Nestling in a small shallow sheltered bay facing roughly south east is the small Victorian seaside town of Swanage.
To say that Swanage is a 50 year anachronism would be a classic understatement. This picturesque candy box seaside resort has been a favourite holiday destination for nearly 200 years but scratch under the surface of the superficially genteel town and another picture emerges.
The picture is a mirror image of depression hit Britain in the second decade of the 21st Century. Swanage’s primary means of employment is the tourist industry. There are no significant major international players in the Swanage Leisure industry, most businesses being owned by a small mercantile middle-class that hire and fire at will, sometimes pay below minimum wage and often cash in hand.
The impoverished seasonal workers who come from all over the world live in a mixed variety of accommodation. This includes private rented flats, semi-residential caravans and, with a few rare exceptions, in local authority/housing association accommodation.
Living accommodation in Swanage is frighteningly insecure. A section 21 (Housing act 1988) notice to quit can be served at anytime by a landlord/lady. With social housing provision at practically zero people made intentionally homeless can either find themselves out on the streets if they do not qualify for emergency housing or, if they do, in bed and breakfast accommodation anywhere from Swanage to Christchurch which is about 20 kilometres to the east of Swanage and in the cachment area of another local authority. Adding to the trauma of homelessness this can also cause job loss and a further slide into poverty.
There is a small winter residential population of around 11,000 mostly made up of relatively financially secure retirees serviced by a working population living, sometimes literally on the bread line.
The values of this community defy description. The MP for Purbeck is Richard Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (conservative). Mr Drax lives at Charnborough House in Dorset a landed 7000 acre estate built, at least in part, on proceeds of the black African Slave trade of the 16th and 17th Century.
Mr Drax has impeccable qualifications as a man of the people being educated at Harrow Public (private) school before entering Sandhurst Military Academy and being commissioned into the Coldstream Guards.
Being different in Swanage is to take a risk. Swanage is relatively cut off from the rest of civilization with a limited bus service to Poole and Bournemouth and a heritage steam railway that stops just outside Corfe Castle, a picturesque chocolate box village about 6 miles northwest of Swanage. The population are insular, and suspicious of outsiders. Anecdotally I have heard Islamaphobic, homophobic and racist rhetoric as part of everyday conversation. Add to this constant bleating about ‘benefit scroungers, feckless layabouts etc’ and you will glean some idea of the resident population.
Swanage is a lovely place to come for a holiday being superficially polite and welcoming but sadly good for very little else.
Swanage prides itself on its ‘Victorian’ values thankfully they have opted out of child labour.
All opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and no-one else.
Graham Horne
