Children being, well, children, have a habit of being where they’re not supposed to be and doing what they’re not supposed to do….we’ve all done it ! When I think of all the scrapes we got up to as kids it’s a wonder any of us survived. Victorian children were no different, in fact there…
Tag: weymouth
Weymouth 1866. A Cruel Life for Victorian Beach Donkeys
Donkeys on Weymouth beach can boast a long history, they are an iconic image of traditional seaside holidays dating right back to the mid 19th century when sea bathing and beach holidays became a booming trade. (image © Channel Coast Observatory) Small children (and many adults) adore them, love to stroke them, and if lucky,…
Professor Cavill and Weymouth’s swimming display 1871
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…
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.
VICTORIAN TALES FROM WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND 