Facts about Dorset

Brownsea Island

Situated about 1 mile away from Poole, owned by National Trust and visited by hundreds of people each year. Brownsea Island is an ideal 1hour boat trip from Poole harbour taking in the sights of Sandbanks and the chain ferry that takes you from Poole to Swanage, saving on a 24 mile round trip!   The island is well known for its wildlife and nature trails, and is an ideal setting if you just want to get away from it all.

1st Associated is a marketing company marketing independent chartered surveyor's. We are not owned by any Estate Agents and are not on any approved panels.   We only have qualified Chartered Surveyor's working for us.   

If you are buying a house then you need a Chartered Surveyor to carry out your survey.   Estate Agents wont necessarily recommend Chartered Surveyors (unless they own them!)

History of the Bournemouth-Swanage Motor Road and Ferry Company and its Connection With Knoll House

A hundred and fifty years ago there was relatively little need for transport across the mouth of Poole harbour. Swanage was a small fishing village and a convenient place from which to ship the stone taken from the coastal quarries between Swanage and Worth Matravers. Studland was a backwater dedicated to smuggling, farming and fishing - probably in that order. Sandbanks was a large isolated sand dune. Bournemouth and its suburbs only existed as a collection of small villages. Wareham had been quite an important town centuries before; for many years smaller sea-going vessels could sail up the river to its quay. Poole was the main centre of commercial activity and had strong links with Newfoundland. Any residents of Studland wishing to go to Poole and the mainland would take the track across the heath behind Knoll House, still visible, and then a boat from Goathorn Point or from one of the bays on the harbour side of the peninsula. Below Knoll House, on what is now the ferry road, the heath draining into the Little Sea formed a swamp which could be crossed precariously at what is known as Pipley Bridge.

For more information on this visit www.knollhouse.co.uk/history.htm

Portland Bill...

Portland is a Mecca for divers, windsurfers, climbers, sailors and fishermen. The harbour provides perfect conditions for windsurfing and dingy sailing with shallow water with a sandy bed and usually windy conditions. It is common to drive across the causeway at 40+ mph and get overtaken by a windsurfer. In recent years there has been a growing trend water skiing behind huge parafoil kites, these kites can be 5M across and the skiers are often seen 20 feet in the air.

Chesil Beach

Chesil beach, a natural shingle bank stretching for 16 miles to the west from Portland. There are many shipwrecks along the beach which makes it a mecca for divers. The beach shelves as steeply below the water as above it making it a very popular place for fishermen with huge shoals of Mackerel in the summer and Cod in the winter. It is a place of extremes, during summer months it is usually like a mill pond but in rough weather it is often dangerous to be on the beach. During the great gale of 1824 eighty houses were destroyed and twenty seven people killed. In 1853 the New Hotel was damaged when a fishing boat was blown onto the roof.

Punch and Judy!

There is a long tradition in Britain associating the Punch & Judy Show with The Seaside coastal holiday resorts to which the whole population would flock during the Summer months. Greater affluence, easier global travel and more flexible holiday arrangements have decreased the popularity of the traditional seaside holiday and consequently it is much harder for a punch-man to make an adequate living on these pitches, and the numbers of seaside professors are dwindling.