Upton Country Park: Poole, Dorset

Andrew Bogle was born in Jamaica in the early 1800s and was enslaved on the Hope Estate, a sugar plantation in St Andrew’s, Jamaica. When he was 25, Bogle was taken to England by the estate manager, Edward Tichborne, who intended to employ the former slave. He became Tichborne’s valet and accompanied him on his European honeymoon, and then lived at Upton House with the family. In 1836, he married another servant in Canford Magna church, a nurse named Elizabeth Young, and they had two sons. Unfortunately, their marriage was short-lived when Elizabeth died in 1845. She was buried in the churchyard in Hamworthy, Poole.

The Castleman Corkscrew: Broadstone, Poole

If I mentioned the Castleman Corkscrew to fellow Dorset residents, it is unlikely that they would really know what I am talking about. They might, however, be familiar with the Castleman Trailway, which is a 16.5 mile way-marked footpath from Poole to Ringwood...

The Roman Road: Poole

All my life, I have lived 2 houses away from a road called ‘Roman Road’, in 2 different houses, in 2 different towns, but still only 2 houses away. For context, I now live in Poole, Dorset, in the South Coast of England, before that in Corfe Mullen in Wimborne. The stretch of Roman Road near me is on the edge of Upton Heath, a Nature Reserve, which has always been a favourite place for walks, right on our doorstep.