John Needham – författare

Bournemouth in the 1950s & ’60s offers a rare glimpse of life in the town during a fascinating period, which started with post-war austerity and ended with Britain becoming the music and fashion capital of the world. This volume – featuring a superb collection of colour images of Bournemouth’s holiday heyday – it focusses on Bournemouth as it is most fondly remembered: as a great seaside resort.

Bournemouth at War: A Year-by-Year Account of Life in the Second World War

The sixties, seventies and eighties were decades of great change. Many towns and cities were redeveloped with projects that dramatically affected the character of the place. People’s shopping habits were altered as supermarkets took over from traditional stores and corner shops. Leisure habits were changing too, as cheap air travel led to the arrival of the foreign package holiday and a new range of leisure facilities were developed at home. Fashions, as ever, were changing in this period, reflecting radical changes in society and the ways in which we viewed ourselves. Transport also evolved, with a move away from the railway and buses, creating a strain on the roads leading to new road schemes.These changes in people’s habits and lifestyles were keenly felt in Bournemouth on the south coast of England. As the town grew in size, the traditional seaside resort also became a conference centre. Areas of the town and landmarks were redeveloped, sometimes controversially, and the town’s service and financial industries expanded alongside the wide range of cultural activities on offer. Local author John Needham recaptures it all in this fascinating portrayal of the town and its people over the course of these most nostalgic decades.

The first trams ran in Bournemouth in 1902 but the efforts to introduce trams into the Bournemouth and Poole area began in the 1880s. The authority to operate a motorbus was granted in 1901 and in 1906 Bournemouth was first to run such vehicles. During the 1930s there was a period of transition from trams to trolleybuses. The new vehicles were met with great excitement and ran to the late 1960s, before another change to diesel buses. The bright-yellow-liveried vehicles were a distinctive sight on the streets of Bournemouth, although under a change of ownership when Bournemouth Council sold the majority of its shares to Transdev in 2005 they were run under the name of Transdev Yellow Buses. In time, RATP assumed control and after a management takeover began operating again as Yellow Buses. In 2022 Yellow Buses went into administration, bringing to an end 120 years of history in this seaside city on England’s South Coast.John Needham documents the highs and lows of Bournemouth Corporation buses with a wealth of fascinating images and informative details.

Bournemouth was originally a deserted heathland on England’s south coast until the area was developed as a health resort in the early nineteenth century. The town grew rapidly in size and by 1900 Bournemouth was firmly established as a popular tourist destination and a fashionable home by the sea with grand hotels, gardens, a concert hall and a host of other cultural and entertainment venues. During the Second World War Bournemouth was a direct target, with aerial bombing raids destroying many homes and familiar buildings with a significant loss of life. The seafront was fortified and the beach mined and covered with obstacles as it was a possible target of invasion, and many iron structures were dismantled for the war effort. Communities learned to deal with rationing, air raids and large numbers of evacuees. The war had a devastating effect on local communities through the loss of life, the destruction of familiar places, the movement of people and the hardships experienced at home, but it was also a time of courage and fortitude in an effort to continue with everyday life. In this book, local historian and author John Needham has captured the tribulations of the times in words and pictures, telling the stories of many local men, women and children during this trying period.Bournemouth at War pays tribute to the people of this town who served, died and lived through the Second World War, and how they managed to endure in the face of the horrors of conflict.