A dolphin and three scallop shells

If you know Poole in Dorset, can you identify where you will find these two versions of the town coat of arms?

I love Poole in Dorset (where my mother was born) and have always been intrigued by the place’s coat of arms, with its heraldic dolphin and three shells – I thought they were cockles, as the town history trail is called the cockleshell trail, but Wikipedia says they are scallop shells. So I thought I would write a post about it, and share my images of three “sightings” of the arms.

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Poole Park: Lake knows no boundaries

A cormorant on Poole Park lake, Dorset

I love Poole in Dorset – and I remember visiting Poole Park as a child on holiday, but I hadn’t really given it a proper inspection until this summer.

We had fringed the southern bank of the lake on a walk from Baiter two years ago and you can see the blog post here: Poole Park: Beyond the silver tree.

But this time, starting from the same point in Baiter, we walked right around the other three sides of the lake that makes up the bulk of the park’s area (which is 110 acres or 45 hectares). A map may help us find our bearings…

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The streets of old Poole

Shiny elephants in the window of a Thai restaurant in Poole High Street

I am still catching up with my travels in September so I hope you will bear with me as I share some images of my favourite place – Poole in Dorset. I have been there so many times that I have already taken pictures of the main landmarks (see the links at the end of the post) – but this time I was snapping anything I fancied as we walked through the colourful back streets.

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Barque and barquentine

We spotted a couple of sailing ships in Dorset

On our recent trip to the Dorset coast we were lucky enough to see several tall ships – and after a bit of research I think I can now tell the difference between a barque and a barquentine.

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Is the Barfleur on her way home?

May 12, 2015 – the Barfleur is the blue arrow heading north from Spain into the Bay of Biscay on this MarineTraffic live ships map

I sometimes think I am the only person in the world who cares about the beautiful Barfleur car ferry, seen so often going in and out of Poole Harbour in Dorset, as she shuttles back and forth to Cherbourg in France. And I am probably the only person who thinks her beautiful!

The Barfleur in Poole, August 2013

The Barfleur has been missing for a couple of months

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Words: Warming the cockles of my heart

Succulent cockles – this image is from the Jose Andres Foods website

Although this post is about where the saying “warming the cockles of my heart” comes from, it is also all about cockles – and my most memorable food moment of last year. It’s hard to believe, but that highlight was a small bowl of the most wonderful cockles I have ever seen.

It was late July and we were at the Guildhall Tavern in Poole, Dorset, one of our favourite French restaurants. The cockles on offer as a starter were so fresh, said our host Severine, that they were not even on the menu yet.

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Poole Park: Beyond the silver tree…

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

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Upton House – captive flowers and wild fowl

Upton House in Poole, Dorset – now the setting for a small country park

My childhood holidays in the late 1950s and 1960s were spent in Upton, a suburb on the northern edge of Poole in Dorset. My mother was born in Poole and Upton was where her mother and sister still lived in those days.

But Upton House was unknown to me until a few years ago, as it was in private hands. In fact my cousin now tells me that when she was little the local lady of the Upton manor would go around distributing largesse to poor families like ours!

In this blog post I intended just to show the pictures I took of the lovely flowers in the walled garden and some of the wildfowl you can see from the shore at the bottom of the garden, but

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Dream machines on Poole Quay

A pair of magnificent Honda Goldwings…

I am just back from a stay in Poole, Dorset, and have many scenic pictures to share, but I thought I would throw in this little post about the Tuesday night motorbike get-togethers on Poole Quay.

Bike night on Poole Quay, with Brownsea Island in the background…

The events are held from April until

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A window into Poole Old Town…

The beautiful stained-glass window by Sarianne Durie in Scaplen’s Court Museum, Poole, Dorset

I’ve no idea of the title of this stained-glass window by Sarianne Durie in an upstairs room at Scaplen’s Court, Poole, Dorset, but I love it. I see the sea, and shells, sails, and maybe old buildings and the bones of whales…

I place it here simply as an introduction to my blog gallery page showing images of one of my favourite places in the world – the old town in Poole, where many of my mother’s ancestors lived and worked through several centuries.

Click here to see more:
Poole Old Town in pictures

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