Swanage -- "Knollsea" in Hardy's Wessex novels -- was the last place to be visited, so we didn't have time for much more than a stroll down into the town from the railway station before lunch, and then a walk along the seafront before it was time to return to London. Nevertheless, it seems an interesting small town: a port and a fishing village until the Victorian era, when it became a seaside resort but one which (like to so many since the advent of the package foreign holiday) has fallen on harder times. According to jolly old Wikipedia, however, tourism is still the main industry, while the bay is one of the most popular training sites for scuba divers ("the dive shop still situated on the pier was the first dive shop ever to open in Great Britain"). So now you know!

    

Below is the 19th century wooden pier. Although not apparent from this photograph, it actually has two branches: one (the one that's visible) was refurbished in 1999, but the other is derelict. Below that photograph is a panorama of the beach stretching away to the north, towards Ballard Point and Old Harry Rocks.