Coffee and cake - or light lunch - Boscombe Cliff Bowls Club Cafe -

I have been told by several members that we have not enough daytime activities like coffee mornings and lunch meetups.

My response was we need hosts for these events,  but some members disagreed, host not necessary,  so lets give it a try.  

A BIT ABOUT THE CAFE

The Pavilion was erected in 1927 with Café facilities which are open to the general public as well as Boscombe Bowling Club  members. 

A BIT ABOUT THE GARDENS

The Green and Clubhouse is ideally situated looking over the cliff top at the corner of Woodlands Avenue and Southbourne Overcliff Drive. 

Boscombe Cliff Gardens were opened in 1900 and by 1904, some of the garden element had already vanished having been replaced by the first lawn bowls green to bear the name of Boscombe Cliff Bowls Club..

In 1910, the gardens covered a 6-acre site, which in addition to the bowls green encompassed a croquet lawn, and two grassed tennis courts as reported by “Mate and Riddle”.  The bowling club was obviously a great success story, for in 1922 permission was given to use the croquet lawn as a second bowling green in 1923.  Why then did bowls cease at this site?

A glance at the Bournemouth Daily Echo on 28th November 1924 tells the story.  “On the night of 26th/27th November a slice of the cliff, some 7ft in depth, had disappeared during a great storm which brought the bowling green to the very edge.  From Boscombe eastward the scour, due to the wash of waves, was phenomenal.  At places, the clay beneath the sand was exposed to a depth of several feet, the force of the waves at the foot of the cliffs causing a crumbling of the surface in parts.  This part of the cliff had already suffered whenever a storm occurred and erosion has been ongoing for several years.

With part of the green disappearing, play continued on the three rinks parallel to the sea whilst a new green was being constructed. The plot of land which was selected is where it is today on the opposite of the road and further along cliff at Woodlands Avenue.

Nowadays the maintenance of the greens and surrounds have been handed over to the club who are fully responsible for keeping them in superb condition.  Unfortunately the flower gardens have been neglected in recent years but hopefully with willing members from the Bowl it will continue the improvements made in 2015 in the years to come. .