East Howe is a residential district of the town of

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

on the south coast of England.

Origins

The district takes its name from the now-archaic English word "howe", variously defined as denoting a depression or a stretch of high ground. There is a ridge of high ground stretching across to the west, which appears to have given rise to the toponyms High Howe, West Howe and East Howe, certainly prior to 1826 when all three settlements were marked on Greenwood's map of Dorset. Previously, a 'How Corner' had featured on Paterson's 1785 map of Dorset, seemingly denoting a bend in the Poole to Ringwood road (now the A348) as it passed through the High Howe area.

'Headless Cross Lane'

East Howe is approached from the ancient district of

Kinson Kinson is a former village which has been absorbed by the town of Bournemouth, in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. The area became part of Bournemouth on 1 April 1931. There were two ...

via East Howe Lane, which was known as 'Headless Cross Lane' in the 1920s on account of the T-shape formed by its junction with Wimborne Road. This T-junction was marked as 'Headless Cross' on Ordnance Survey maps between 1888 and 1969. Previously it had been known as 'Rigler's Cross' after William Rigler, a landowner at the time of the 1851 census, whose descendants still live in the Kinson and East Howe areas. The junction was reconfigured in 1962 when Broadway Lane was extended to meet up with Headless Cross; around the same time, land on the south-west side of the junction was acquired by

Bournemouth Borough Council Bournemouth Borough Council was the local authority of Bournemouth in Dorset, England and ceased to exist on 1 April 2019. It was a unitary authorities in England, unitary authority, although between 1974 and 1997 it was an administrative non-m ...

who proceeded to lay it out as a recreation area. The area was to be christened 'Headless Cross Park', but on reflection this was thought to sound too gruesome and 'East Howe Recreation Ground' was suggested as an alternative.

Brook Road

Further south, East Howe Lane is joined by Brook Road in which there once stood Howe Lodge, an eighteenth-century property, thought to have been home to the local smuggler and landowner

Isaac Gulliver Isaac Gulliver (c. 1745–1822) was an English smuggler based on the South Coast of England, South Coast. Gulliver and his gang ran fifteen luggers to transport gin, silk, lace and tea from the Continent to Poole Bay and came to control the coas ...

. Described as a "rambling battlemented manor house", it was demolished in 1958 to allow for road-widening. Its last tenant prior to demolition was William Charles Veal, who rented it from

and ran a timber-yard there; when digging in the garden, soon after he moved in around 1947, he came upon a brick tunnel and was able to walk along it for 30 or 40 yards before it came to a sudden stop. The tunnel was accessed via a cellar beneath a trapdoor in the living room, presumably a relic of Gulliver's smuggling past.

Politics

East Howe is part of the Bournemouth West parliamentary constituency. East Howe is divided between two wards for elections to

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, which styles itself BCP Council, is the Local government in England, local authority for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. Th ...

;

and Redhill and Northbourne.

References

{{Bournemouth Areas of Bournemouth