Pergins Island is a small, uninhabited

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Holes Bay A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of en ...

, an embayment off

Poole Harbour Poole Harbour is a large natural harbour in Dorset, southern England, with the town of Poole on its shores. The harbour is a drowned valley (ria) formed at the end of the last ice age and is the estuary of several rivers, the largest being t ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

on the south coast of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is not accessible to the public.

Geography

Pergins Island is located in the north of Holes Bay, north of the railway embankment of the

South West Main Line The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south we ...

which crosses the bay from east to west. It is roughly oval in shape, has an area of 6.2061 hectares, and is densely covered with broadleaved, mixed and yew woodland.

History

Pergins Island was known for generations as 'Doughty's Island' (pronounced "Dowdy's") after Sir Edward Doughty who bought the nearby Upton House in 1828 along with its estate, which included the island. According to local hearsay, Doughty, a devout

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, had given permission for the poor people of Poole and Hamworthy to use the island for camping to escape the squalor of their homes. The Old Town in Poole used to contain slums which became very unhealthy during the warmer summer months and so mothers would take their children to camp on the island while the fathers continued to work, visiting their families when they could. The island, like the rest of the Upton Estate, belongs to the

Poole Borough Council Poole Borough Council was the unitary authority responsible for local government in the Borough of Poole, Dorset, England. It was created on 1 April 1997 following a review by the Local Government Commission for England (1992), becoming adminis ...

.''Round the Island''
at britishcoast.wordpress.com. Retrieved 6 Jan 2017

References

External links

''Pergins Island within the Poole Harbour SSSI''
Islands of Dorset Poole Harbour Uninhabited islands of England {{Dorset-geo-stub