Confused about County Boundaries

[Lydart]

I've got relatives who on a census are recorded as living in Moordown, HANTS ... yet when I look on a recent map via Google, I find Moordown is part of Bournemouth, in Dorset.

If the boundaries have changed, can anyone give me a ref as to how, when , why and where this happened ? 

Here's hoping !

Lydart

[Necromancer]

Interesting, it must have been after 1901, as the underlying entries for these PIECE numbers all say Hampshire .... dunno why it doesnt show in 1881 ?

RG 9/667 Parish: Holdenhurst Hamlet: Bournemouth (4) Hamlet: Redball Hamlet: Moordown Hamlet: Charminster Hamlet: Stronden Hamlet: Great Dean & Little Down Hamlet: Muccleshell Hamlet: Muscliffe Hamlet: Throop 1861

RG 10/1179 Civil Parish, Township or Place: Holdenhurst (pt) (Divided between RG 10/1178-1179) (4): Moordown, Throop, Winton 1871

RG 12/905 Civil Parish, Township or Place: Moordown (part) (Divided between RG 12/904 & 905) 1891

RG 13/1045 Registration Sub-District: Bournemouth Civil Parish, Township or Place: Boscombe (part) Bournemouth (CB) (part) Moordown Winton 1901

[Lydart]

But have the actual boundaries of the counties changed ?  Or just been re-named ?  I have lived near Monmouth for nearly 30 years, and during that time we have been Monmouthshire, then Gwent, and now again Monmouthshire ... but the actual line on the map has stayed the same (I think !)

[alcrighton]

Hi Lydart,

http://www.fhsc.org.uk/genuki/reg/ham.htm has information on registration districts in Hampshire and when they were changed.  I looks as though Bournemouth was transferred from Hampshire to Dorset in 1974.

Regards,

Al

[Necromancer]

Not sure - looking at the map, Poole, B'mouth are just in Dorset .... and Moordown is right in Bournemouth - perhaps parish (civil) boundaries were changed ... 1891 does split the place across 2 PIECES ... rather than an actual County boundary ?


PS. Thanks Al - so it was after 1901 ...

[stockman fred]

They changed the County boundaries when I was at school in Bournemouth in the early 70s. The idea was that Dorset didn't have many big towns so Hampshire had to give up Bournemouth to give them a greater urban population.
The boundary today runs down the River Avon to the East of Bournemouth.
I think Moordown was a small village that became swamped by the growth of Bournemouth in the late 19th century.
Fred

[Lydart]

Hampshire had to give up Bournemouth (to Dorset) to give them a greater urban population

... this reminds me of Queen Victoria giving the Kaiser Mt Kilimanjaro for a present, because she has two mountains (Kili and Mt Kenya) and he had none ... thereby necessitating re-drawing the maps of a huge area of East Africa ! 

[stockman fred]

They've also done a little bit of tinkering since the 70s to include other areas in East Dorset where new growth has occured. I think the economic reason was to increase the rates income to help cover the large rural area in the County.
A friend's granny lived at Moordown in the First War. She said that there was an airfield nearby where the Canadian airmen would take them up for joy rides in their wood and canvas planes.
Fred

[Tony Payne]

I thought it was in the late 60's that the boundary changed, but it could be early 70's - I grew up in Poole so I distinctly remember it happening - but not exactly when.

In Westbourne (between Bournemouth & Poole), close to where the Wessex Way ends (if it still does) by what is now (or was) Frizzell House, there used to be a structure called County Gates, and that was where the counties were divided.  Poole was in Dorset, but both Bournemouth and Christchurch were in Hampshire.  After the change Bournemouth ended up in Dorset.

I think at the same time they tried (unsuccessfully?) to eliminate Rutland.