House Share Poole Dorset

Approximate Population: 138,288

The design of the coat of arms originated in a seal from the late 1300s and were recorded by Clarenceux King of Arms during the heraldic visitation of Dorset in 1563.  The wavy bars of black and gold represent the sea and the dolphin is sign of Poole’s maritime interests.  The scallop shells are the emblem of Saint James and are associated with his shrine at Santiago de Compostela – a popular destination for Christian pilgrims departing from Poole Harbour in the Middle Ages.

The arms were confirmed by the College of Arms on 19 June, 1948, and at the same time the crest (a mermaid supporting an anchor and holding a cannon ball) was granted.   Following local government reorganisation in 1974, the 1948 arms were transferred to Poole Borough Council.   In 1976, the council received the grant of supporters for the coat of arms.

The supporters refer to important charters given to the town; to the left is a gold lion holding a long sword representing William Longespee who in 1248 granted the town’s first charter; on the right is a dragon derived from the Royal Arms of Elizabeth I who granted Poole county corporate status in 1568. The Latin motto – Ad Morem Villae De Poole, means: According to the Custom of the Town of Poole, and derives from the Great Charter of 1568.

House Share Poole Dorset

House Share

East Kilbride Scotland

Approximate Population: 73,796

East Kilbride grew from a small village of around 900 inhabitants in 1930 to become eventually a large burgh.   Behind this growth lay the rapid industrialisation of the nineteenth century which left much of the working population throughout Scotland’s central belt from Glasgow to Edinburgh living in the housing stock built at the end of that century but accommodating far more people.

The Great War postponed any better housing as did the Treaty of Versailles and the period of post war settlement it created. In turn this was followed by the Great Depression.   After the Second World War, Glasgow, already suffering from chronic shortages of housing, had to deal with bomb damage from the war.

From this unlikely backdrop a new dawn emerged which would bring East Kilbride to its unlikely success.   In 1946 the Greater Glasgow Regional Plan allocated sites where overspill satellite “new towns” could be constructed to help alleviate the housing shortage.  Glasgow would also undertake the development of its peripheral housing estates.   East Kilbride was the first of five new towns in Scotland to be designated, in 1947, followed by Glenrothes (1948), Cumbernauld (1956), Livingston (1962) and Irvine (1964).

The town has been subdivided into residential precincts, each with its own local shops, primary schools and community facilities. The housing precincts surround the town centre, which is bound by a ringroad. Industrial estates are concentrated at sites to the north, west and south, on the outskirts of the town.

House Share East Kilbride Scotland

House Share

Solihull West Midlands

Approximate Population: 94,753

Residential development in Solihull comprises a variety of housing types, but features a notable preponderance of semi-detached, detached and town houses, with little or no true terraces.   Many of the larger developments were constructed between 1950 and 1970.   One of the earlier large scale developments centred around Beechwood Park Road and Stonor Park Road with new detached houses selling for £4,000 in 1952.   Chelmsley Wood to the north of Solihull town centre is a large 1960s overspill estate for Birmingham, and is currently marketed under the name of “North Solihull”. In the early to mid-1980s, the new Monkspath district constructed east of Shirley (and close to the M42 motorway) was the UK’s single largest housing development of that decade.

Solihull offers a variety of shopping facilities.   It has an open-air 1960s-style shopping centre called Mell Square.   In recent years, the town has undergone much development, and the High Street has been pedestrianised since 1994. On July 2, 2002, a large new shopping centre, Touchwood, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

Solihull is the home of the four wheel drive car manufacturer Land Rover and a range of other major companies.

The National Exhibition Centre, commonly thought to be in Birmingham, is in fact within the borough of Solihull, as is almost all of Birmingham International Airport and the ever-expanding Birmingham Business Park.

House Share Solihull West Midlands

House Share St. Davids Wales

Approximate Population: 1,797

St David’s (Welsh: Tyddewi) is the smallest city in the United Kingdom, with a population of under 2,000 people.   It lies on the River Alun, on Saint David’s peninsula in Pembrokeshire, Wales.   St David’s is the de facto ecclesiastical capital of Wales and the final resting place of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales.

St David’s is home to football team, St. David’s City F.C. and rugby union team St. Davids RFC.  St David’s hosted the National Eisteddfod in 2002.

Henry Hicks (born 1837-died 1899), a Welsh physician, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS), President of the Geological Society and Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).   He studied the Precambrian rocks of Anglesey, Caernarvonshire and Pembrokeshire, the Devonian rocks of Devon and Somerset, and cave deposits in Denbighshire.   He was born on the 29th of May 1837 at St Davids, followed in the footsteps of his father Thomas Hicks and studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital, and then practised in St Davids from 1862 until 1871.   The musician David Gray was a pupil at St Davids School.

House Share St. Davids Wales

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Norwich Norfolk

Approximate Population: 132,200

Norwich was the eighth most prosperous shopping destination in the UK in 2006.  Norwich has an ancient market place, established by the Normans between 1071 and 1074, which is today the largest six-days-a-week open-air market in England.   The market has recently been downsized and undergone redevelopment, and the new market stalls have proved controversial: with 20% less floorspace than the original stalls, higher rental and other charges, and inadequate rainwater handling, they have been unpopular with many stallholders and customers alike.

Indeed, the local Norwich Evening News characterises Norwich Market as an ongoing conflict between the market traders and Norwich City Council, which operates the market.

The Mall Norwich (Castle Mall until 2007), a shopping mall designed by local practice Lambert, Scott & Innes and opened in 1993, presents an ingenious solution to the problem of sensitively accommodating new retail space in a historic city-centre environment – the building is largely concealed underground and built into the side of a hill, with a public park created on its roof in the area south of the Castle.

House Share Norwich Norfolk

House Share Wrexham Wales

Approximate Population: 42,576

Recent years have seen a large amount of redevelopment in Wrexham’s town centre.  The creation and re-development of civic and public areas such as Queens Square, Belle Vue Park and Llwyn Isaf have improved the area dramatically.   New shopping areas have been created at Henblas Square and Island Green with the newest development at Eagles Meadow (a fairly large area of land between St. Giles and the inner ring road) which opened on 31 October 2008.   The development increases Wrexham’s retail area by over 400,000 sq ft (40,000 m2) and houses retail outlets, bars, restaurants, cinema (from spring 2009, a bowling alley and new apartments.   It includes public areas and an “iconic” bridge to connect the development with the old High Street.

The central area has seen a number of conversions and new-build apartment complexes. Apartments have been built on a large area off Mold Road (close to the football ground) and are planned for Salop Road (close to Eagles Meadow), and close to the Island Green shopping complex. Outside the town centre new estates are being developed in Brymbo (the former steelworks site).

Wrexham Western Gateway site (Ruthin Road) and Mold Road: Plans were due to be unveiled in Summer 2007 of the next stage in the development of Wrexham Technology Park as one of the country’s first sustainable business centres – the development is expected to increase the size of the Park by more than a third before 2012.

House Share Wrexham Wales

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Liverpool Merseyside

Approximate Population: 816,900

Liverpool has more galleries and national museums than any other city in the United Kingdom apart from London.   The Tate Liverpool gallery houses the modern art collection of the Tate in the North of England and was, until the opening of Tate Modern, the largest exhibition space dedicated to modern art in the United Kingdom.   The FACT centre hosts touring multimedia exhibitions, whilst the Walker Art Gallery houses an extensive collection of Pre-Raphaelites.

Sudley House contains another major collection of pre 20th century art and the number of galleries continues to expand:   Ceri Hand Gallery opened in 2008, exhibiting primarily contemporary art, and Liverpool University’s Victoria Building was re-opened as a public art gallery and museum to display the University’s artwork and historical collections which include the second-largest display of art by Audubon outside the US.

Artists have also come from the city, including painter George Stubbs who was born in Liverpool in 1724.

The Liverpool Biennial festival of arts runs from mid-September to late November and comprises three main sections; the International, The Independents and New Contemporaries although fringe events are timed to coincide.   It was during the 2004 festival that Yoko Ono’s work “My mother is beautiful” caused widespread public protest when photographs of a naked woman’s pubic area were exhibited on the main shopping street.   Despite protests the work remained in place.

House Share Liverpool Merseyside

House Share

Southampton Hampshire

Approximate Population: 228,600

There are 120,305 jobs in Southampton, and 3,570 people claiming job seeker’s allowance, approximately 2.4 per cent of the city’s population, as of March 2007.  This compares with an average of 2.5 per cent for England as a whole.

As of June 2006, 74.7 per cent of the city’s population are classed as economically active.

Just over a quarter of the jobs available in the city are in the health and education sector.   A further 19 per cent are property and other business and the third largest sector is wholesale and retail, which accounts for 16.2 percent.  Between 1995 and 2004, the number of jobs in Southampton has increased by 18.5 per cent.

As of January 2007, the average annual salary in the city was £22,267.   This was £1,700 lower than the national average and £3,800 less than the average for the South East.

Southampton has always been a maritime centre, and the docks have long been a major employer in the city.   In particular, it is a port for cruise ships; its heyday was the first half of the 20th century, and in particular the inter-war years, when it handled almost half the passenger traffic of the UK. Today it remains home to luxury cruise ships, as well as being the largest freight port on the Channel coast and fourth largest UK port by tonnage, with several container terminals.

Unlike some other ports, such as Liverpool, London, and Bristol, where industry and docks have largely moved out of the city centres leaving room for redevelopment, Southampton retains much of its inner-city industry. Part of the docks has been redeveloped, however, as the Ocean Village development, a local marina and entertainment complex.   Southampton is home to the headquarters of both the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Marine Accident Investigation Branch of the Department for Transport.

House Share Southampton Hampshire

House Share Rochester Kent

Approximate Population: 27,000

Rochester City Council bought the land at Rochester Airfield in September 1933 from the landowner as the site for a municipal airport. One month later Short Brothers, who had started building aircraft in 1909 on the Isle of Sheppey, asked for permission to lease the land for test flying.
Rochester station building. The railway passes at first floor level on a viaduct.

In 1934-5 Short Brothers took over the Rochester Airport site when they moved some of their personnel from the existing seaplane works. The inaugural flight into Rochester was from Gravesend, John Parker flying their Short Scion G-ACJI.

In 1979 the lease reverted to the council. After giving thorough consideration to closing the airport, GEC (then comprising Marconi and instrument makers Elliot Automation) decided to take over management of the airport. It maintained two grass runways while releasing some land for light industrial expansion.

House Share Rochester Kent

House Share

Colchester Essex

Approximate Population: 104,390

Colchester is noted for its Victorian architecture. Significant landmarks include the Colchester Town Hall and the Jumbo Water Tower.  In 1884 the town was struck by the Colchester earthquake, estimated to have been 4.7 on the Richter Scale causing extensive regional damage.

The Paxman diesels business has been associated with Colchester since 1865 when James Noah Paxman founded a partnership with the brothers Henry and Charles Davey (’Davey, Paxman, and Davey’) and opened the Standard Ironworks.   In 1925 Paxman produced its first spring injection oil engine and joined the English Electric Diesel Group in 1966 – later becoming part of the GEC Group.   Since the 1930s the Paxman company’s main business has been the production of diesel engines.

The £22.7m eight-mile A120 Colchester Eastern Bypass opened in June 1982.  Colchester and the surrounding area is currently undergoing significant regeneration.

Colchester Town Watch was founded in 2001 to provide a ceremonial guard for the Mayor of Colchester and for civic events such as the Oyster Feast.   The historic re-enactors wear a livery based on late Elizabethan dress. Colchester Town Watch is accompanied by the musicians of the Colchester Town Waits  – a musical tradition dating back to the 14th century.

House Share Colchester Essex