West Bay Methodist Church is a former Methodist chapel at West Bay, West Dorset, England. Opened in 1849, the chapel was locally known as "the chapel on the beach". It closed in 2007 and was transformed into the West Bay Discovery Centre in 2018. The former chapel has been Grade II listed since 1975. [1]
Prior to the construction of the church, the West Bay Wesleyan Society, which had formed in 1828, held services and meeting at a local dwelling. [2] As the congregation grew, a Methodist church was built in 1849 by Messrs John Cox and Son, [1] close to West Bay harbour and Chesil Beach. It opened on 4 December 1849 and continued to serve the local community until May 2007, with the exception of a period of closure during World War II. [3] [4]
Following the chapel's disuse, West Dorset District Council later sold the chapel to the Bridport Area Development Trust for £1 in 2012. [2] Plans were then created for its conversion into a visitor centre, with planning permission being sought and granted in 2015. [5] Funding from the Coastal Communities Fund was received in 2017 and the restoration and alteration work was carried out in 2018 by R&C Building Conservation of Shaftesbury. [6] [7] The West Bay Discovery Centre opened in August 2018. [8]
Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, 25 miles (40 km) west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Heritage or Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. The harbour wall, known as The Cobb, appears in Jane Austen's novel Persuasion, the John Fowles novel The French Lieutenant's Woman and the 1981 film of that name, partly shot in the town. A former mayor and MP was Admiral Sir George Somers, who founded the English colonial settlement of Somers Isles, now Bermuda, where Lyme Regis is twinned with St George's. In July 2015, Lyme Regis joined Jamestown, Virginia in a Historic Atlantic Triangle with St George's. The 2011 Census gave the urban area a population of 4,712, estimated at 4,805 in 2019.
The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about 96 miles (154 km), and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-December 2001.
Chesil Beach in Dorset, England is one of three major shingle beach structures in Britain. Its name is derived from the Old English ceosel or cisel, meaning "gravel" or "shingle". It runs for a length of 29 kilometres (18 mi) from West Bay to the Isle of Portland and in places is up to 15 metres (50 ft) high and 200 metres (660 ft) wide. Behind the beach is the Fleet, a shallow tidal lagoon. Both are part of the Jurassic Coast and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and together form an SSSI and Ramsar Site.
Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and within the town's boundary is West Bay, a small fishing harbour also known as Bridport Harbour.
West Dorset was a local government district in Dorset, England. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the boroughs of Bridport, Dorchester and Lyme Regis, along with Sherborne urban district and the rural districts of Beaminster, Bridport, Dorchester and Sherborne. Its council was based in Dorchester.
West Bay, originally known as Bridport Harbour, is a small harbour settlement and resort on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England, sited at the mouth of the River Brit approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Bridport. The area is part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site.
Charmouth is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England. The village is situated on the mouth of the River Char, around 1+1⁄2 miles (2 km) north-east of Lyme Regis. Dorset County Council estimated that in 2013 the population of the civil parish was 1,310. In the 2011 Census the population of the parish, combined with the small parish of Catherston Leweston to the north, was 1,352.
Burton Bradstock is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, approximately 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) southeast of Bridport and 1⁄2 mile (0.8 km) inland from the English Channel at Chesil Beach. In the 2011 Census the parish had a population of 948. The village lies in the Bride Valley, close to the mouth of the small River Bride. It comprises 16th- and 17th-century thatched cottages, a parish church, two pubs, a primary school, shop, post office stores, beach café, hotel, garage, village hall, reading room a library. The parish has a National Coastwatch Institution Station, Lyme Bay Station.
Chideock is a village and civil parish in south west Dorset, England, situated close to the English Channel between Bridport and Lyme Regis. Dorset County Council's 2013 estimate of the parish population is 550.
Whitchurch Canonicorum is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, England, situated in the Marshwood Vale 5 miles (8.0 km) west-northwest of Bridport. In the 2011 Census the parish – which includes the settlements of Morcombelake, Ryall and Fishpond Bottom – had a population of 684.
West Dorset is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Chris Loder, a Conservative.
Lyme Bay is an area of the English Channel off the south coast of England. The south western counties of Devon and Dorset front onto the bay.
A 28-mile (45.1 km) trail between Ham Hill in Somerset and Lyme Regis in Dorset, England.
Bridport Arts Centre is an arts centre in Bridport, Dorset, England. Founded in 1973, it is housed in and around a 19th-century, Grade II listed building, formerly known as the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. The complex includes the Marlow Theatre, the Allsop Gallery and a cinema.
St Peter's Church is a Church of England church in Eype, Dorset, England. Built in 1864–65, the church now also serves as an arts venue, known as the Eype Centre for the Arts.
St John's Church is a Church of England church in West Bay, Dorset, England. It was built in 1935–39 to the designs of William Henry Randoll Blacking and has been a Grade II listed building since 1975.
Wyke Regis Methodist Church is a former Methodist church in Wyke Regis, Dorset, England. Designed by Ford & Slater of Burslem, it was built in 1903 and remained in use until 2021.
The Jurassic Coaster is a bus service operated by the Weymouth branch of First Hampshire & Dorset, running around the Jurassic coastline of the county of Dorset. It features five unique routes, stretching from Axminster in the west to Poole in the east, with one of the routes in TripAdvisor's 2018 poll of most scenic bus routes coming in 12th place.
The River Lym or River Lim is a short river, some 5 km in length, that flows through the Devon-Dorset border. It rises from multiple springs at Raymond's Hill, near the village of Uplyme in East Devon, and flows southeasterly through Dorset, into the English Channel via Lyme Bay in the town of Lyme Regis, Dorset. The river falls over 200 metres from its source.