Branksome Park

All Saints Church, Branksome Park
All photographs on this pagecourtesy of Kim Parker, ©2010

Branksome Park is a suburb of Poole, which adjoins Branksome. The area covers approximately 360 acres, mostly occupied by housing, and includes Branksome Chine. For centuries Branksome Park was a vast tract of land encompassing wild heathland, wooded ravines and high cliffs bordering the sea. Queen Elizabeth I had a hunting lodge here called Cerne Abbas, after the picturesque Dorset village - sadly replaced by a many-gabled mansion in Victorian times, now demolished. Until the early 19th century, travellers between Poole and Christchurch traversed the area as quickly as possible to avoid the lawless gangs of smugglers infesting the chines, as the ravines are known locally. It was in the early 1800s that the Bruce family, who then owned the estate, laid out the pine plantations that give the area such character today and named it Branksome Park, after the setting of Sir Walter Scott’s 1805 poem, “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”.

In 1851 Charles W. Packe, M.P., acquired Branksome Park. He commissioned the Scots Romantic, Robert Burn, to design him a house, the result of which was Branksome Tower, a plain stone tudor-style mansion built by the sea. The 750-acre estate was surrounded by a huge wall and massive gates were built at the end of the rhododendron-bordered drive, now The Avenue. Packe died in 1867 and was laid to rest alongside his wife in a mausoleum, which still stands at the entrance to Branksome Dene Chine.

The estate was then acquired by Henry Bury, a visionary northener, who kept 250 acres for his own personal use and developed the rest, taking care to preserve the natural environment. In September 1875 he laid the foundation stone for what would become All Saints’ Church, which he never saw, as he died a year later. The parish was established and the church consecrated by the Bishop of Salisbury in 1877, with a member of the Bury family, Edward Bury, as the first vicar.

The church is a simple brick structure faced with Purbeck stone, to which a new porch was added in 2003. It is noted for its reredos, a fine depiction of the Last Supper sculpted by an unknown artist from a single block of stone. The 13th-century octagonal christening font was brought from the redundant Church of St. Edmunds in Salisbury in the 1980s. Many members of the Bury family are commemorated inside the church, with inscriptions in their honour around the beautiful stained glass windows depicting the Gospel saints. The churchyard, graced by cedar-trees whose seeds were brought from Peking over a century ago, is packed with particularly tall tombstones, a last reminder of the worldly wealth of those who lie buried there.

Gablehurst, by J Nixon Horsfield

In 1905 Branksome Urban District was absorbed into Poole, while in 1930 the Parish was divided into two, with all that part of Branksome north of the Weymouth-to-Waterloo railway line forming the new parish of Branksome St. Aldhelms.

There is currently no Online Parish Clerk (OPC) for Branksome Park

If you are interested in becoming OPC for the Parish, please contact the Co-ordinator