Fear of invasion by Napoleon around the turn of the 19th century brought military barracks to the town and it was here during the Second World War that Sir Donald Bailey (1901-85) gave the first demonstration of erecting the bridge which bears his name in 1941.
The railway came to the town in 1862 and the arrival of the Bournemouth and Poole Electricity Company in 1903 paved the way for the first tram service in 1905. The trams ran until 1936 when they were replaced by trolleybuses.
Piped water had arrived in Christchurch with the opning of the waterworks near Knapp
Mill in 1895 and 1902 saw the laying of a mains sewerage
system in the town to prevent contamination of the water supply.
Christchurch Hospital in Fairmile which
served the town for most of the 20th century until many services were transfered to the
Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital occupied the buildings built as the
town's new workhouse.
The whole country was profoundly affected by two World Wars within less than three decades
of each other. With the presence of the barracks just beyond the town, Christchurch was
very much a town in the thick of both wars.
