, a 2,000-year-old
dugout canoe discovered during dredging works in
Poole Harbour and now in the
Poole Museum The area around modern Poole has been inhabited for at least the past 2,500 years, with nearby
Christchurch Harbour evidencing human activity dating back to the
Neolithic period at
Hengistbury Head. During the 3rd century BC,
Celtic-speaking people known as the
Durotriges moved from hilltop settlements at
Maiden Castle and
Badbury Rings to heathland around the
River Frome and
Poole Harbour. The
Romans landed at Poole during their
conquest of Britain in the 1st century and took over an
Iron Age settlement at
Hamworthy, an area just west of the modern town centre. This was used as a supply base for the fortress at Lake Farm,
Ashington and a settlement at
Vindocladia (Bradbury Rings). The town's name may have originated around the post-Roman or Anglo-Saxon periods, and seems to have originally applied to the harbour. It is derived from the late
Brittonic or early
Old English words
pol meaning a pool or creek. By the middle to late
Anglo-Saxon period, Poole was included in the Kingdom of
Wessex. The settlement was used as a base for fishing and the harbour a place for ships to anchor on their way to the River Frome and the important Anglo-Saxon town of
Wareham. Poole experienced two large-scale
Viking invasions during this era: in 876,
Guthrum sailed his fleet through the harbour to attack Wareham, and in 1015,
Canute began his conquest of England in Poole Harbour, using it as a base to raid and pillage Wessex. Following the
Norman conquest of England, Poole rapidly grew into a busy port as the importance of Wareham declined. The town was part of the
manor of Canford but does not exist as an identifiable entry in the
Domesday Book. The earliest written mention of Poole occurred on a document from 1196 describing the newly built St James's Chapel in "La Pole". The
Lord of the Manor, Sir
William Longspée, sold a
charter of liberties to the
burgesses of Poole in 1248 to raise funds for his participation in the
Seventh Crusade. In 1568, Poole gained further autonomy when it was granted legal independence from Dorset and made a
county corporate by the Great Charter of
Elizabeth I. During the
English Civil War, Poole's
puritan stance and its merchants' opposition to the
ship money tax introduced by
King Charles I led to the town declaring for
Parliament. Poole escaped any large-scale attack and with the
Royalists on the brink of defeat in 1646, the Parliamentary garrison from Poole laid siege to and captured the nearby Royalist stronghold at
Corfe Castle. mansion built in 1798 for a wealthy Newfoundland merchant Poole established successful commerce with the
North American colonies in the 16th century, including the important fisheries of
Newfoundland. By the early 18th century, Poole had more ships trading with North America than any other English port and vast wealth was brought to Poole's merchants. This prosperity supported much of the development which now characterises the Old Town where many of the
medieval buildings were replaced with
Georgian mansions and
terraced housing. The end of the
Napoleonic Wars and the conclusion of the
War of 1812 ended Britain's monopoly over the Newfoundland fisheries and other nations took over services provided by Poole's merchants at a lower cost. Poole's Newfoundland trade rapidly declined and within a decade most merchants had ceased trading. The town grew rapidly during the
Industrial Revolution as urbanisation took place and the town became an area of
mercantile prosperity and overcrowded poverty. At the turn of the 19th century, nine out of ten workers were engaged in harbour activities. On 1 January 1848 the port had 116 registered vessels (13,641 tons) of its own but as the century progressed, ships became too large for the shallow harbour and the port lost business to the deepwater ports at
Liverpool,
Southampton and
Plymouth. During
World War II, Poole was the third-largest embarkation point for
D-Day landings of
Operation Overlord and afterwards served as a base for supplies to the
allied forces in Europe. Poole was also an important centre for the development of
Combined Operations and the base for a
US Coast Guard rescue
flotilla of 60
cutters. Much of the town suffered from German bombing during the war - in which the Municipal Borough lost 75 civilian lives - and years of neglect in the post-war
economic decline. Major
redevelopment projects began in the 1950s and 1960s and large areas of
slum properties were demolished and replaced with modern public housing and facilities. Many of Poole's historic buildings were demolished during this period, particularly in the Old Town area of Poole. Consequently, a
Conservation Area was created in the town centre in 1975 to preserve Poole's most notable buildings. The
Poole explosion of 1988 caused 3,500 people to be evacuated out of the
town centre in the biggest peacetime evacuation the country had seen since the
World War II. ==Governance==