h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Poole in Dorset, UK is dull any time of the year.

A couple of things about Poole that were not mentioned in the main article:

1. It is home to the RNLI

2. There's a great water park called Splashdown where I take my kids sometimes. Ride the Screamer if you dare!

There's a building in Poole with more than a passing resemblance to the Devil's Tower in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It belongs to Barclays Bank and I worked there for a few months about three years ago.

Interesting...if you'd like to make a few more points on the water park and Barclays then I might be able to get the info added to the article

Interestingly, I remember Poole from 1983 to 1988. The barclays building had to have a massive foundations injection project undertaken in 1984/5 period. The place was falling down and had to be re pinned etc.

A pub that has mercifully dissappeared was the Mariner public house that was located at the East end of the quay area just around the corner from the RNLI and next to the Sunseeker boat factory and HQ. My memories of Poole are mostly good and wholesome, but some strange people certainly do exist there...

My hubby took one of his P.A.D.I. dive courses in Poole and says it has an excellent dive shop, as well as access to good areas for scuba diving.

I visit Poole when staying with my parents, and have always found it to be pleasant as well as a good day out for the kids.

There's a rather good gym there too...*goes into dream sequence involving hunky chaps in skimpy gym gear and starts to drool*

Ok, what we have here is lots of handy snippets of information that really ought to be added to the entry. However, to make it worthwhile (and to justify your credit in the article's margin ) I'd like more info. Specifically on the diving, Gwennie.

Sadly, I think Cobol Guy will not come back to share his information . If Floop can lend a hand then I'll be grateful

I may be able to help here. The "Devil's Table-top" building is indeed a main office for Barclays Bank. It is the national centre for pensions, insurance and closing down local branches of the banks whilst insisting that the local post office can do just as well for you. It stands about 12 floors high and sticks out like a Death-metal band in the Vatican.

The RNLI headquarters are situated by the tidal marina and have been there for as long as I can remember.

As for the water park...never been there but I'll check it out soon.

BTW...the Mathmos facory isn't a museum...just a point of interest. The museums are situated opposite each other off a side road down the quay and provide a good insite into Dorset's history...which is fine if you're into that sort of thing. They're also only open in the summer season.

Apart from that, you've managed to compress my profanity-ridden ramblings into a nice, concise piece Mike A...I salute you!

My hubby John says the dive shop was in Hamworthy, Poole and was called "Diving Leisure". They also arranged his P.A.D.I. dive course and John highly recommends them, if they're still in business. You'd better check it out, as it's over ten years since John was there. I'm afraid we don't have access to a Poole telephone directory in County Durham!

Hi, Cobol Guy here. I have been away for a few days, that's why I have not replied to your request for more information.

Already it seems that some good information about the Barclays building has appeared. My involvement was with an IT project related to information sharing between corporate accounts and other parts of the Barclays group. On the subject of branch closures, there was a branch for employees on the seventh floor but they closed that as well! Oh and it's 8 storeys high, but looks higher.

As for the water park. It's called Splashdown and it's at Tower Park, a sort of retail and leasure park, just out of town. If anyone wants to find it they should follow the signs for Tower Park, so called because it has a large water tower next to it that looks like a bug funnel.

Nop doubt Gwennie can slip in a few words to the PTB about this...

Perhaps its well worth metioning that Poole harbour is the largest tidal harbour of the UK covering over 35 square miles. If you stand on any of the shores around the edge you can usually make out the largest island in the middle of the harbour. This is Brownsea Island, which is the location of the first UK scouts camp (where the scouts movement was founded). My memory for names is a bit kooky so I'll just have to leave the Scouts founder name and the exact year for another brighter soul to fill in.

Poole quay is host to so very many sea going boats and yachts in the warmer months that they regularly berth up to five yachts deep alongside the quay. This can make for some of the most interesting situations when one of the boats on the inside decides to leave. Thus ensues a complicated ropes, fenders and power seaquence of moves with a good degree of shouting and gesticulatiing by yachties. Some of them are involved, but the ones that make the most noise are those who bear the most damage. For a landlubber this makes for the greatest entertainment while munching a bag of chips sitting on either a bollard, or atop the raised bench area over the public toilets right about the center of the quays length.

Old harry is the end of (apart from being a pub on the quay) a `stack' of chalky cliffs which jut out into the sea south of the harbour mouth. This spot is terrific for swimming with clear water and relatively mild tides between monthly spring tides. One week before and after springs are the best times to take a launch out to this spot, drop anchor (rocky sea floor around 12 feet or just over two fathoms), and have yourself a pleasant swim about. If you have a tender or inflatable (derigible) get yourselves to the rocky shore and chill out below the cliffs for a while, its really nice.

The harbour mouth is crossed by a car ferry service that is used by car drivers not wanting to drive all the way around the harbour (a good 20 miles) to get to Swanage town to the southwest of Poole. And is found by driving through the Branksome penninsula.

The car ferry is interesting because it is attached to a huge chain strung across the mouth of the harbour. In this way, the ferry avoids being swept away when the tide goes out of that 35 square mile harbour.

Someone should mention the 'chines' which are canyons cut into the chalk cliffs. A make work project in the 1930s depression filled these with extensive plantings of rhododendron and azalea which are somewhat neglected but still beautiful today - especially at this time of year.