The History of Buckler's Hard
Buckler's Hard is one of England's most attractive and unusual villages. It
was created in the early 18th century by the 2nd Duke of Montagu, who
planned to build a free port, Montagu Town, on the banks of the Beaulieu
River for the import and export of sugar from the West Indies. The idea
failed to get off the ground when the French captured the islands, but
from the 1740's the site was used for the building of over 50 wooden ships
for the Royal Navy.
The Master Shipbuilder, Henry Adams, and his sons built many ships, including
Agamemnon, Euryalus and Swiftsure, all of which fought at the battle of
Trafalgar in 1805.
The advent of iron ships saw the demise of shipbuilding at Buckler's Hard
and it became a sleepy rural village, but in the early years of the 20th
century the Beaulieu River became popular with yachtsman and this popularity
increased between the two World Wars.
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