BEAUTIFULLY produced with gilt lettering on the front, it marked the Bournemouth centenary celebrations of exactly 100 years ago.

Full of colour illustrations, it was produced to commemorate the centenary fetes taking place in the resort.

A copy of the Bournemouth Centenary Fetes Official Souvenir has just come to light again thanks to Margaret Simester, who brought it into the Daily Echo office where her husband Arthur, who died in 1974, worked as a reporter and sub- editor for 30 years Mrs Simester, from Ensbury Park, has cherished the keepsake, which may be the only copy still in existence.

It was published and sold at Bright’s Stores Ltd, which later became Beales.

Complete with illustrations and photographs, it gives an insight into how much the town and the nearby areas have changed as Bournemouth celebrates its bicentenary this year.

The official souvenir tells how the town, described as “the handsomest and best laid-out resort on the British Coast”, was founded in 1810 “with a solitary house” built for Mr L D G Tregonwell.

Just a century later, the population had risen to 80,000 people, with £150,000 raised annually by local rates.

It goes on to say that Bournemouth had “thought Imperially” on the question of its first centenary celebrations with “all sections of the community determined that both in the magnitude and description of the fetes, all past records in Britain shall be broken”.

The programme details Bournemouth’s development during the first 100 years, its climate, places of entertainment, sports, public gardens and parks.

It also gives some description of surrounding areas such as Boscombe, Wimborne, Christchurch and Corfe Castle.

It talks of Bournemouth as having “a seafront entirely free from all evidences to remind one of the work-a-day world”, adding: “There are no shops and its cliffs surmounted by the broad overcliff drives give no indication of the town beyond”.

And it pictures the famous artistes of the day, including Backhaus, a German pianist, Clara Butt, an English contralto, Plunket Greene, the Irish baritone, and Mme Melba, the Australian diva... who was said to have inspired the peach melba sundae.