WE HAVE deep roots at St Peter’s Church.

Thanks to McDonalds volunteers and community crew, at last, the jungle has been tamed.

Thanks also to the late John Walker for his specialist help in locating the grave near steps at the rear of the cemetery. Unfortunately, most of the headstones were removed.

My great-grandmother’s youngest sister is buried there. Mary Eleanor Evelyn was only 13 months old when she died of scarlatina convulsions in Poole Hill on March 5, 1866.

Tragically, her father George Mower-Evelyn died of TB on May 23, 1866, at an unknown address in Upper Parkstone (buried in Islington).

The census of 1881 shows three lodgers at Mrs Evelyn’s and family Annie and Ellen, Heath and Amelia Spilman – school teachers, probably at St Peter’s.

Does anyone have any new information on pre-1868 Bournemouth and Poole history, or visitors’ guides, residents’ histories, etc?

The Evelyn family were originally farmers in Harrow and Stanmore in the late 15th century.

George Evelyn was a pioneer in establishing gunpowder mills in 1565. In 1589, he obtained a master patent to make gunpowder.

John Evelyn was a diarist and author born in 1620.

Our own history only dates back to 1791 in Walworth Surrey, just a short distance from Deptford.

MARTIN HUSE

Bird’s Hill Road, Poole

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