THE OLD COTTAGES
This picture, of No.52 Malvern Rd, shows a fine example of a mid 19th century “2 x 3” Moordown cottage, which are so much a part of the local history of Moordown.
These “2 x 3” cottages - so called because of their 3 upper and 2 lower window layout - were typical of the earlier Moordown dwellings. The original style also included the 'sentry box' porch, the chimney at each end, and the straight gable ends to the buildings.
Variations of the style are still to be found all over the earlier parts of Moordown - most notably of course around Malvern Rd, Rose Gardens and Parley Rd.
There are also several other examples located in other nearby roads, notably those along top of Redbreast Hill.
Some early cottages were smaller, with only 2 windows on the 1st floor, like Honeysuckle Cottage in Rose Gardens, shown here:
and some of the later ones were much larger. Like the more substantial cottage at 75 Malvern Rd:
Many of course have been modified, and have been extended to meet the needs of modern families.
Not too many chimneys survive (at least not on both ends!), but it is a credit to the owners of these lovely old buildings that much of the original charm has been retained in many examples.
There is a much more comprehensive document on this fascinating history contained in the so called 'Bournemouth List', which was drafted in 2008.
Carol Boman has very kindly located a copy of the Moordown cottages section from that document, and you can download it here:
(It is a PDF document, about 10MB in size, and contains some very interesting facts about the history of our rather 'special' older cottages. There are 67 pages of it, so you may not want to print them all!)