History
LOST DORSET
NO. 26 WEYMOUTH
T
David Burnett, The Dovecote Press
he message on the back, written in August 1908, says it all: ‘My dear Chummy. This will give you some idea of the crowds here on August Bank Holiday. This is only half the beach. Most of the natives clear out on that day. There are no rocks. Free and easy bathing. Sammy.’ The current chaos at Britain’s airports may add to the numbers on all Dorset’s beaches this August, though few are likely to be as crowded as in the postcard. Weymouth owed its popularity to ‘Swindon Weeks’ – the annual closure of the Great Western Railway works in Swindon. By the mid-1880s, and on one day alone, 6,000 workers and their families disembarked at Weymouth Station on special ‘Trip Day’ trains before heading for one of the hundreds of family-run lodgings that sprang up behind the esplanade. Apart from the sands, the principal attractions were the Pavilion, which opened in 1908, musical concerts by military bands in the public gardens, and excursions by paddle-steamer to Lulworth Cove or round the battleships of the Channel Fleet anchored in Portland Harbour. Lost Dorset: The Towns 1880-1920, the companion volume to Lost Dorset: The Villages and Countryside, is a 220-page large format hardback, price £20, and available locally from Winstone’s Books or directly from the publishers. dovecotepress.com
64 | Sherborne Times | August 2022
