Poole’s history and Poole’s food are the same story: a harbour, boats, and fish that travelled a very long way.
Morning: the money
Start at Poole Museum, free, on the Quay. The Iron Age logboat shows the harbour in use 2,300 years ago. The Newfoundland displays show where the money came from: from the seventeenth century Poole merchants worked the cod fisheries off Newfoundland, carrying supplies west and salt fish on to southern Europe.
Late morning: what it bought
Walk the Cockle Trail into the Old Town. The Georgian merchant houses, the Guildhall, Scaplen’s Court: all of it paid for by fish. Ninety minutes, free, marked in the pavement.
Lunch: what the harbour lands now
Back down to the Quay for shellfish. Poole Harbour has been associated with oysters and clams for centuries, and it is still a working fishing port. See Poole’s seafood scene.
Afternoon: the water it came from
A harbour cruise out across the water the catch is landed from, past Brownsea Island and the smaller islands.
Evening
Ashley Cross or the Old Town. See restaurants.
Background: the history of Poole.