Highcliffe
| Highcliffe | |
|---|---|
 Highcliffe
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| Highcliffe shown within Dorset | |
| Population | 3,456 (2011.Ward) |
| OS grid reference | SZ214936 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Christchurch |
| Postcode district | BH23 |
| Dialling code | 01425 |
| Police | Dorset |
| Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Highcliffe-on-Sea (usually abbreviated to Highcliffe) is a small town in the borough of Christchurch, Dorset in southern England. It forms part of the South East Dorset conurbation along the English Channel coast. The town lies on a picturesque stretch of Solent coastline with views of the Isle of Wight and its 'Needles' rocks.
Highcliffe is situated to the east of the historic town of Christchurch and the resort town of Bournemouth, and Barton on Sea to the west. The New Forest National Park is to the north.
Its position on the south coast gives it a climate with milder winters than inland areas and less rainfall than locations further west. This helped establish the town as a popular health and leisure resort during the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras.
What is now regarded as Highcliffe has developed over the last several hundred years from the hamlet of Slop Pond, the Chewton Estate, and Chewton Common. The latter two also contained large farmsteads. Slop Pond was a collection of thatched cottages, named from the large pond on its common. The cottages were said to be occupied by farm workers and fishermen, who engaged in the smuggling and poaching trade now notorious in local history.
When the area became a more popular tourist destination in the Victorian era, Slop Pond was renamed Newtown. This was changed to Highcliff after the first house built on the high cliff, soon to become known as Highcliffe-on-Sea.
Between 1831 and 1835, Lord Stuart de Rothesay built Highcliffe Castle, a Gothic Revival home, near the site of High Cliff House, his father's Georgian estate. The design, by William Donthorne, a founder member of RIBA, incorporated large quantities of carved Medieval stonework salvaged from the Norman Benedictine Abbey of St Peter at Jumieges and the Grande Maison des Andelys. At the beginning of the 20th century the reputation of Highcliffe was so considerable that in 1907 Kaiser Wilhem II chose to stay at Highcliffe Castle when recuperating from the strain of political scandals in Germany.
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Wikipedia