Make way for progress

This unassuming little building in the village of Holdenhurst has become mired in controversy.
The local authorities are planning to build a very large road system to alleviate congestion around the entrance to Bournemouth and to traffic entering and leaving the Royal Bournemouth NHS Hospital.


This would mean the demolition of the building

There have been protests and a campaign to stop the damage that will be caused to the surrounding area.

The grade II listed barn escaped serious damage when two adjacent semi detached Townsend Cottages were totally destroyed by a fire of dubious origin in 1991.
The cottages are described by English Heritage as.........

"Semi-detached pair of late medieval cottages, refronted circa 1830 in buff brick............"

Within the cottage's structure could still be seen part of the original wooden framework which may indicate the building's origins lay in the 1600s, if not earlier.
Their loss was nothing short of a tragedy as so little early architecture still remains in Bournemouth.

The remains of the cob walled barn are still grade II listed by English Heritage, which since the fire in 1991 has sported a protective corrugated tin roof in place of the original thatched one.

In Kathleen M Chilver's 'Holdenhurst - Mother of Bournemouth' Printed in 1956, the barn is described as

"The large cob and thatch shed........is a good example of an old fuel house, which in old days would have been piled full of turf, logs and brushwood."


Such is the price of progress.