Discovering our History

Following articles in the Property Week and Financial Times relating to Richard Godsell's 80 year anniversary, the company was recently contacted by the late Richard Godsell's step-daughter, Mrs Pamela Bayley, who now lives near Swanage.

As a result Alastair McCall from the Christchurch office and Vivien Carter from the Southbourne office spent a pleasant afternoon over lunch with Mrs Bayley who recounted the days when her step-father lived on Boscombe Manor and oversaw offices in Southbourne, Boscombe, Canford Cliffs and Highcliffe including an Auction Room in De Haviland Road, Boscombe. Mrs Bayley remarked that even in the years following the second world war, many of the purchasers in Southbourne were retirees from Northern England, London and the Home Counties and in that respect the current teams based at 3 Southbourne Grove and 2 Church Street Christchurch can confirm that little has changed, with a steady stream of buyers continuing to move to the area.

Mrs Bayley confirmed that Richard Godsell himself continued to work out of the Southbourne and Boscombe offices until well into his 80s shortly before he died. Indeed his partner at the Southbourne office, Ken Coles, spent a staggering 50 years at the Southbourne business, finally retiring in 1992 when he was in his early 70s! Mrs Bayley went on to reminisce how in the period after the second world war, when petrol was short, her father pedalled on his pushbike from their family home in Percy Road on Boscombe Manor to the his office fetching his car only in the event that London buyers turned up at the office, having arrived by train, wishing to make viewings.

Richard Godsell was by all accounts a keen sportsman in his younger years and a longstanding supporter of local amateur dramatic groups, including the Bournemouth Little Theatre Company. In his latter years, Richard Godsell, moved from the family home to nearby San Remo Towers where he spent the last few years of his life.

Mrs Bayley herself followed her father into the property arena; having gone to school locally at Wentworth College she went on to train and gain qualifications in Estate Management in the 1950s, subsequently working in London before moving to live in Cheltenham for many years and finally retiring to the Purbecks. Interestingly her own grandson and niece are now also both involved in Estate Agency work, albeit outside of the Bournemouth area.