As a child growing up in Weymouth, i have many happy memories of swimming from the old Pleasure Pier. This was at a time when there were changing rooms for the swimmers, a slide, diving boards, and steps, water polo matches were played there. In the summer the water would be thick with kids and…
Category: Weymouth tales
Stories from around Weymouth
Weymouths beginnings as a sea bathing resort 1750
When ever Weymouth is talked about concerning it’s seaside status, generally it is said that George III made it what it is today, that’s partly true, but there is a little more to it than that. Weymouth was becoming popular long before the end of the 18th c. A certain Bath gentleman, Ralph Allen had…
Weymouth’s history as a harbour on the frontline. 1795
Being in the process of writing a book about the history of the Nothe area in Weymouth, I’ve uncovered many interesting facts about the past history of the town while trawling through the old newspapers and documents. Some of which I’ll narrate here, little snippits of what life was like for our ancestors, living on…
Weymouth 1723 and the corruption of elections.
Weymouth down through it’s past history had a record of being a ‘rotten borough’ when it came to electing M.P’s. It had one of the highest number of M.P’s for a town so small as this! At one time we could send 4 to the houses of Parliament. Well, when I say we, what was…
Easter at Weymouth in 1896
Weymouth is basically a tradition bucket and spade seaside town, that is how we began our rise as a resort in Georgian times, and so it has been ever since! The town council has the task of helping to promote the town, as it always has done, but as the recession has hit, they have…
Dorothy Restaurant Weymouth fined for selling chocolate on a Sunday 1920!
There are many acts that were written by Parliament in times way back that have never been repealed, consequently they were sometimes evoked during later times when they made a mockery of the laws. Such was a case in 1920, when a well-known Weymouth restauarnt fell foul of the law. The popular Dorthy restaurant on the…
Sad Case of Poverty and Neglect at Weymouth; 1896
A court case appeared in the local papers in March of 1896 of a family who were living in Weymouth at the time. It reveals the true horrors of poverty and neglect that some families found themselves in during the Victorian period. Lucy Eudora Stickley had been born in the little village of Milborne st…
Weymouth Town Councillors Brawling; 1894
First on the agenda was the Garden committee. Fairly innocuous you would have thought, but it appears that behind those chamber’s closed doors things were starting to hot up!
Two councillors exchanged heated words during the proceedings.
Great Western Trippers flock to Victorian Weymouth 1870
One example is July of 1870, almost the entire factory of the Great Western Railway’s carriage and locomotive works set off on their hols on the same day. Nearly 6,000 of them left Swindon station for their various destinations.
Some headed for the bright lights of London, some for the bustling city of Bristol, a few even ventured to Swansea.
An unlucky few were left behind at the works to keep things ticking over at the factory.
That week nigh on 1,500 men, women and children swarmed into Weymouth on the special trains that were run to carry them.
Victorian Firework Night 1866
On the 5th November 1866, the annual ‘Protestant’ fete was celebrated with great gusto by the folks of Weymouth.
Most of the activity was confined to the sands, with two large bonfires burning down by the shore. For some strange reason a large hulk was described as being well ablaze in the water, with reflections of the flames rippling in the swell.
VICTORIAN TALES FROM WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND 