History of Avon Beach

The Derham family has been running Avon Beach for over 75 years.
It all started in 1912 on a houseboat moored in Christchurch harbour where our great grandparents made tea for people walking from Hengistbury Head to Mudeford beach. This proved so popular that they invested in an old ice breaker hull and converted it into a floating tea room, moored just off Mudeford beach.

In 1934 AVON BEACH came on the market, and our great grandfather and grandfather raised the capital to buy the property. Our father (Victor) was born on the beach in a bungalow in 1937. Unfortunately, their home on the beach was short lived. When war broke out the beaches were closed and because the bungalow was in the line of gun sites it had to be demolished. During the war a mysterious fire badly damaged the cafe. Rumours abounded that the fire had been set by a German supporting saboteur sending a signal to an enemy force. Did Mudeford narrowly escape invasion? We shall probably never know. But the result was that when our grandfather returned from the war in 1946 not only did he have a business to build up again but also extensive repairs to make to the cafe. The task was made all the more difficult by the scarcity of building materials after the war, but build it up again, he did, only to face yet another calamitous series of events.

In 1950 a devastating storm nearly destroyed Avon Beach and came close to washing the cafe away at its foundations. The cost of those repairs on top of the ones they had already endured was way beyond the capabilities of a small, family run, business. As a private company they could not raise the money for the sea defence work whereas the council was entitled to receive a government grant, so our grandfather sold the Avon Beach freehold to the borough council, to ensure that Avon Beach wasn't lost forever. The sea defences and promenade work was completed by 1952.Since then there have been four generations of the Derham family involved with the day-to-day running of Avon Beach.

Heroic Rescue

Our grandfather, Ken Derham, had as much to do with the sea at Avon Beach, as he did the land. An accomplished boatman his whole life, he, (like many of the local fishermen) was always on hand to help rescue seafarers and swimmers who got into difficulties off shore. Perhaps the rescue that stands out the most was the one that occurred in 1959 when a fishing boat capsized at the entrance of Christchurch Harbour. Ken, then aged 51, raised help to launch his dinghy and then single-handedly braved the ten feet waves to rescue two of the casualties. Sadly, the third member of the group perished.

In recognition of his courage and skill he was awarded a Silver medal by the RNLI. It was this rescue and the others that had preceded it that resulted in the building of Mudeford Lifeboat Station in 1963. Each of the Derham generations has had a serving crew member at the station ever since. Between 1934 and 1962 Ken Derham rescued more than fifty people in his 11 feet dinghy now on display in the Mudeford Lifeboat Station.

Ian and Jackie Derham.