He lived on board a houseboat – a converted Thames barge – on the River Frome at Wareham in Dorset, where he wrote the majority of his books.
Originally the Frome joined the Avon downstream of Bristol Bridge, and formed part of the city defences, but in the thirteenth century the river was diverted through marshland belonging to St Augustine's Abbey (now Bristol Cathedral), as part of major port improvement works.
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When Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, rebuilt Bristol Castle, the Frome was diverted (at present-day Broad Weir) to form the castle moat, so that the city was entirely surrounded by water.
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The Frome originally flowed east of its present-day course from Stone Bridge (now underground by St John's Gate) along the line of St Stephen's Street and Baldwin Street, joining the Avon near Bristol Bridge.
The site was on the banks of the River Frome, which was diverted at around this time to create Bristol Harbour.
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There are good views from the Common, west over the Severn estuary into Wales, and east to the Golden Valley and further into the Cotswolds.
It is some 4–5 metres in diameter and runs from the River Frome at Eastville to the Black Rocks Quarry in the Avon Gorge.
Swanage lies at the tip of the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula bordered by the English Channel to the south, and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the north and east.