ON THIS DAY

On this day in 1958, the town of Bournemouth got its first traffic bollard. It was unveiled by comedian Max Wall following a display by the Red Arrows. “The bollards are going up all over Europe,” he told the cheering crowd. “We shall not see them come down again in our lifetimes.”

Although this was Bournemouth’s first bollard, it was by no means its last! Today the town has more than 16,000 bollards, making it the bollard capital of the South West!

If you would like to learn more about bollards please contact Malcolm Wicks MP, at the Department of Trade and Industry. Not that he’ll know- he’s an absolute dumbarse.