, Dorset
Bronze Age and Roman interments have been found within the boundaries of the town. Is first mention, as 'Waymuth occurs in a charter granted by King Athelstan in 938. Its first charter was obtained in 1252 making it a free borough and port.
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| | | Weymouth has the unenviable distinction of being the port through which the black death which was to destroy maybe a third or more of the population of England entered the country as it spread through Europe from the Middle East.
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Long-running commercial disputes with its neighbour, Melcombe Regis, led to the amalgamation of the towns, the new town being granted a charter by James I in 1616.
It stood for parliament during the Civil War and by the mid-18th century its importance had declined to that of a fishing village.
The turnpike system allowed the development of coaching along the main roads to and from London; the journey to the capital from Weymouth by mail coach in 1791 took only eighteen hours, by 1825, lighter coaches were completing the same route in fifteen hours.
The Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth Railway was also empowered by and Act of Parliament of 1845 which was backed by the Great Western. The tunnels and awkward gradients caused the line to be far from complete when the railway boom collapsed and worked on it stopped completely. The Great Western Railway took over the project in 1950 and the line was finally opened in 1857. In the meantime, Weymouth temporarily lost its Channel Island packet service to the port of Southampton.
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King George III who stayed at Weymouth with the whole of the royal court for 10 weeks and his bathing exploits established the fad for sea bathing and caused the rise of seaside resorts, Weymouth amongst them.
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The town's fortunes as a port turned in the 19th century with the advent of trade with the Channel Isles and, in 1944, it was the principal embarcation point for the Allied invasion of Europe. Throughout the 19th and 20th century, the town became reliant on the tourist trade.
The station at Railway was built by the Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth Railway which later became part of the GWR. The LSWR however had running rights over the line from Dorchester. Both companies started services on the line in 1857 using track with three rails to accomodate the different guages. Althought the LSWR had a shorter route to London from the port, it was the GWR which secured the majority of the docks traffic for the Channel Isles and Cherbourg.
Through the streets of the town itself ran the Weymouth Harbour Tramway on which most of the traffic belonged to the GWR although the Tramway was jointly owned by the LSWR and the GWR. The trains had to be preceded by a man with a red flag.
Two platfroms on the 'Arrivals' side were added as late as 1957 - a period more widely known as one of railway decline.
KING GEORGE III
King George III who stayed at Weymouth with the whole of the royal court for 10 weeks and his bathing exploits established the fad for sea bathing and caused the rise of seaside resorts, Weymouth amongst them.
MEADE FAULKNER
Meade Faulkner was a Weymouth man. He used his knowledge of the local area to write his novel "Moonfleet" which was based on the village of Fleet to the north of Chesil Beach and the Fleet lagoon.
| 938 | | First mention of Weymouth, Dorset in a charter granted by King Athelstan | | BAAAGDKU | | 1252 | | Weymouth in Dorset recieves its first charter making it a free borough and port | | | | 1616 | | Weymouth amalgamted with Melcombe Regis, the new town being granted a charter by James I | | BAAAGCLJ | | 1627.Nov.16 | | Weymouth borough licences, e.g. John Rashley, fuller, 5/-; Nich. Minard, carpenter,40/-; Tho Baldwin, tailor, 40/-
| | BAAAGBYS | | 1685.Jun | | Great fire at Beaminster in Dorset | | | | 1685.Sep.13 | | Briefs sent out to collect support following Beaminster (Dorset)fire of June
| | BAAAGBYS | | 1838.Nov.28 | | (Wednesday) Great Gale utterly destroys five ships on the shingle of Chesil Beach leaving no survivors
The Weymouth sloop Dove under Captain Bussell was wrecked on Chesil Beach - all hands and part of its cargo were saved | | BAAAGCRN BAAAGCQX BAAAGBUZ BAAAGCQU | | 1840 | | Southampton-Weymouth stage-coach starts stopping at Bournemouth | | BAAAGBYS BAAAGCGT BAAAGGAL | | 1845 | | Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth Railway empowered by an Act of Parliament | | BAAAGDDU | | 1857 | | Railway reaches Weymouth in Dorset | | BAAAGBUB |
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