Did You Know?

The town of Poole was probably founded in the late 12th century. Merchants from nearby Wareham, which was burned in 1139 during a civil war, may have founded it. Perhaps merchants from Wareham moved to Poole because it was easier to defend. Poole was built on a peninsula. Since it was surrounded by water on 3 sides it was, of course, easily defended. However, it began by the early 13th century Poole was a flourishing port..

Under Poole Harbour is Western Europe’s largest onshore oilfield, Wytch Farm. It has produced well over 150 million barrels and currently holds the world record for the largest land based drilling rig and the longest horizontal well at 8km.

Team Penske are the most successful Indy car race team in the history of motorsport. Since 1973 the cars have been principally designed and parts built in Poole.

Poole has been home to: Professor J R R Tolkein, author of ‘Lord of the Rings’ & ‘The Hobbit’, the composer Mantovani, ‘Wakey, Wakey’ band leader the late Billy Cotton, entertainer Roy Castle and John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi.

Marconi broadcast the first ever radio signals from the Haven Hotel at Sandbanks to the Isle of Wight in 1896.

Born in Poole in 1931, and famous for his spy novels, David John Moore Cornwell is his real name but he is better known by his pen name John le Carre.

Mrs Dingwall the famous race horse trainer had stables at Sandbanks and trained over seventy winners on the beach at Sandbanks.

Edgar Wright was born in Poole and after attending Bournemouth University went on to direct Spaced and co wrote and directed Shaun of the Dead with Simon Pegg.

The first scout camp was on Brownsea Island in 1907.  Scouts from across the world came to celebrate the centenary of the Scouting movement with a special camp on the island in 2007. 

On 3 August 1940 the first BOAC flying boat passenger flight across the Atlantic by a British Commercial Airline took off from Poole Harbour.

Tony Blackburn, who began his career with Radio Caroline and became a well known Radio DJ was born in Lilliput, Poole.

Out of all five Miss Worlds from Great Britain, Poole had two winners – Anne Sidney in 1964 and Sarah-Jane Hutt in 1983.

The sculpture on Poole Quay, ‘Sea Music’ was designed by the world famous sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, who used to holiday in the area.

It is not certain why Lilliput has that name. Lilliput was the name of a land in the novel Gulliver's Travels. According to some accounts there was a house called Lilliput House in the early 19th century (the first resident had the surname Gulliver) and the house gave the area its name.

Poole is reputed to be the 'largest natural harbour in Europe'. The length of the coastline inside Poole Harbour measures 143km’s just under 100 miles, that’s one kilometre less than the entire coast of Dorset.