Removals · Bournemouth, Dorset
Removals in Bournemouth, Dorset
An hour of driving sits at either end of a Bournemouth move day, and it changes how a moving company has to plan it. Our yard is at Shaftesbury, 32 miles north on the A350, so the crew sets off early enough to be loading at the property rather than arriving at it, and the job is sized to go in one run. A second trip back into Dorset costs an afternoon, not twenty minutes. Most removal companies in Bournemouth are based in the BH postcodes and we are not, so we say it plainly: this is a Dorset removal company working the town most weeks, covering BH1 to BH11, and pricing on the property and the access rather than the mileage. Packing, storage, pianos, house clearance and long distance all come down on the same run.
Get a written quote within the hour
5.0 ★★★★★ Google rating · Family-run · Insured £2.5m · Or call 01747 637070
Get a written quote within the hour
5.0 ★★★★★ Google rating · Family-run · Insured £2.5m · Or call 01747 637070
Why us, here
Bournemouth from 32 miles up the A350
Bournemouth sits 32 miles south east of our Shaftesbury yard, a shade under an hour on the A350 through Blandford and Poole before the A338 Wessex Way carries you in over the Bourne valley. It is the largest town we cover, and the BH districts do a lot of work here. BH1 and BH2 are the town centre with East Cliff and West Cliff, BH3 is Talbot Woods and the south of Winton, BH4 is Westbourne, BH5 and BH6 run out through Boscombe, Pokesdown and Southbourne, BH7 and BH8 take in Littledown, Iford, Charminster and Holdenhurst, and BH9 to BH11 cover Moordown, Throop, Muscliff, Kinson, Northbourne and West Howe. The housing mix is unusually wide for one town: Victorian and Edwardian villas around Talbot Woods and the upper end of Westbourne, town centre flats above the shops in BH1 and BH2, clifftop blocks along East Cliff and West Cliff, and post war estates inland at Kinson, Northbourne and Throop. The work splits between downsizers moving into clifftop flats, families upsizing into the larger period property, and flat moves around the Bournemouth University halls on Christchurch Road, Oxford Road and Holdenhurst Road.
In Bournemouth we cover house removals, packing and storage, and also serve nearby Poole, Weymouth and Salisbury.
Compared
How we compare to other Bournemouth removal companies
Bournemouth has a healthy stock of removal companies, some based in the BH postcodes and some, like us, running in from the wider Dorset catchment. Three places where Marley Moves sits differently from most other Bournemouth moving companies:
Working the town most weeks keeps the pricing honest. A BH job slots into a run we are already driving, so the return leg is not dead mileage you end up paying for. That is the whole reason a Dorset firm can quote Bournemouth sensibly instead of loading the price to cover an awkward one off trip.
Same crew that quotes the move loads it. No subcontracting, no day-of franchise handover, no "your job has been passed to our partner". Connor and the in-house Marley team work the job from first call through to keys-in-hand.
The quote and the insurance arrive together. We turn a written quote round within the hour, and the insurance certificate, £2.5m public liability and £50,000 goods in transit per load, sits in the same email so you do not have to ask twice.
Two things we are not. We do not run pantechnicons, so the very largest house moves are better placed with a firm that does, and we hold no office in Bournemouth. If either of those matters to you, say so when you ring and we will tell you straight whether the job suits us.
Routes, access & parking
The Wessex Way in, and the pedestrian zone at the end of it
The run down is the A350 to Blandford and on through Poole, then the A35 Upton bypass and the A3049 Dorset Way onto the A338 Wessex Way, which is dual carriageway on viaducts across the Bourne valley and puts a loaded lorry at the edge of town quickly. The time goes after the exit slip. Bournemouth grew up in a valley and its centre is a pedestrian zone: The Square, Commercial Road, Post Office Road, Orchard Street, much of Old Christchurch Road and part of Exeter Road are closed to motor vehicles, and Westover Road and Gervis Place are signed no motor vehicles as well. Hinton Road and the streets around the Pleasure Gardens are one way. So a central flat move loads from a rear service yard, a side street or the nearest car park, and we settle which one at survey rather than on the morning. Where a restricted bay has to be used, BCP Council issues a contractors parking dispensation for commercial vehicles, applied for at least three days before the date, so a Monday move wants sorting the week before. The chines matter too: Alum Chine Road in BH4 and Durley Chine Road in BH2 run down the cut valleys towards the seafront, and an address part way along one is planned as a carry rather than a doorstep load. Away from the centre, Westbourne, Charminster, Winton, Boscombe, Pokesdown, Southbourne, Kinson and Throop take a full lorry without trouble. The Wessex Way itself is the thing to watch at peak, roughly 7.30 to 9 and 4.30 to 6.30.
Property types
From clifftop flats to the post war estates inland
Talbot Woods in BH3 and the upper end of Westbourne in BH4 hold the big Victorian and Edwardian villas, four and five bedrooms with garden rooms and outbuildings, and those are the long days. Edwardian and inter war semis run through Charminster, Winton and Pokesdown. The town centre flats in BH1 and BH2 sit above the shops, which is what turns the loading question into a parking question. Clifftop blocks along East Cliff and West Cliff, and the roads behind them such as Owls Road in Boscombe, carry much of the downsizing and second home work, usually lift access and a long push from the lift to the vehicle. Inland the post war estates at Kinson, Northbourne, Throop and West Howe are straightforward driveway loading. Bournemouth also has a lot of converted and shared housing, enough that BCP Council has Article 4 directions covering small houses in multiple occupation in parts of the town, so a fair share of BH1 and BH5 work is one flat or one room rather than a whole house.
Practical tips
The weeks a Bournemouth move is worth planning around
May to September is the real constraint. The seafront strip from Sandbanks through to Southbourne fills with visitor traffic, and BCP Council has run higher parking penalties along it through August in each of the last two summers, so a clifftop or central move in high season starts loading early, often from 6am, with the bay arranged in advance rather than left to a hopeful stop. Term boundaries at Bournemouth University shift a lot of small jobs in June and September, mostly around the Lansdowne halls on Christchurch Road, Oxford Road and Holdenhurst Road, though Talbot Campus itself sits on the Poole side of the boundary. And because Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch run into one another, a Bournemouth to Poole or Bournemouth to Christchurch move is a single day local job for us, not two separate runs.
Storage in Bournemouth
Storage when a Bournemouth chain slips
Containers are loaded at your property, sealed and stored at our Shaftesbury site, so a delayed completion does not mean hunting for a Bournemouth unit at short notice or paying a crew to wait outside one. You never need to attend the store yourself. When the date firms up we bring the same containers back down, and it is quoted as its own line on the same booking.
Full storage detail →Free fixed quote
Moving in Bournemouth? Get a fixed quote.
We send every quote back within the hour. It is usually fixed straight away; if a survey is needed, we confirm the fixed price afterwards. Pick whichever bit fits your pace.
Available across Bournemouth
House removals, storage and long-distance moves in Bournemouth
Quote the services your move actually needs together and they can be coordinated under one Marley Moves booking and one written plan.
Studios to 5-bed homes.
Man & Van →Fixed-price small moves and single-item pickups.
Packing Services →Full or part packing for kitchen, china and art.
Storage →Containerised storage collected and re-delivered by our removals team.
House Clearances →Probate, downsizing, end-of-tenancy.
Long Distance →UK-wide long-distance removals from Dorset.
Specialist Removals →Antiques, fine art and other fragile, heavy or awkward items.
Piano Removals →Upright and grand pianos, moved alone or as part of a wider move.
Frequent questions
What Bournemouth customers ask before booking
Do you cover all of Bournemouth, BH1 to BH11?
Yes. BH1 and BH2 in the centre, BH3 to BH6 through Talbot Woods, Westbourne, Boscombe, Pokesdown and Southbourne, BH7 and BH8 at Littledown, Iford, Charminster and Holdenhurst, and BH9 to BH11 out to Moordown, Throop, Muscliff, Kinson, Northbourne and West Howe.
Can you handle town centre flat moves in BH1 or BH2?
Yes, they are routine. The Square, Commercial Road and much of Old Christchurch Road are closed to motor vehicles, so the load comes off a rear service yard, a side street or the nearest car park, decided at survey. A smaller vehicle where the stairs are tight, more crew where the carry is long.
Who arranges parking for a restricted street in Bournemouth?
We do. BCP Council issues a contractors parking dispensation that lets a commercial vehicle stand in a restricted area for a job, and it has to be applied for at least three days before the date. That is part of how we plan the move, and it is one reason we want the address confirmed early rather than in the week of the move.
Do you do downsizing moves into Bournemouth clifftop flats?
Yes. The usual pattern is someone leaving a larger house in Dorset, Hampshire or Wiltshire for a flat on East Cliff, West Cliff or the Boscombe side. Lift access and the push from the lift to the vehicle set the timings more than the property size does. Putting the removal, a storage spell and a clearance on one schedule usually beats co-ordinating three suppliers.
Are you available for student and flat moves around the university terms?
Yes. June and September bring a run of small Bournemouth jobs around the Lansdowne halls on Christchurch Road, Oxford Road and Holdenhurst Road. Small move prices are fixed in writing before the day, and a shared house is usually sequenced room by room rather than lifted in one go.
How much does a Bournemouth removal cost?
It is priced per job rather than off a tier: property size, access and how much packing you want. A BH1 or BH2 flat depends on where the vehicle can legally stand; a Talbot Woods or Westbourne family house is a bigger day with more crew. We put the number in writing and fix it before move day.
Are you a Bournemouth removal company or a Dorset one?
A Dorset one, working Bournemouth most weeks. The yard is at Shaftesbury, 32 miles away via the A350, and there is no Bournemouth depot and no Bournemouth phone number. If a move genuinely needs a firm five minutes down the road, we will say so on the call.
Nearby areas we cover
On the same run down
Marley Moves & Bournemouth
We move people across Bournemouth from our Shaftesbury, SP7 yard.
Around 32 miles from our Shaftesbury yard, with surveys and move dates planned around our regular routes.
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Council & Housing Association Moves
Resident decants, managed moves, packing, storage and relocations
Marley Moves provides council and housing association removals, resident decants and managed moves across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. We work with residents, housing teams and supported-housing providers on temporary decants during repairs or refurbishment, permanent transfers, rightsizing and downsizing, moves between tenancies and temporary accommodation, plus packing and storage where needed. From our Shaftesbury base we cover North Dorset, South Somerset and south and west Wiltshire, with regular routes through Gillingham, Sherborne, Yeovil, Warminster, Salisbury, Dorchester, Bournemouth and Poole. We can quote one-off resident moves and discuss purchase orders, frameworks or tender opportunities. We do not claim approved-supplier or contracted status for any council or housing association unless Marley Moves has actually been appointed.
Learn more →Packing
Full or part, proper materials, careful crew
Marley Moves provides full and part packing services across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, using a methodical room-by-room approach and appropriate protective materials. Crockery and ornaments are wrapped carefully, boxes are labelled by room, and furniture is protected for the journey. Many customers ask us to handle the kitchen, glassware and other fragile items while they pack books, clothes and bedding themselves. Full packing is available when time is tight or when a home contains a larger volume of fragile, antique or specialist items. Packing is quoted clearly as part of, or alongside, the removal.
Learn more →House Clearances
Sensitive, licensed, properly insured
Marley Moves provides sensitive house clearances across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire for probate, downsizing, end-of-tenancy, post-bereavement and hoarder-property situations. We agree what must be kept before work begins, separate usable items for donation where appropriate, recycle what we can and use licensed disposal routes for genuine waste. Probate and estate clearances are planned around the executor’s or solicitor’s timetable, with photographs and family-kept items handled carefully. Where a visit is useful, we inspect the property before quoting so the written price reflects the access, volume and agreed scope. Many clearances are completed in a day; larger properties can take longer.
Learn more →Free fixed quote
Like the sound of us?
We send every quote back within the hour. It is usually fixed straight away; if a survey is needed, we confirm the fixed price afterwards. Pick whichever bit fits your pace.