The seaside town of Bournemouth began in 1810 when one Louis Tregonwell built a house on the side of the valley. As a customs official, Tregonwell had patrolled the beach for smugglers and enjoyed the location. The house survives in Exeter Road as the enlarged Royal Exeter Hotel, earning its royal status when the Empress of Austria stayed there in 1888.
Nearby is the massive Bournemouth International Centre, built on the site of a thatched cottage where Charles Darwin stayed in 1862 while looking for flowers by the brook. The heroine of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles lived across the valley in Westover Road, for this is his 'Sandbourne'.
Looking down on the Upper Gardens is the massive town hall. Set back here is the tower of the late 19th-century St Stephen's Church, which was described by the poet John Betjeman as "the best church in Bournemouth".
Further on through the tranquil valley, you pass a red-brick castellated tower hiding in the foliage. There is a marked change where the valley opens out and enters the Borough of Poole. Here weeping willows have been planted by the water, and two streams join to form the River Bourne. The one from the north comes via a short underground channel from Coy Pond. The pond, never a real 'decoy' for entrapping wildfowl, was created in 1886 when the northern stream was piped under a new railway embankment.
The stream feeding the pond comes from Canford Heath, via Bourne Bottom, below Talbot Heath. This isolated segment of Dorset heathland, 160 feet above the end of a valley, is arguably amongst the finest in western Europe.
The purple heather once made beekeeping common, and the heath hosts many rare or endangered species, such as the smooth snake and the sand lizard. The nightjar and hobby are among the rare birds that may be seen here, along with the elusive Dartford warbler.
When you approach Talbot Village, a 75-foot church tower is the only clue that within the large pinewood beyond Talbot Heath lies a secret model village. It was planned in 1850 by philanthropist Georgina Talbot, who was inspired to help the poor after reading a German book, The Goldiggers Village.
Each cottage was set in an acre of land and had a well and a pigsty. There is also a school and Gothic almshouses built of Portland stone. Each villager promised 'To love God, keep the Commandments and honour the Queen'. The church, which was completed in 1870, had clockwork chimes because Georgina Talbot feared that if bell ringers were employed, they might spend their fees on drink.
