Bournemouth is Don's home town with many related places from his youth It is a large coastal resort town on the south coast of England; at the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest in the administrative county of Dorset. With Poole to the west and Christchurch in the east, Bournemouth is part of the South East Dorset conurbation, which has a population of 465,000 In the 12th century the region around the mouth of the River Bourne was part of the Hundred of Holdenhurst. The hundred later became the Liberty of Westover when it was extended to include the settlements of North Ashley, Muscliff, Muccleshell, Throop, Iford, Pokesdown, Tuckton and Wick, and incorporated into the Manor of Christchurch. Although the Dorset and Hampshire region surrounding it had been the site of human settlement for thousands of years, Westover was largely a remote and barren heathland before 1800 In 1574 the Earl of Southampton noted that the area was "Devoid of all habitation", and as late as 1795 the Duke of Rutland recorded that "… on this barren and uncultivated heath there was not a human to direct us" It was founded as a place in 1810 by Lewis Tregonwell, where the area had been a deserted heathland, occasionally visited by fishermen and smugglers. Initially marketed as a health resort, the town received a boost when it appeared in Augustus Granville's 1841 book, "The Spas of England". Bournemouth's growth accelerated with the arrival of the railway, and it became a town in 1870 Historically part of Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganization of local government in 1974. Through local government changes in 1997, the town began to be administered by a unitary authority independent of Dorset County Council, although it remains part of that ceremonial county. Since April 2019 the unitary authority has been merged with that of Poole, as well as the non-metropolitan district of Christchurch to create the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority The town centre has notable Victorian architecture and the 202-foot spire of St Peter's Church, one of three Grade I listed churches in the borough, is a local landmark Bournemouth's location has made it a popular destination for tourists, attracting over five million visitors annually with its beaches and popular nightlife. The town is also a regional centre of business, home of the Bournemouth International Centre or BIC, and a financial sector that is worth more than £1,000 million in gross value added [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournemouth ]