O'er moorland and brae: Buckler's Hard

Beaulieu (Bew-ley) is one of the prettiest villages in all of England. We called in there as one of my family was once the Baptist preacher there. And a fine piece of work he was. But, more on him another time. Beaulieu has a palace at its heart and is part of the estate of yet another nobleman whose ancestor, John, the 2nd Duke of Montagu, already rich, had a big dream to make yet more money.

The king gave John a couple of islands in the Caribbean in 1722, so John decided that he would become a plantation owner and a sugar importer. Everyone loved sugar. He would make the most of it. He had a spare piece of land, doing nothing a couple of miles downriver from Beaulieu which would make a decent free port, and he could get all that started while his boats were enroute to and from the Caribbean.

He pumped £40,000 into 7 ships laden with crew and muskets; waved them off, then set about cleaning the woodland downstream from his palace to build houses, saltwater baths, an inn and even a chapel at the port site. The port had a hard surface on the bottom, ideal for ships coming and going. The place came to be known as Buckler's Hard.

Disaster struck.

When John's ships arrived to claim the islands that King George had granted him the French had already moved in and planted their flag. John's fleet of ships had nowhere to go: no sugar to grow, none to ship, so they turned and headed home, more than a little downcast. They had not even used their brand new Puckle gun onboard, a prototype for new automatic weaponry, designed, it was said, to shoot round bullets at Christians and square bullets at heathens.

When they arrived back home Bucker's Hard was no longer really needed. Only 7 houses were built by 1731 and only two parallel rows of single houses were ever completed. Not much was happening, then, down on the waterfront. Except for smuggling.

Brandy for the parson

'Baccy for the clerk

Great brandy kegs could be sunk deep into thick coastal mud if needed, or hidden in secluded coves up and down the coast, to keep the booty from the hands of the Preventative Men, the customs officers. So shady lanterns were often used down shady lanes all along these tidal coast waters on many a fine smuggling night.

In time, along came Lord Nelson, needing ships to fight the French. Bucker's Hard then developed into what it became famous for, being a shipbuilding port. Trees on the surrounding estates were specially selected, and sliced into the very specific cuts necessary to make large ships carrying guns.

Huge tracts of land were emptied of mature trees. Some 40 acres of century old trees--around 2000 individual trees all up--were needed to make one good sized warship. Buckler's Hard thrived for decades until the demand for such ships declined.

Nowadays tourists roam the village, and luxury boats dock on the marina where Nelson's warships were built. Drawn by a collection of James Bond stunt boats, as well as a brilliant museum on shipbuilding that the Montagu estate has set up.

The pretty row of shipwright's and shipbuilder's homes climbing either side of the wharf still stand, with a wide 80 foot swathe between, sufficient width to allow the appropriately sized logs to be rolled down to the shipyards where they could be carved as planks for the ships that won the Battle of Trafalgar. Today it is all picturesque and peaceful, living on its memories.