The silver tree in Baiter, Poole – an iPhone picture I snapped in 2012…
We have holidayed in Poole in Dorset so many times now, and often walked along the edge of the harbour in the Baiter leisure area, but until this summer we had always turned back when we reached what I call “the silver tree” at the end of the car park.
But this time I looked at the map and worked out we could carry on and end up doing a round trip back to the quay via Poole Park and the town centre. This is what we saw…
It was around 9am when we set out from the Thistle Quay Hotel where we stay, and there is always lots of activity in the harbour.
A regular visitor to Poole, the tanker Whitchallenger pictured turning around to dock – while a little leisure fishing boat heads out from the moorings to the sea
A small harbour dredging vessel
My favourite ferry, the Barfleur, heads over to Cherbourg in Normandy…
I have written elsewhere about Baiter, where my Hayes ancestors lived in the 19th century, when fishing families crowded there in tenements and courtyards.
But today it is a pleasant walk beside the sea…
Looking back towards the industrial quay from Baiter…
Beachcomber with metal detector…
Is this rock samphire (Crithmum maritimum)?
Umbellifer on the rocks…
Black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), paddling…
House sparrows (Passer domesticus) on the playing field beside the sea…
Carrion crow (Corvus corone) on the seaweed shore…
On this year’s trip to Dorset I saw only one oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), and that was in the distance, so this is greatly zoomed – I LOVE those red eyes!
Eventually we reached the silver tree. Until now I had no idea what species it was, I had in my head that it was a “wayfaring tree”, as that had silver-backed leaves, but I find now that a wayfaring tree is just a shrub called Viburnum lantana.
The silver tree…
The silver-backed leaves of the tree…
After a bit of researching in my plant books, I think I have identified it as a white (or silver) poplar – Latin name Populus alba. I am fascinated by this partly because as a child exploring a big old dictionary (and starting with the letter A), I made a note of the word abele, meaning white poplar, but until now I had never seen one and it had seemed as magical as something in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings!
Poole harbour beyond the silver tree, looking over to the wealthy Sandbanks area…
A small ruined building stands near the silver tree. I can’t recall if this was a powder house used for gunpowder in the Napoleonic Wars or an isolation hospital for plague victims…
The beachside rocks here are still covered with plants…
I don’t know this plant, but is it tansy (Tanacetum vulgare)?
What do you think? Spot the ladybird – good name for a ladybird!
Looking away from the harbour, towards the town…
This part of the harbour is apparently deceptively treacherous
A last look at the water before we turn inland…
We will have to cross the railway track to get to the park…
There’s a small road under the line…
…nice brickwork
And there’s Poole Park boating lake, time for a sit-down. In a comment Philip Strange tells me that shed on the left is the clubhouse for the people who use that part of the lake for radio-controlled model boats…
We watched two men churning around to clear the pondweed…
This is the weed they were clearing…
A pleasant couple who were walking their dog stopped for a chat – they thought it was a bit late now to be clearing the weed as the summer season was nearly over. This was the end of July.
The little vehicles were scooping up the weed…
..and dumping it on the side
They were whipping up quite a froth
Black-headed gull beside the lake
The swan boats were being towed into position for the day
It looks like it was possible to walk across the lake to the park, but strangely dangerous…
Over there was the town centre…
Beyond the park-side houses is the Barclays Bank HQ
The seagulls have found some useful little islands
Brambles and barbed wire – we were now on the other side of the railway line
Beechnuts (Fagus sylvatica)
At the end of the park was this lovely big tree
It looked very old and if I lived in Poole I might “follow” it
But what species was it? The leaves look roughly deltoid. Is it another sort of poplar?
As we left the park I saw a crow eating this – it looked like the scene of a gruesome killing! But it was watermelon from a refuse bag….
These flats looked interesting…
Seldown Park eco-village – it’s an award-winning development of 85 houses and flats encouraging energy conservation and sustainable construction
Then there’s a motel…
Beyond that the fun was over. We had difficulty crossing busy main roads and ended up around the dirty back end of the concrete structures of the town centre, coming out in familiar territory near the Dolphin shopping mall. But I do like a good round trip…
The Squirrelbasket 
Thanks for that lovely trip around Dorset. Most interesting as I love this part of the country. Superb photos.
Thank you as always for your kind remarks.
Best wishes 🙂
Ah, one of our stomping grounds Pat.
You may have been right for both in respect of the ruin! http://www.pooletrail.com/stories/54
I remember pondweed closing the pond for a while. You might be interested in this article … http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/10588742.Islands_are_weed_cause/?ref=rc
We could have met for a coffee!
Thanks for that – I’ve had a look at the articles. Very interesting. Although it always seems to me a very SMALL building.
As for the weed, the couple we talked to who were saying the clearing was too little too late were from Yorkshire originally. SO many people end up in lovely Poole.
Sorry I missed that coffee! My husband is a bit shy…
All the best 🙂
The oystercatcher is wonderful! I really appreciate these little tours you take us on. The scenery in this post is a lot like the waterfront areas here on Vancouver Island. Of course, we don’t have any ruins from the Napoleonic Wars!
Thank you for your kind comment.
I didn’t actually recognise the oystercatcher at first from a distance, on the grass. But I saw something pied flapping around, realised it wasn’t a magpie and zoomed in. I almost like the “painterly” way it has come out because of the excessive magnification.
You may not have the Napoleonic Wars, but I guess you have rich and very long history from the indigenous peoples there.
All the best 🙂
Yes, you’re right–longhouses and totem poles, plus a lot of wonderful contemporary First Nations art.
That path across the lake is quite comical, looks like it was designed to let people fall in!
And that man is carrying a child!
I’m surprised people are even allowed to walk over, as health and safety rules are usually so strict. I would have loved to have given it a go, though!
All the best 🙂
What a lovely place for a Holliday, looks like you had nice weather too. The yellow flower is Tansy from the Daisy family. Lovely post.
Amanda xx
Thanks for confirming the tansy, I will know it in future. I was thinking at first it was something like an Achillea.
And thank you for your kind comments. We always seem to get some blue-sky days in Poole.
All the best 🙂
Thanks for this tour of Poole, I enjoyed it and it brought back many memories. I still walk under the bridge and around the lake two or three times a year as my mother lives in Parkstone.
The walkway isn’t as scary as it looks although I do remember one lunchtime when I was at Poole Grammar School (then in the centre of the town) being chased around the walkway by some older boys.
I didn’t fall in that time but my mother tells me that, when I was quite young, I rode my bike into the lake.
I seem to recall that the Barclays building was used for filming Doctor Who once, it’s certainly very bleak close up.
Thanks for your comments – and anecdotes! I’m visualising you with your feet in the air, blithely riding your bike into the water.
I wonder if anyone has ever drowned in that lake?
I can imagine the Barclays Building being used for Doctor Who – although I thought we here in Cardiff had a monopoly on Doctor Who sets!
One thing perhaps you can answer – what is that big shiny building in front of the Barclays Building? Or is that an extension to the Barclays building? It’s quite new so I don’t seem to be able to find it on Google maps or Streetview.
All the best 🙂
I have no idea what the big shiny building is, I will try to have a look when I am next there.
A bit more about the walkway: it loops round to enclose and separate a bit of the lake which is used for sailing model radio-controlled boats. I think that the walkway was built explicitly to create the model boat enclosure but that could be an incorrect memory. In your photo “And there’s Poole Park boating lake” the shed on the right is the clubhouse.
Thanks for that extra information. I’ve added some of it into one of the captions.
I’m kicking myself that I don’t know what that building is, as I think I looked when going past but don’t remember what I saw. Is it something to do with the health service?
All the best 🙂
Another fascinating little tour – I’ve only been to Poole once before over a New Year holiday when it was very bracing! You’re right about the Rock Samphire. Best wishes
Yes, it would be a bit bracing in winter!
It’s funny to think the rock samphire is the same one you eat with fish? I suppose you only pick the young sprouts.
All the best 🙂
The shiny building is/or was called the Merck House. It is at the junction of Mount Pleasant and Seldown Road. Basically, if you come out of the park looking towards the bus station, walk towards the Lighthouse Arts centre, Merck house is on your right. The perspective of your picture makes it look next door to the bank. As someone who lives in Poole, Im always interested to see what others have noticed about the town, photographically speaking. Thank you for sharing them.
Thank you for your kind comments!
Merck House – great, now I know! So that’s a pharmaceutical company HQ? No wonder it’s so shiny.
I love Poole and wish I hadn’t missed so many decades of going back there between the time my mother died and the last few years, when I have rediscovered it. As I have family and ancestors there, I never really feel like a visitor.
All the best 🙂
Merck is the company that took over what used to be called British Drug Houses, a long established Poole name. BDH, as they were referred to, were responsible for one of the Poole smells that I remember when growing up there. The other two Poole smells were the coal being brought by overhead carriers from the quay to the power station and the smell of grain being unloadeds from ships at the quay. Ah nostalgia!
Thanks for all that!
The smell of grain sounds interesting…
My childhood memory from Poole is standing on the bridge over the railway in the High Street and the coal smell of the steam train as it went underneath.
All the best 🙂
Yes, how could I have omitted the bridge and the experience (and the smell) of being surrounded by steam as a train went through!
I also grew up close to “Severn Tunnel Junction” in Monmouthshire and we would stand on top of the entrance to the tunnel and get the same coal-and-steam effect. It’s funny how we were so excited when we went on a new “diesel” train in those days!
Best wishes 🙂
I also grew up close to “Severn Tunnel Junction” in Monmouthshire and we would stand on top of the entrance to the tunnel and get the same coal-and-steam effect. It’s funny how we were so excited when we went on a new “diesel” train in those days!
Best wishes 🙂