Weymouth Weymouth Regular Script Category="English seaside resorts"Category="Towns in Dorset"
This article is about Weymouth in England. For other places see Weymouth (disambiguation)

Weymouth
[image] The Promenade
OS Grid Reference: SY676794
Lat/Lon: 50°36′ N 2°27′ W
Population:63,648
Dwellings:27,156
Formal status:Town
Administration
County:Dorset
Region:South West
Nation:England
Post Office and Telephone
Post town:Weymouth
Postcode:DT3, DT4
Dialling Code:01305

[image]

Weymouth is a Town in Dorset, England, situated on a sheltered bay - Weymouth Bay - at the mouth of the River Wey on the English Channel coast. The town is eight miles south of Dorchester, and just north of the Isle of Portland. The district of Weymouth and Portland has a population of 63,648. The town is one of the most popular British seaside resorts, and a cross-channel Ferry terminal.

The Borough of Weymouth and Portland has a reputation of being one of the sunniest places in Britain, and often is - rivalling other south Coast resorts such as Eastbourne for the title.

The town centre is right next to Radipole Lake and Weymouth Beach, which appeals to the many thousands of tourists that flock here.

History

The town is acknowledged as being amongst the first ever tourist destinations, after King George III made Weymouth his summer holiday residence on fourteen occasions between 1789 and 1805, sparking a trend of Sea bathing and Health tourism. The seafront still consists largely of the original Georgian terraces. A mounted white horse representing King George is carved into the Chalk hills to the east of the town. The horse is facing away from the town and legend has it that the King took offence, believing it was a sign that the townspeople did not welcome him, and that the designer subsequently hanged himself.

Weymouth is thought to be the first port at which the Black Death came into England, aboard a visiting Spice ship in 1348.

Emigrants from the town settled in Weymouth, Nova Scotia, and Weymouth, Massachusetts.

Weymouth and Portland were extremely important in World War II, as Portland Harbour was home to a large naval base, and Weymouth was home to Nothe Fort, together an important part of the D-Day preparations and Bouncing bomb development.

Geology & ecology

Weymouth is situated on weak sand and clay rock which in most places along the Dorset Coast, except for narrow bands at Lulworth Cove, Swanage and Durdle Door, has been eroded and washed away. At Weymouth the weak rock has been protected by Chesil Beach and the strong limestone Isle of Portland that lies just offshore. The Isle of Portland also affects the tides of the area, and means that Weymouth Bay experiences a very unusual double low tide. Weymouth is separated from Dorchester by the South Dorset Downs, a steep ridge of Chalk.

Weymouth is very low lying, and the eastern areas of the town experienced several sea floods during extreme low pressure storms, until in the 1980s and 1990s a high sea wall was constructed. Beach nourishment and groynes ensure that the sand beach, important both for tourism and as a natural defence against the sea, is wide and has a shallow incline.

As Weymouth is very low lying (below sea level in some areas) and is bounded by lakes and the warm seas, in winter frost is almost unheard of, as too is snow. There can be a foot of snow in Dorchester, but when you enter Weymouth it can be sunny and frost/snow free.

Sunshine The borough has a reputation as one of the sunniest places in Britain, and often is (even in winter)- rivalling other South Coast resorts such as Eastbourne for the title. The resort averages around 1900 hours of sun a Year, or approximately 160 hours a Month - it can be near to twice that in summer. 2003 saw between 2111 and 2193 hours of sun (totals vary due to rounding of minutes), and the sunniest month had a total of 326 hours of sun.

Radipole Lake, an RSPB Nature reserve and mouth of the River Wey is an important habitat for birds and fish. The lake flows into the historical Weymouth harbour, where ferries to France and the Channel Islands dock.

Tourism & other industries

[image] Tourism has for a long time been the largest industry in Weymouth, though tourism has declined a little as international tourism has grown. As well as its large, shallow sandy beach Weymouth has several museums and an Aquarium. The town is also a gateway town situated approximately half-way along Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, a 95 Mile stretch of the coast important for its geology and unique landforms. In 1995 Weymouth and Portland received almost 500,000 visitors, of which 16,000 were from overseas. Visitors spent UK£76.2 million in the town in 1995. In 2002 the Nothe Fort museum had 12,000 visitors, and the Brewer's Quay Timewalk museum had 41,000 visitors.

Weymouth's unique natural beauty, weather, history and culture contrasts with other English seaside resorts, which are synonymous with overcast skies, dilapidated piers and cold, windswept beaches. This makes Weymouth one of England's most popular seaside resorts: indeed, around a third of the borough's tourists are from overseas.

The port is small but still has a Fishing fleet and takes passenger ferries to the Channel Islands and Cherbourg in France. The countryside surrounding Weymouth is less agricultural than the valleys in the centre and north of the county, but has some dairy and arable farms. In 1999 the town centre had 221 shops and 6km² of industrial estates. The high-street clothes designer New Look is based in the town, although the distribution centre was moved to the Midlands in 2005.

Transport

[image] Weymouth railway station is the terminus of the route from London Waterloo and the route from Westbury and Bristol. The 19th Century railway station at Weymouth had four platforms and, by the time of its demise, a large gap between two of the tracks which had once been taken up by sidings. Although its size had at one point been fully appropriate for the intense rail traffic that came into and out of Weymouth on busy summer Saturdays, it was an oversized white elephant by the time it was demolished in 1986. A smaller, modern station took up part of the site, while the rest of the old station site was given over to commercial development.

The town is situated on the A354 road, which connects the town to the A35 Trunk road in Dorchester, and which terminates at Easton on Portland. The road bypasses the town centre, but the busy road follows its original route through the suburbs of Upwey and Broadwey, where traffic problems are common at peak tourist times and particularly on the day of the town's annual carnival. Plans to bypass Upwey have been discussed since the late 1980s, but have been held up by lack of funding and opposition by residents and environmental groups. The A353 road runs east from the town to a large roundabout near Warmwell, where it connects with the A352 road to the Isle of Purbeck and Wareham.

Culture, recreation and sport

The local football team, Weymouth F.C., have remained below the Football League for their entire history, but in common with many other non-League clubs, they went professional in 2005. They have enjoyed erratic success at their level over the years, on at least two occasions reaching the third round of the FA Cup (where the top clubs enter the competition), and are currently underachieving in the Conference South league (the sixth level of English football, and the highest level that does not take in the whole of England). They currently play at the out-of-town Wessex Stadium, but until 1987 they played at a ground near the town centre, the site of which is now taken up by an ASDA supermarket. The club's move predated the move to new out-of-town grounds by professional league clubs, and came at a time when there had been no new league football stadia opened in England for 32 years. The stadium is now set to be rebuilt again on land occupied by a pitch-and-putt golf course, ironically with ASDA again building on the previous stadium site.

Weymouth is also home to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, where the sailing events at the 2012 Olympics will take place.

References

  1. Census 2001 data from either Dorset County Council factsheet or the and Portland&CTY1=Dorset&AID1=175615&MT1=GAZ&NM1=Weymouth&CW1=0&LA2=Weymouth and Portland&CTY2=Dorset&AID2=175615&MT2=LA&NM2=Weymouth and Portland&CW2=0&LA3=Weymouth and Portland&CTY3=Dorset&AID3=180549&MT3=WARD&NM3=Weymouth East&CW3=0&LA4=Weymouth and Portland&CTY4=Dorset&AID4=180550&MT4=WARD&NM4=Weymouth West&CW4=0 Office for National Statistics data.
  2. 1995 tourism data from Dorset County Council facts and figures.
  3. 2002 tourist attraction visitor numbers from Dorset County Council facts and figures.

External links