What is Sandbanks?
Sandbanks is a peninsula in Dorset, in central southern England. In the last 10 years a lot of older properties have been pulled down and replaced by others worth millions of pounds, making it the fourth most exxpensive place to live in the world.
What makes Sandbanks So Special?
Sandbanks is a narrow peninsula that makes up the southern part of the entrance to Poole Harbour, which is the second largest natural harbour in the world, after Sydney in Australia.
One side of the peninsula consists of Sandbanks Road, a 2 lane road with a low sea wall and spectacular views across Poole Harbour. The other side of the road features the millionaires properties, which all have steps down to the beach.
The beaches are comprised of very fine golden sand, making them some of the nicest in the world.
The peninsula widens at the end, where there is a car ferry which takes passengers and vehicles across the entrance to the harbour to Studland and Shell Bay. The ferry is pulled across the channel on chains, necessary because of the strong currents that flow through the narrow entrance to the harbour when the tide is going in or out.
Shell Bay, on the other side of the harbour entrance, also has wonderful beaches.
A Brief History Of Sandbanks
Up to the 1930's, Sandbanks consisted of several houses, but otherwise was just sand dunes and a few fishermen's huts. It was only after that time, when tourism started to become more developed that properties began to spring up.
The large hotel by the ferry, The Haven Hotel, is where Marconi performed a lot of his radio experiments in the 1930's.
Poole Harbour
Poole Harbour is famous for not only being the second largest in the world, it has also been for centuries a major port on the south coast, and in recent years has seen added ferry crossings to Cherbourg in Normandy.
There are several islands in the harbour, most notably Brownsea Island, which was the site of the first Boy Scout camp in the 1920's. The island has a small castle on the side facing the harbour entrance, which makes for very scenic photographs when crossing on the ferry.
One fact that is not so well known is that Brownsea Island and the castle were the inspiration for Kirrin island in the Famous Five books written by Enid Blyton. I don't think there is a child who grew up in England in the 1950's, 60's or 70's who didn't read these great adventure stories. Not so popular in the USA, but they rank with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew in popularity.
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Contributor's Note
Apparently my grandmother could have bought the whole of sandbanks for a few thousand pounds in the 1930's, when it was still just mostly sand dunes. She used to have a property there, but sadly she couldn't see the potential back then, so instead ofbeing a millionaire, here I am working like most of us...
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