees across a swathe of the heathland around Bournemouth. This planting initially with Scots pine and then the more drought resistant Maritime pines helped give the town its early reputation as a health resort. This together with the coming of the railway started the development of Bournemouth and drove its need for hotels and large villas to accomodate the influx of wealthy Victorians. The Inclosure Act of 1802 which allowed the common land to be enclosed initiated the creation of the large estates around Bournemouth. And it was when the Branksome Estate and the Talbot Woods Estate were developed for residential housing at the end of the 19th century and in the early years of the 20th century that the current avenues and roads were laid out and many of today's houses built. History of Property in the area: By the 1860s the area was part of two large estates the Branksome Estate and the Talbot Woods Estate. The Branksome Estate which was owned by George Durrant started to be developed in the 1870s and 1880s. This initial development was along Branksome Wood Road with large houses on the side of the Bourne Stream and small estates such as Hume Towers and Benellen Towers on the hillside leading to Talbot Woods and Poor's Common. The Talbot Woods Estate which was owned by Georgina Talbot and then her sister Mary Anne Talbot was not developed until the early 1900s when their successor the Earl of Leven & Melville decided to develop the Woods. He started close to Winton and the Wimborne Road with Bryanstone Stirling Dunbar and Berwick Roads. His allocation of roads and housing plots moved gradually south and west from the East Avenue/Wimborne Road junction. It is clear that the Earl gave considerable thought to the layout and naming of the streets and to the size of the houses that were to be built. The major streets used for access and through traffic were called Avenue and they were tree lined with plantation verges between the pavement and the roadway. The more quiet residential streets were called Roads and whilst some were tree lined none had a plantation verge. The street names reflect the Earl's Scottish connections; Glenferness being the name of his house in Nairn and Leven being his own title. When an individual or builder bought a plot one of the coventants they had to agree to defined the minimum floor space of the house that had to be built. Some of houses were over 3000 sq ft this was reduced to 2600 sq ft and then later this was reduced to 1900 sq ft. Other sizes may have been demanded but no details of these are available at the present. When Bournemouth Corporation got permission to change Poor's Common into Meyrick Park it sold off the land north of the railway as plots of land for residential development. Work started in 1894 on the 32 plots sold by the Corporation with most being built by the 1914. Four of the plots are now part of Wimborne Road one is in Dunbar Road and the others are Meyrick Park Crescent. Between 1920 and 1940 the Earl of Leven & Melville continued his progression westwards and sold off the majority of the plots in Talbot Woods east of Glenferness (as well as some west of Glenferness) for building. At the same time George Durrant's executors were selling off plots around Branksome Hill and Dorset Roads. From 1945 the development of the area west of Glenferness was completed. However by 1960 the large houses on Branksome Woods Road were being demolished and replaced by small streets of detached houses or by large blocks of flats. Whilst most of the original Talbot Woods development still exits most of the initial development of large houses on Branksome Wood Road have been lost. The Phases of House Building In order to present the information relating to when the current stock of houses were built an arbitary set of development phases has been created. The link below will take you to a table which shows the number of buildings in each street or group of streets and shows the percentage which were built in each phase. All of the analyses have been done on the basis that one house or one block of flats is one building even though there may be more than one home contained in that building. Analysis of House Building The House Builders Walking down some of the roads in The Woods it is clear that a number of houses were built by the same builder. They have the same style shape and external features. In the early years of the development of the area most of the plots were bought by builders who would build several houses at a time before selling them on. Since the 1940/50s however a significant number of plots have been bought by the actual owners who then contracted a builder to design and build their new house. The first of the tables below provides details of the largest builders in the area (qualification being they had to build at least 10 houses) the streets and phases of building and any other builders with a similar name. The second table shows each street or group of streets and lists the names of the people who built most of those houses. |
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