Celebrate your Hi!Street (23 - 28 March 2024)

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We celebrated all the successes and hard work of the Poole High Street Heritage Action Zone project with a showcase of everything that has been achieved! 

Looking at the new...

The HAZ Programme funded a total of 17 improvement projects to buildings within the HAZ area, including refreshed shop fronts, new signage and roof repairs.  A big thank you to all the property owners who agreed to invest in their properties and improve the appearance of our High Street!  

The Programme also funded improvements to Poole Museum,  Thames Street and Custom House , Amity Square, and public realm lighting, with new lanterns fitted to 41 lamp posts and 23 new Windsor-style wall lights. Not only are these sympathetic to the conservation area but they will deliver a 75% saving in energy usage and cost, plus a 6.75 tonne saving in carbon per year!

 With HAZ funding, Grade I listed medieval Scaplen’s Court (Scaplen’s) is being painstakingly conserved and remodelled to welcome more people, more of the time. 

Looking back at the old...

Historic England and stakeholders funded a series of workshops, activities and public engagement events hosted by our delivery partners. The overall theme for the programme was the town’s maritime history and cod-trading and migration connection with Newfoundland, Canada.  Highlights include:

• CoCreate artists curated and lead a varied programme of creative activities to inspire conversations with people about the heritage of their town.
• Arts2Educate delivered activities to local school children including a letter exchange with pupils in Newfoundland. 
• We created a the Discovery Trail, a new self-led tour through the Heritage Action Zone that helps you discover more about the people and places of Poole! 
• You'll notice the eye-catching Philip Henry Gosse Mural as you walk up the High Street. This was  a new public art commission by Paintshop Studio Ltd. that celebrates Gosse’s work and contribution to marine biology. 
• The incredible SALT: A Community Play for Poole, the writing and planning of a gutsy tale of fish, frolics and feisty women performed at Lighthouse Poole. Angel Exit Theatre directed 100 community members in an epic promenade production bursting with comedy, drama, live music, a choir and large-scale puppets. 
• The Poole Voyages, which saw SoundStorm, in partnership with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Longfleet CE Primary School and Poole High School, produce and perform a special concert at St James’ Church, Poole. 

More on these activities below!

Experience the musical journeys inspired by historic Poole. 

This special community concert, presented by the SoundStorm Music Education Hub in partnership with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO), Poole Museum, BCP Council, Lighthouse Poole and Historic England, saw the premiere of a new suite of music, inspired by the heritage of old town Poole. Fittingly, the new music was performed in one of Poole’s most beautiful and historic churches, St James Church, right adjacent to the historic action zone in Poole.

Members of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, led by BSO Associate Musician, Neil Valentine, co-created the new music with two of the schools closest to the historic action zone – Poole High School and Longfleet Church of England Primary School. Over 100 young people performed in the concert, along with BSO professionals.

Neil wrote: Are you ready to voyage into the unknown? Into History? Into your imagination? Then join us as we take you through all of these and immerse you in our very own musical journeys – The Poole Voyages.

Being inspired by Historic Poole, the stories of past inhabitants, tales of travels, adventures, risk taking, setting sail, arriving, coming home, the young performers created their own music to tell tales of Historic Poole, modern day Poole Quay and its inhabitants.

Using words from Shakespeare, journals, images, songs and most importantly, our own imaginations, the young performers from Poole High and Longfleet Primary Schools have worked with composer Neil and Percussionist Peadar Townsend to create this brand new, one-of-a-kind show. Featuring four world premiere compositions written with the participants, performances from members of the BSO, singing, immersive lighting and performances, The Poole Voyages will take you places you have never been before…..

The Antelope Inn, Poole 1681, a group of fishermen prepare to leave on a treacherous journey for the hostile shores of Newfoundland to fish for cod, just as they do every year. But what if a group of brave women were to join the men this time?

Summer 2023, exams are done and Fay and her mates are out for one last night in Poole before she gets the bus up to London to start a new life. But who is that stranger sitting on their bench?

SALT shines a light on the fascinating historic relationship between Poole and Newfoundland, exploring what it means to belong and what it means to leave your homeland behind. 

All the hard work from 100+ community members has paid off! From Thursday 27th July -  Saturday 29th July, the cast and crew of SALT worked tirelessly to pull off 4 amazing shows! Audiences were fully immersed in this gutsy tale of fish, frolics and feisty women at Lighthouse. Angel Exit Theatre directed 100 community members in an epic promenade production bursting with comedy, drama, live music, a choir and large-scale puppets.

SALT was written by Stephanie Dale in co-creation with Angel Exit and the Poole community. With design by Sophia Lovell Smith and musical direction by Tim Laycock.

A play about Poole, written for Poole. Congratulations to everyone involved! 

You can now watch the play online.

(Photo credits:  Jayne Jackson Photography )

An amazing amount of hard working has been going into making the sea monster puppet with puppet designer Heidi Steller and performance design students at AUB.  We've had some brilliant costume workshops & costume fittings with Nancy and her team of AUB students. It's great to see our characters coming to life! What a talented bunch!

We've also been busy with a big Salt chorus rehearsal and puppetry sessions with Heidi - phew! 

We’re only a month from production week now. So much hard work! Only a month to go now until production week - time is precious. 

(Photo credits: Angel Exit Theatre)

We've read through the play with around 70 of the cast and the writer Stephanie Dale, sang with Tim Laycock our musical director, had a design presentation by Sophia Lovell Smith, a fascinating history talk by Don and Katy Nutt from Poole Rotary Club, a puppetry session and making Dorset buttons! We are so thrilled to be working with such a top gang of talented and lovely people. Rehearsals have started folks!! Look out for SALT: a community play for Poole.  

(Photo credits: Angel Exit Theatre)

 We have had loads going on over our Discovery Week to connect you with Poole's heritage and the stories of the people who helped shape Poole. From our Setting Sails exhibition to the fantastic characters created by Angel Exit Theatre and Michele O'Brien, there was loads to see and interact with. 

We also created a new self-led discovery trail for Poole High Street with a families' activity sheet to help young explorers get the most out of the trail. Thank you to Bridie Cheeseman for your beautiful artwork and designs that help bring the trail to life!

Trails are still available to collect from Poole Library or Poole Tourist Information Kiosk on Poole Quay.

We displayed our wonderful flotilla of ships, dazzling fish and imaginative letters all created by local Primary school children in GATHER, Poole Dolphin Centre over our Discover Poole High Street Week. The imaginative creations were the outcome of several schools workshops run by Arts2Educate. Visitors also had the chance to get involved in more fun arts activities as they learnt more about our maritime and trading history. 

Well done to all the children from St Mary’s, Bishop Aldhelm’s, St Joseph’s, Courthill Infants, and Old Town for their enthusiasm and hard work!

(Photo credits: Jamie Baker & Mike Petitdemange)

Did you  meet our 1666 heritage characters Merchant Peter Hiley, Landlady Elizabeth Melledge,  Mary Brimson or William Williams?

The year is 1666 (the year after Charles 2nd visited Peter Hiley’s house).  Everyone is looking for Captain Storey. The Merchant is desperately trying to fill the remaining 5 places aboard his ship which must leave today as the conditions are perfect. They’ve already waited 3 days. The fishermen have all been drinking in the taverns. There are bills to be paid, provisions to be sorted (including leather boots from Hawkes), and good luck rituals and superstitions to carry out. Mary hears about the spare places and decides she will leave. She tries to persuade others as she says her good byes and packs her provisions. Finally Captain Storey is located sleeping on the ship already, we’re ready to go, but who has got the ship’s cat? We can’t set sail without the cat! 

Thank you to Angel Exit Theatre for bringing the history to life on 18th June, 30th July and 31st July! If you loved Angel Exit Theatre then keep an eye out for our upcoming Community Play in 2023!

(Photo credits: Jamie Baker)

 CoCreate want to celebrate Poole’s incredible heritage. Over the May - July, they have held a series of pop-up days on the High Street to chat to residents to hear your stories and find out more about what you’d like to happen on YOUR High Street.

They have run loads of creative workshops and interactions including 'Impressions of Poole' and 'Maritime Crafts', as they love getting to know new people through being creative & crafty, and helping people discover more about the place in which we live. 

On 28th May, local artist Stuart Faulkner joined CoCreate to lead 'Paint your High Street' workshops, encouraging locals to view their high street with a new perspective.

(Photo credits: Jamie Baker & Mike Petitdemange)

We took a step back into the past to discover the history of Poole...

We were delighted to have Michele O'Brien with us, taking people on her 'A Walk with a Tale or Two' around Poole. Michele created an enchanting new character to discover Poole's history to help explore the people who lived in the old town of Poole. We ran free tours on Saturday 2nd July, Monday 25th July and Sunday 31st July for visitors and residents to uncover more Poole's rich history.

The High Street is alive with the sound of music... 

Big thank you to all our artist, bands and musicians that have performed on the High Street this summer: Poole Ukulele Pluckers & Strummers, Poole Me Hearties, Wendy Morrow, Kez Hinton, and Route 66 (Steve Faulkner and Matt Griffiths). Thank you also to Suzy Wheeler for helping to organise the live music!

(Photo credits: Jamie Baker & Mike Petitdemange)