GC4NTAP Bournemouth History: The Shell House (Traditional Cache) in Southern England, United Kingdom created by Lost2011

This cache has been archived.

Lost2011: Cache gone. Many thanks for all the finds.

GC4NTAP ▼

A cache by Lost2011 Message this owner

Hidden : 1/27/2014

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

This is my town. I live here. I love it.

This cache was originally one of 11 in a second series highlighting Bournemouth's Past. Today, only this cache and a few of the other most popular caches in the "Bournemouth History" series remain.

The original "Bournemouth’s Past" series followed the same format of 11 caches. The most popular in the series is still active and can be viewed at the following link, Jon Egging.

The Shell House was created by the late George Howard in 1948, believed to be in memory of his son Michael, who died from meningitis at the age of 14. The ex-military man was a shell collector who once said: "Shells are the only things in this world that grow more beautiful after death." George Howard’s reward for all his effort was the pleasure that it gave to all who saw it and the very large amounts of money that the shell house collected for charity. In 1988, Christchurch Hospital named their new patients' activity centre the Howard Centre in recognition of the family's fundraising efforts.

For decades, The Shell House was the most recognisable feature in Southbourne. From the late 80s however, donations had become fewer, and thieves and vandals were sadly becoming almost a weekly occurrence. It was these reasons that the family made the difficult decision to end the Garden.

Without warning, the family took the decision to dismantle the garden in February 2001. Two years later the Shell House was finally demolished to make way for a development. A block of flats now stands on the site.

In 2007, Carol Mason, George’s granddaughter, wrote the following: “Everything in life has a time span, and nothing lasts for forever. The spirit of the Shell House and my Grandfather had been slowly eroded. Believe me, it took incredible strength on behalf of the whole family to end the Garden. Maybe we should have made public our intentions to demolish the Garden, but it was hard enough without all the adverse comments and publicity that would have ensued if it had been made known. We made the decision as a family, and grieved as a family.”

This cache is placed on the other side of the road to where The Shell House was situated. Once the cache has been found you will need to use tweezers to extract the log sheet.
Source

FTF: mogwele.

Bournemouth History series:
~~GC41YWV: Pier Bandstand (M)~~
~~GC4NTAN: Tucktonia (N)~~
GC4NTAP: The Shell House (P)
GC4NTAQ: Moordown Halifax Memorial (Q)
~~GC4NTAR: Racecourse (R)~~
~~GC4NTAT: Moordown Tram Depot (T)~~
GC4NTAV: Waterfront (V)
~~GC4NTAW: Winter Gardens (W)~~
~~GC4NTAX: Typhoid Epidemic (X)~~
~~GC4NTAY: Great Train Robbery (Y)~~
~~GC4NTAZ: A338 Wessex Way [BONUS] - N50 MN.PQR W001. TV.694~~