History of Avon Beach

The Derham family have been running AVON BEACH
for over 75 years.

It all started in 1912 on a house boat moored in Christchurch harbour where my grandparents made tea for people walking from Hengisbury Head to Mudeford beach. This proved very poppular so they invested in an old ice braker hull and built on it a tea room which was moored just off Mudeford beach.

In 1934 AVON BEACH came on the market,and my great grandfather and grandfather raised the capital to buy the property. My father was born on the beach in a bungalow in 1937. This was demolished when the beach was closed due to the war from 1940-1946. During this time a fire badly damaged the cafe'. So when my grandfather returned from the war in 1946 he han to build the buisness up again.
In 1950 my grandfather had to sell the feehold to the borough council due to coastal erosion.

As a private company we could not raise the money for the work whereas the council could receive a government grant,and the sea defences and promenade were constructed in 1952 as you can see in the photo above.

Since then there have been four generations of DERHAM'S involved with the day-to-day running of AVON BEACH.