We’ll start with a touch of Christmastide shenanigans. A well respected farmer and businessman, Thomas Hole, was stood in the dock garbed only in a sheet and rug, much to the amusement of the court’s public attendees, in stark contrast his hands and face were blackened. Thomas was accused of being drunk and disorderly at the Crown hotel.
Category: Chesil beach
Tales from Chesil beach
Ringing in the New Year Victorian Style; Weymouth and Portland.
Well…that’s yet another year year done and dusted. My old Mum always used to say the older you get, the faster they go, and true to her oh so wise (but often infuriating) words, the older I’m getting, the faster they’re bloody well going. In fact they’ve now almost hit warp speed! New Year’s Eve is…
The Great Escape from Portland Prison 1868;
William though had an even stranger tale to tell, proceeding to enlighten the eager scribe of his past history, a ‘romantic’ tale about his daring escape from the dreaded Portland prison, boasting he had been the only man to escape. its grey forbidding walls.
The sea takes… and the sea gives back
With the steady stream of violent storms that has hit the South coast over the past couple on months it has been fascinating to see how the immense power of the ebb and flow of the extreme tides and currents affect the shores. The last storm to hit the South Coast, rather fetchingly named the…
The Armada and Chesil beach; December 1876.
Storms are nothing new to us on the South coast, we have lived with them since time immemorial, though this winter’s battering is proving to be some what of a prolonged event! World famous Chesil beach runs from the cove at Chiswell, Portland to West Bay. Facing that immense heritage pebble bank is the locally…
1824; Weymouth, the Great Storm
This being the morning before zero hour…I thought that this might well be a good time to write about the Great Storm of 1824 that hit the country. Those living on the South coast were worst hit. This is a tale of a storm that was so severe and so destructive that it has gone…
1872; Chesil Shipwreck; Death, Drowning and Detention. Human Nature at its Very Best & Worst!
Lyme Bay and Chesil beach have always been notorious amongst sailors of old (and new!) Many a ship and its crew and passengers have seen the sight of thunderous waves breaking on Chesil’s steep pebble bank as maybe their last, or maybe their salvation. Since time immemorial the subject of shipwrecks have meant many things…
1888; Chesil swallows up another wreck.
Chesil beach in Dorset is world renown. It is part of the World Heritage Jurassic coastline. A more stunning place for scenery is hard to find…but it does have it’s dark side, as anyone who’s witnessed it in storms will realise. Many a ship has fallen foul of the weather and tides here, the sea…
1828; Chesil beach gives up her riches.
Now, if you’ve ever been stood on Chesil beach and watched nature’s fury as she crashes in on this huge pebbled bank, you’ll know why treasure hunters love to visit after a storm. West Bay was referred to as ‘Deadman’s Bay’ by our own world renown local author, Thomas Hardy, and for very good reason….
VICTORIAN TALES FROM WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND 