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Poole Leasing

Did You Know?

One of the most famous and daring smuggling incidents The Custom House Raid took place in Poole in 1747. 60 armed smugglers broke in to regain a contraband cargo of tea that had been seized. Even earlier, in 1405, the quay was attacked by Spanish raiders, seeking vengeance for the spoils of Harry Paye.

The first scout camp was on Brownsea Island, Poole 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.

Poole gets its name from a corruption of the Celtic 'pwl'.
By the early 13th century it was a town of importance and charters such as the Longspee of 1248 and Montacute of 1371 confirmed its status.

The office of sheriff was created by the Great Charter of Queen Elizabeth I, and Poole is one of the few towns still to have a sheriff. The King Charles Inn is named after King Charles of France who fled to to the area in 1830.

An Iron Age boat (c295 BC) was discovered in Poole Harbour.
The Boat House, Hamworthy has items out of the ship The Mauritaina. Only open to the public during Dorset Heritage week by appointment only.

Brownsea Island in Poole has been called various names, Bruncksey, Brouneckesey, Brankesey and Branksea before finally settling on Brownsea. Between 1927-1961 Mrs Bonham-Christie, a recluse owned the island and would not allow visitors.

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.

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.

Penske Cars – 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.

Sunseeker International in Poole – have been successfully manufacturing high performance motor yachts for the last 50 years.  The team of craftsmen started out custom fitting their own designs of motor boats and now employ upwards of 2,500 craftsmen, engineers and designers.

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.

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