Hengistbury Head In the 19th Century

The smuggling which epitomised the 18th century activities on Hengistbury Head continued, and arguably was at its height in the early 1800's. It was not until the 1850's that the government gained the upper hand and smuggling became a rarity rather than the norm.

As smuggling ended, other uses for Hengistbury Head came to the fore. A local Coal merchant by the name of George Holloway found a way of mitigating the loss of profit on returning empty coal barges. He gained mining rights from the Lord of the Manor who claimed foreshore rights (although these are normally attributed to the Crown) and exploited the iron ore doggers found at Hengistbury Head. These were initially used as ballast on the barges back to Southampton. They were then transferred to the larger coal ships trading from Cardiff (again as ballast) and finally delivered to the blast furnaces of Merthyr Tydfil and the Rhondda in South Wales.

Essentially Mr Holloway was simply adding a layer of efficiency to his main activity as a coal merchant. Unfortunately his dredging of the waters off Hengistbury Head coupled with the removal of the easily won iron stone doggers off the southern beach led to a massive destabilisation of geological forces that maintained Hengistbury Head at a steady but slow erosion rate. Suddenly the sea was able to batter the base of the cliff and carry away the sand. Hengistbury Head began to recede. In addition to the removal of the sea and beach iron ore deposits, an open cast mine was set up approximately half way along Hengistbury Head.

The southern aspect of the quarry has been turned into a scenic
lake, although it is too acidic to support much aquatic life,
many insects and birds visit this artificial enhancement to Hengistbury Head

The gains from the reef, the quarry and the beach were shipped out via Holloway's Dock, a small quay set up in what is now marsh land at the joint of Hengistbury Head with Mudeford Sandspit.

Holloway's Dock as it is now viewed from Hengistbury Head

Holloway had a small entrance canal cut into his dock. This canal used to be perfectly straight but over the years has now accrued the odd kink.

The exit of Holloway's canal into Christchurch harbour.

The spoil from the open cast mining activity was dumped along the north eastern side of the Head and is and area now known as the Batters.

The Batters. The spoil from the mine was simply dumped on the North Western end of Hengistbury Head and remains there today, overgrown and unnoticed.

After the removal of the iron ore doggers from the sea and from the beach, rapid erosion of Hengistbury Head took place. Several reports were issued to the admiralty from sea-farers who found the previously sheltered anchorages in Christchurch bay were becoming exposed to the prevailing westerly winds. Possibly due to these detrimental effects upon the environment Holloway's dredging off Hengistbury Head was halted. The extraction of iron from the sea had ended by 1856 although further extraction from other places continued until the 1870's. The erosion of Hengistbury Head continued unabated and apparently unnoticed (or at least uncared for) for the next fifty years.

While Holloway was busily mining the Hengistbury ironstone doggers others were developing schemes for Christchurch harbour.

Reports were made by William Armstrong and John Silvester proposing development for Christchurch Harbour, but Christchurch Council, after having commissioned these reports, had neither the resources or the willingness to carry them through.

The final set of development plans for Christchurch Harbour was set forward in 1885 by the Christchurch and Wimborne Railway Company, no doubt intending to develop the rudimentary dock and cargo transportation facilities set up by The Hengistbury Mining Company. This scheme was by far the grandest, planning a 1000 yard (approx. 900 meter) breakwater to protect the harbour entrance. A major dock would have been set up by Long Field, to the North West of Hengistbury Head. A railway line from Wimbourne was planned to link up to this dock. However in the end the backers of this scheme withdrew their support and the scheme folded.

Just about 50 meters east of the Sail Training Centre, and only accessible via a narrow path through the reed beds, is a small landing stage, currently used as a fishing platform. Once I imagined that this place could have been the beginnings of the failed harbour scheme, but really the clue to its previous use is given away in the local name for the deep water channel that runs by it. It is called the "Lime Kiln Channel".

Cement is a relatively new invention and did not exist before the 20th century. Buildings prior to this date used lime based mortar. Production of the mortar was a major industry. In fact most small ports and canal docks served a nearby lime kiln that produced the Quicklime required to make the mortar. Lime based mortar is made by adding water to Quicklime (referred to as slaking) and then adding sand or gravel to the "slaked lime" as we do today with cement. This was (and is) a potentially dangerous operation as a great deal of heat can be generated during the slaking process. All through history there are stories of builders who have been badly injured or even killed because they tried to short cut the slow and careful procedure needed to add the water to the Quicklime. Quicklime and the associated lime based morter date back to the depths of antinquity and the use of lime based mortar in the construction of brick dwellings was universal before the middle of the 20th century. Quicklime is manufactured by heating chalk or limestone to more than 700 deg centrigrade in a lime kiln. Due to the difficulty in transporting and storing Quicklime, it was was usually manufactured at coastal ports where access to the raw materials of coal and limestone (or chalk) was relatively easy. Consequently one of the industrial products produced at Hengistbury Head was Quicklime. Old Lime kilns still exist there today, and although they are overgrown with scrub and full of sand they would probably still be capable of producing Quicklime with a little refurbishment.

. No doubt John Holloway and the Hengistbury Mining Company would have also had a hand in producing the Quicklime or at least providing the raw materials. The little fishing platform and Holloways Docks would have been ideally placed to provide the raw materials and then ship the resultant Quicklime up the river to Christchurch and over the heath to the rapidly expanding new town of Bournemouth.

The fishing platform 50 metres east of the Sail Training centre
A lonely place sitting on the edge of "Lime Kiln Channel"

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