Christchurch

Christchurch, a parliamentary and municipal borough of Hampshire, at the head of the estuary formed by the Avon and Stour, 24 miles SW. of Southampton by road, but 33½ by rail. The noble church of an Augustinian priory, founded here in 1150, is 303 feet long by 101 across the transept, and includes every style from Norman to Perpendicular. Special features of interest are the splendid Early English porch, a monument to Shelley, a beautiful rood-screen, and the chapel built by Henry VIII.'s victim, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury. Little remains of the domestic buildings of the monastery or of the Norman castle. Christchurch possesses one notable specialty, the making of watch and clock fusee-chains. The harbour has high-water twice every tide. The parliamentary borough, 22,350 acres in area, comprises the favourite watering-place Bournemouth. It returns one member to parliament. Pop. (1851) 7475; (1881) 28,535; (1891) 53,270; of municipal borough (1881) 3260; (1891) 3994. The latter received a charter of incorporation in 1886.