Mystery of the Winton Beehive

If you happened to read the January 2006 edition of the Bournemouth Council publication BH Life you would have discovered that Winton once had its own coat of arms. The same information is repeated in Wikipedia.

The article mentions the old Winton Urban District Council which existed at the turn of the last century. It says that "the Council adopted a beehive for its logo, to show how the area was buzzing with activity."

It is a compelling piece of information and we set out to track down the mystery coat of arms. It was nowhere to be found. In fact we were unable to find any authoritative reference to it. Then we found this .........

It's a beehive coat of arms and it is on a very official looking building at end of Alma Road at the junction of Richmond Park Road and Charminster Road.

Could this have been the old Winton Urban District Council office?

Well actually no. Until fairly recently it was a Lloyds Bank. And it appears that the hive is found on old Lloyds buildings all around the country. Below is a shot of a similar, but older, feature on the former Lloyds Bank building in Burslem, Staffordshire.

Looks like somebody may have got confused. And to add another confusing twist to the story, the authoritative "History of Lloyds Bank 1918-1969" was written by a chap called J R Winton!