THEY look like two cottages that you would find in rural Dorset but they stood on the border of Pokesdown and West Southbourne, quietly tucked away And they were there long before Bournemouth’s founding father, Squire Tregonwell, built his home.

These colour pictures of the Lily of the Valley white, thatched cottages (shown left) were brought to the Echo by John Hartley, of Magna Road, Bearwood, who said they stood at the end of Sandy Lane on what is now the site of Appletree Close, named, he supposes, after the orchard that stood behind them.

“I believe the two cottages were the last farm cottages of Stourfield Farm,” Mr Hartley reports.

“The cottages were owned by Mr and Mrs Cox who rented out the smaller of the two.

“The ladies in the photo are Mrs Cox, in the red dress, and my sister.

“The photos were taken in 1949/50 by my Canadian cousin on Kodachrome slides.”

The properties – and how they came to be called Lily of the Valley Cottages – had an interesting history.

They were built more than 250 years ago, and were once the homes of farm labourers.

Bournemouth Libraries senior heritage librarian Peter Kazmierczak believes they were part of a tiny community surrounding Pokesdown Farm, which predated Stourfield House which was built in 1766.

Pokesdown, he discovered, is mentioned in the Christchurch Priory records in the 1660s that state that Henry Mantle of Pokesdown was elected a churchwarden on April 23 1660.

“Accounts for 1662-3 record ‘the receipt of one shilling from Henry Mantle of Poxdowne in payment ‘for a place for his wife where his mother did sit.’ “Whether Henry lived in one of these cottages, who knows?” said Peter.

At some point, probably in the 19th century a man came across the cottages and found one empty. He moved in and obtained, effectively, squatter’s right.

And he named it Lily of the Valley having found a nameplate washed up on the beach.

Albert Cox – whose father was the first house decorator in Bournemouth and who followed the building trade himself – bought the property from the former squatter’s executors in around 1909.

In those days, he later recalled, he would watch cows being milked in what half a century later was a forest of brick.

Mr and Mrs Cox were still living in the cottage in 1959 when the Echo interviewed Albert.

At that time peach trees grew up the side of the white stone, clay and straw walls, roses around the door and pear trees in the garden.

He still had the old Lily of the Valley nameplate stored in his shed and said it was an ‘oasis’ – a quiet unknown corner of Bournemouth that couldn’t even be seen from nearby Sunnyhill Road.

The cottages still stood there in 1966 when the black and white picture shown left was taken, but by April 1970 had been knocked down to make way for a development taking place on the site.

When the bulldozers moved in they were certainly well over 200 years old and possibly 300 years old.

Today, they are lost without trace.