chapter five

Passage at Ferrybridge; Shipwrecks; The Great Gale; Smuggling; The Old Road To Portland; Fishing in Wyke,

''Passage'' or "Smallmouth" was first mentioned in a document in 1244. In 1387 a ferry is noted as being at "Passage" and in 1539 there is a reference to "Lyme Howsse, wher passage ys to Portland". By 1570 we find a "tenement called Smalemouth.....together with the passinge and passinge boote of Smalemouth". The "boote" was operated by a rope secured to posts on each side of the narrows and the ferryman used to pull the boat to and fro. In later days the rope was sometimes connected to a windlass powered by an unfortunate horse. The Ferry was the responsibility of the Isle of Portland Court Leet who arranged for its operation. From 1671 to 1771 it was run by John Farrington of Weymouth and his heirs, who were required to provide two boats, one for cattle and horses and the other for foot passengers.

The old Passage House, where the ferryman and his family lived, stood on the mainland side of the "Passage" where the Ferrybridge Inn now stands. The ferry played a part in the English Civil War when it was used in 1643 to transport Parliamentary troops across to capture Portland Castle. It was then used by the Royalist in 1645 when a raiding party crossed from Portland in the dead of night to attack and capture the port of Weymouth.

After the Great Gale of 1824 public pressure grew to have the ferry replaced by a bridge.

The ferry was always subject to the vagaries of the weather and demands for its replacement were constant. However, it was the Great Gale of 1824 that really illustrated its vulnerability. On the 22nd November 1824 a storm occurred of quite unusual ferocity. It badly damaged Weymouth and Portland and it is recorded that the level of water in the Fleet rose 22 feet and inundated and destroyed most of the village of Fleet. The Rector of Wyke Regis at that time was the Reverend George Chamberlaine and he wrote a vivid account of the storm at the back of the Register of Baptisms for the Parish. The register covers the years 1813 to 1829 and the description of the storm is beautifully written and was obviously carefully composed to serve as a reminder to posterity - it is now held in the Dorset Records Office at Dorchester. The account reads as follows:-

In the evening of this day, which will ever be memorable for the dreadful catastrophe which caused such destruction along the whole western coast of the kingdom, the village of Chisel was nearly destroyed, twenty six of the inhabitants drowned, and upward of eighty houses damaged or washed down by a tremendous surf which broke over the Chisel bank, and bore everything away with irresistible violence before it. This awful visitation was occasioned by a heavy gale, which, happening at spring tide, and commencing from the south south east, increased till eight o'clock, when it blew a most dreadful hurricane, such as never had been known before in the memory of man.

At nine o'clock a most horrid scene presented itself. The sea ran down the streets of Chisel with a sufficient depth of water to float a vessel of a hundred tons burden; and the wrecks of the houses, with the furniture of the poor inhabitants, were every where strewed on the shore. The ferry house leading to Portland was washed away, and the ferryman drowned. The communication between the island and the main land was nearly destroyed by the ravages of the sea, which carried away the sand bank on the eastern side, and rendered the passage four times wider than it was before. The Chisel Bank throughout its whole extent was lowered from twenty to thirty feet; and the seines and the boats of the poor fisherman of Wyke as well as those of Portland were almost totally destroyed. The pier of Weymouth Harbour was materially damaged and three fourths of the esplanade at Melcome Regis entirely thrown down and demolished. The waves of the sea washed over the high road at Melcome Regis, and filled all the lower parts of the houses in Gloucester Row and the Crescent with gravel and water. In short, a scene of greater distress and misery can hardly be conceived than was occasioned by this storm, and its dreadful effects will never be effaced from the minds of those who witnessed it. The same storm destroyed the church at Fleet, and threw down several houses, but fortunately no lives were lost. The Colville West India Man of four hundred tons burden was totally wrecked in the bay, and every soul on board perished besides several minor wrecks too numerous to mention.

An account of the storm in the Southern Times also records how Richard Best the ferryman with almost 30 years of experience at Smallmouth, struggled against the storm to rescue a horse but was carried away to his doom. The old Passage House along with the boats and posts was also swept away and the water channel was left four times its previous width. The sand bar used as a ford was also gone. A 95 ton brig ''The Ebenezer" was thrown to the top of the beach during the gale and eventually dragged over and re-floated in the Portland Roads.

The rugged Chesil Beach has been the scene of many tragic shipwrecks near Wyke Regis. One of the first detailed accounts is of a ship called the Golden Grape that came ashore on Chesil opposite Smallmouth in December 1641 and seven out of the twenty crew were drowned. The cargo of 240 pieces of silver, gold, silk, raisins, oil and "Butts of Sherryes Sackes" was reported as having "mysteriously disappeared".

In 1749 a pirate ship called the Hope came ashore on Chesil and locals stripped her of her cargo, which included £50,000 of gold.

In November 1795 three transports named the Venus, Piedmont and Catherine were cast away on the Chesil. Hundreds of bodies were buried on the beach and 17 officers and 26 men were buried in a grave to the North of the tower of All Saints Church. A stone tablet records the awful event.

In 1805 the East-Indiaman "Earl of Abergavenny'' was wrecked on the Shambles Bank to the East of Portland Bill and this led to the loss of some 300 lives. Eighty of these are buried in the graveyard of All Saints Church. Her captain, John Wordsworth, the brother of the poet William Wordsworth is buried on the South side of the Church near the Buxton Vault. There is no stone to mark the grave.

In 1815 the Alexander was wrecked in the bay and in one grave in the churchyard lie buried 140 of the passengers and crew. A stone tablet commemorating the event is on the outside of the Church. It was designed by the Georgian architect James Hamilton.

In November 1872 the Royal Adelaide was wrecked opposite Wyke and seven of those on board were drowned. Four local people, including a fifteen year old boy, lost their lives through drinking raw spirits from the wreck and dying of exposure. There was a great treasure hunt for booty from the ship over the following weeks and it is recorded that most of the pupils at the church school in Wyke were absent through being on the Chesil Beach.

The heyday of smuggling for the villagers of Wyke was around 1750 to 1800 when virtually all the residents were involved in trying to outwit the Coastguards who patrolled regularly along the cliffs from Ferrybridge. Foreign vessels would lie close it to the beach and drop their contraband cargo overboard and mark the position with corks. Sometime later the "honest fisherman" of Wyke could recover the goods. An alternative was to mark them with wood and use dogs trained to swim out and tow the goods ashore. Reputedly the dogs were so well trained that if they spotted a Coastguard they would swim out to sea again and land without the tow at another spot.

The reputed headquarters of the smuggling in Wyke was at the Ship Inn in Shrubbery Lane - destroyed by bombing during the 2^nd World War. The smugglers would have brought the contraband - mainly spirits - ashore on the remote Chesil Beach at dead of night. Then they would have ferried the goods silently across the Fleet in their flat bottomed "trows" and quietly carried them up what is now called Pirates Lane. In those days it was known as Red Lane. Then across the track that is now Westhill Road, down to High Street and through Collins Lane into the cellars of the Ship Inn. Another reputed hiding place for smuggled goods was at New Close Farm, half way down Westhill Road, where a signal light was shone from the upstairs room so that it could be seen by the smuggler’s ship in Lyme Bay. The little barred window facing Westhill Road was once used to keep a lookout for the Preventive Men.

During the Sunday Service at All Saints Church the Reverend would ask everyone to "pray for the right spirit". All the villagers would say a hearty "Amen" - and they always saw that the parsonage cellars were well stocked with "cordial". By the 1850’s smuggling was becoming a very risky business, although it had not completely died out.

Many years ago, before the first Ferry Bridge was built in 1839, there was an old wooden vessel beached on the Fleet side of the Chesil Beach, It was near the old Rocket House whose site is nowadays occupied by a large wooden beach hut. In former days the old vessel was known as "The Argus" and in her time she did a great deal of smuggling. However, she was captured when she was stopped and searched and her captain and crew thought that they had jettisoned all the contraband - unfortunately for them they had overlooked a keg of spirits. That was enough to condemn them and the boat was brought up the Fleet and hauled onto the beach.

She was used for many years as a Coastguard Watch-house, with a chief boatman and his wife actually living in her. They even cultivating a small piece of ground on the stony Chesil Beach. The vessel eventually fell into decay and was sold.

An interesting tombstone in All Saints churchyard reflects the long association of Wyke villagers with smuggling and the sea. It is that of a local smuggler who was slain by a shot from Coastguard men of the Pigmy Schooner. The inscription, which was easily readable in the 1960s (a good photograph is in C.R. Domoney’s book about the Church) is fading fast - probably due to the pollution from the adjacent Portland Road traffic. It reads "'Sacred to the memory of William Lewis who was killed by a shot from the Pigmy Schooner 21^st April 1822 aged 33 years.'' At the time there was great deal of indignation among the local people and considerable sympathy for Lewis, who was given a public funeral. The tombstone includes the following verse:-

Of life bereft (by fell design),
I mingle with my fellow clay.
On God’s protection I recline,
To save me on the Judgement Day.
There shall each bloodstained soul appear,
Repent a! Ere it be too late,
Or else a dreadful doom you’ll hear,
For God will sure avenge my fate.

Before 1811 the main route to Portland from Weymouth was up Boot Lane (Boot Hill), along Castle Lane (Rodwell Road and Old Castle Road) and then down onto the wide sands that stretched from Sandsfoot Castle to Smallmouth. There, at low tide in settled weather, a sand bar enabled travellers to ford the "Passage". The whole area was a great attraction for locals and visitors alike. In August 1842 it was described thus:-

"Smallmouth Sands, beyond the old castle ruins on the way to Portland are much resorted to by our visitors. At low water there is a fine extent of firm sands which cannot be equalled on the Western coast, where parties may be seen daily driving in their carriages amidst the numerous and fashionable promenaders who enjoy the cool and refreshing breezes from the Bay, with a delightful view of Portland and its forest of shipping."

Another writer from the same period declared that "The sands at low water are a quarter of a mile in width. Pedestrians, horsemen and carriages all move over them so noiselessly and they are reflected in the still-moist and smooth surface of the sand so correctly that one can hardly imagine moving on terra firma. Many of the humbler classes of inhabitants take these sands in their route from Portland to Weymouth or vica-versa, as being more pleasant and expeditious than the coach road".

Fishing in the seas around Wyke must have been carried on from the very earliest times. The Domesday Book mentions that there were four fishermen at "Bridge", believed to have been a settlement off Camp Road where Little Bridge Farm is now located. The Account Rolls of the year of 1242/43 also talk about fish, along with porpoises, from the manor of Wyke being sent to the Bishop at Winchester.

Fishing in the Fleet would have been for bass, shrimps and oysters and the flat bottomed trow (trough) must have evolved to suit the shallow water conditions. Larger scale fishing was carried out in Lyme Bay using seine nets - particularly for mackerel during the summer months.

The fishermen of Wyke were the major users of the famous Lerret which was developed for fishing in the frequently turbulent waters off the Chesil Beach. Certainly the majority of Lerrets in the area at the turn of the century were owned by the men of Wyke Regis.

John Coode, the engineer that constructed the Portland Harbour Breakwater, penned an excellent description in 1852 of the unique Lerret design and use:-

"The boats which are used on the Chesil Bank are called "lerrets" by the local fishermen and others in the district. They are of a peculiar build having great beam and an unusually flat "floor". They are therefore extremely buoyant, and if properly managed will live in almost any weather. These lerrets are pointed at both ends and are propelled by two, four or six oars, according to the size and circumstances, the men pulling "double handed", but the rowers on one side pull stroke alternately with those on the other, men affirm, and no doubt believe this to be the most economical application of their power. Each oar has a block of wood, generally African oak, fixed to the loom by spikes and a lashing; this block is called a "copse" and has a hole through it to receive an iron thowl pin, fixed to the gunwale of the boat, and standing about five inches above it.

This arrangement serves the following purposes:- It prevents the oar being unshipped in a heavy sea, and retains it in its place at all times so that it may be let go at any moment, and can at once be prepared for use when required: this is a matter of great convenience to the fisherman. It serves also, to some extent, to balance the weight of the oar; and as the boats have necessary to be run up and down the bank for a considerable distance, the oars are laid in a line, the length of the oar being placed at right angles to the line traversed by the boat's keel, so that she is run along upon the copses, which prevent her sinking into the shingle; and by the application of a little tallow to the copses and keel of the boat, the friction is reduced to a minimum, a point of much consequence with a heavy surf on the Bank, when it is all-important that the boat should be run beyond the line of breakers with the utmost expedition".

Wyke resident Harold Burbidge has described how his family and friends used to fish off Chesil Beach many years ago:-

"(My) grandfather was a full time fisherman and lived in Oban Cottage in Bryants Lane, where his fishing nets were often strung out to be repaired on the old stone walls. He had a hand compass - the size of a fob watch - that was used when he was fishing off the Chesil Beach - a must when the fog and mist came swirling swiftly down. Grandfather owned his own boat on the Chesil and he would walk down to Lockets Hole (now the Royal Engineers Bridging Hard), then row across the Fleet in his flat bottomed trow. Tom Hatcher (landlord of the Swan Inn in the Square) kept two or three trows at Lockets Hole and would loan one to Bob Baylis, a character that lived under an upturned boat on Chesil.

The young lads of the village would often accompany their fathers over onto Chesil to help with the seine net fishing. Two men would row off from the beach, paying out the net as they rowed in a wide semi-circle. When the boat again reached the Beach one of the men would jump ashore to help a team of eight to ten men to gradually haul together the ends of the net, thus trapping any fish. The man remaining in the boat would throw the occasional pebble to deter the fish from escaping from the slowly tightening net.

Catches (mostly mackerel) would be counted out in twelve's and then carried across to the Littlesea to be rowed down to Ferrybridge where fish dealers would be waiting to purchase the catch and box then up to ship to Poole or elsewhere."

Local historian Alf Brooks wrote that in the 1830’s the old women would go to the "Passage" and pack the fish in hampers with wet seaweed to keep the fish moist on their way to fish hawkers in mid-Dorset. The hampers were transported by a dray (two wheeled cart) or strapped one on each side of a horse, sometimes a donkey.

By the turn of the century Wyke was feeling the effects of the industrial revolution and where field after field of golden corn once waved, herds of cattle now grazed in order to supply dairy produce to the growing towns. The villagers of Wyke had prided themselves on being practically self supporting through farming and fishing but dairy farming pay was small and the independent Wykeites did not like to be tied to a master. At harvest time they were quite likely to disappear to go fishing off Chesil. Wyke people had been at home with the sea for countless generations - the career of a Wyke man being to spend 10 or 20 years at sea in his early manhood then to return and live in retirement with an income from fishing.

More evidence of Wyke fishermen using the Lerret is contained in the Weymouth & Portland Borough Council publication "The Lure of the Lerret". This shows that of the 53 boats listed, only six were located at Portland but thirteen were in use at Wyke Regis, whilst another nine were being shared between Wyke and Chickerell. The remaining Lerrets were owned by fishermen from Fleet, Langton Herring and Abbotsbury.

The names of the Wyke Regis Lerrets were given as AGNES (pre 1914); BUNGER (1918 - Fred Sergent); CAULIFLOWER (Sid Huddy); DAWN; FEARLESS; GIRL PAT; LARK; LINNET; MAY QUEEN; PING PONG (F & E Sergent); QUEEN MARY (shown at Wyke in 1973); RESCUE (owned by Jim Burlage pre 1914); SCARISBRICK (1906 - Henry Pitman); SPEEDWELL; and TWILIGHT (George Morris).

Other Lerrets with a connection with Wyke were BLUEBELL and COMRADES (both Tom Hatcher of the Swan Inn); DAUNTLESS (George Randall); ENA (built Wyke Regis 1926); LUCKY LIZA (pre-1914 Robert Denman); MACKERELL; NELLIE and SILVER STAR (Fred and Toby Randall); PLUM (John Randall); VERA (pre-1900 boat).

There may have been other Lerrets not included in this list because old Wyke documents show that in 1871 Charles Edwards paid James and Joseph Stone of Wyke Regis £7 for the hire of their boat "Wonder" for the season. The boat came complete with all fishing equipment and seine net plus two eighteen gallon casks of ale, 12 loaves of bread and six pounds of cheese.

William Bilke was another Wyke man who spent most of his life fishing the local waters. He was born in the High Street in 1876 at a time when there was hardly any regular work available. He spent most of his life fishing from Chesil Beach and despite - or perhaps because of - the hard conditions he lived until 87 years of age. At the tender age of ten he had left the National School in Chamberlaine Road to start his first job which was on Portland, where he worked from 6 am to 6 pm - and he had to walk to and fro from Wyke each day! In 1890 he obtained a job carrying bricks during the building of the Whitehead Torpedo Factory for which he was paid twopence per hour.

When the Torpedo Factory opened in 1891 there was no other building work available and William, like most of his fellow Wykeites, was forced to eke out a frugal living by fishing in the Fleet and off the great Chesil Bank. This often meant staying on the stony beach all day, because if the fish were not there on one tide then the men had to wait and try another. Their food was brought down to the beach by the wives and children, for to go home was to risk losing money.

During freezing winter days there were times when the men’s beards would be coated with ice, and sometimes there would be no signs of fish for weeks on end - and then the men and their families would have to live on salted mackerel. William Bilke was different from most of the other Wyke fishermen, for his priority was shrimping (prawning) in the shallow Fleet Lagoon, where he might be up to his waist in water for four or five hours at a time as he followed the outgoing tide. His tools were a five foot wide heavy wooden rake along with a shrimp net and he would constantly rake the muddy bottom, guiding the shrimps into the net.

For the men of Wyke fishing off Chesil the fishing areas were jealously guarded. Portlanders were allocated from Chesil Cove up to the wreck of the Adelaide (near Ferrybridge); Wyke had two boats from the Adelaide to the Rocket House (near the end of Camp Road); then two more Wyke boats fished from the Rocket House to Foxholes (Littlesea Cove); then another two operated from Foxholes to the Firing Range, where the men of Chickerell took over. With men’s livelihoods dependent on the catches, there was often bad feeling, especially if nets strayed over the agreed boundaries. Then it was head for the shore, off coats, and fisticuffs all round. One Chickerell family called Huddy are remembered for their toughness - and the women of the family were feared almost as much as the men!

Sometimes the sea would swarm with "blubber" (jellyfish) to such an extent that the fishing nets would break. On one occasion William Bilke was one of the Wyke men that bagged some 63,000 mackerel in one haul - and as many more were said to have got away. Because of the sudden glut they only received sixpence a hundred, which had to be shared between all the boats. In the weeks when the fish were "running big" the men might sweat at ever tide for £1 a week - and if on rare occasions they earned £2 then they celebrated with long and hard drinking sessions in one of the pubs in the village - the Mermaid Inn, the Masons Arms, The Albert Inn, The Swan, The Ship Inn, The New Inn or The Fishermen’s Arms.

On May Days the women and the children of the village went down to the Beach to join the men. The boards were taken out of the bottoms of the boats and used to make a dance floor and strong beer was drunk from large flagons - May Day was a big day in Wyke’s social calendar!

William Bilke and his wife raised eight children and one of them, Charlie Bilke of High Street recalled many years later that life was hard and disciplined when he was a young boy in the village. Even when only about eight years old he and his brothers had to help out on the Beach - and woe betide any one that spoke out of turn in front of the menfolk. The boys had to be available to row the men across the fleet in the trows; they had to coil the long fishing ropes on the top of the Beach; clean the trows; scoop large hollows in the pebbles to accommodate the mackerel catch; and then run up and down the Beach to create a firmer path for the men to use when carrying the full baskets of the fish. Depending upon the tides in the Fleet they would have to row a catch across to Camp Road, to Pirates Lane or down to Ferrybridge.

Years of fishing meant that many of the men became exceedingly strong and when necessary William Bilke could single handedly carry a fourteen foot, heavily tarred boat up over the Beach. William’s father was also a very fit man who had fished the Beach all his life. He was reputed to have been over 104 years old when he died whilst fishing off the Beach.

Some of the boats were owned by landlords of the pubs in the village - there was Tom Hatcher of the Swan Inn and the Mitchells from the Masons Arms. Other well known boat owners were the Morris and Sargent families. William Bilke could never afford to own his own six oared lerret which is why he crewed in one of the Wyke boats.

We can end this section about fishing in Wyke with a humorous "fishy" story. Wyke Regis men have always been renown for their fishing skills, but the strangest fishing contest in the history of the village took place many years ago, on a cold Christmas morning in - of all places -Wyke Square.

On that festive day a well known Wyke character called Jammy Woods, who lived in a wooden hut up along Camp Road, could be seen sitting beside the water pool (the horse trough in Chamberlaine Road) with his frozen hands clasping a fishing rod, the line dangling in the clear cold waters of the pool.

Despite a considerable number of verbal insults and badinage from friends and passers-by, Jammy Woods refused to speak a word all morning. Finally, at the stroke of noon, as the bells of All Saints Church pealed out, he was off "like a long-dog" up the road to the nearby Social Club.

There all was revealed - Jammy had accepted a bet of five pounds from his drinking pals who did not believe that he could fish all of Christmas morning in the water pool in the Square without saying a single word.

Early Schooling in Wyke; National School; Victoria Road School; The Infants School; Private Schools; All Saints School.

The earliest schooling of village children in Wyke was probably carried out by the Parish Priest in the tiny South Porch of the church - not a pleasant prospect on a bitter winter's day. By the time that King George III paid a visit to Wyke in 1791 a lady called Violetta Talbot - Ma'am Talbot as the children called her - was running a Dame School in Shrubbery Lane. Evidently she was paid for teaching eight girls to plait straw bonnets, which they made of split reeds known as spills.

In 1833 came a change in national Education Policy and grants were made available from the Treasury to meet half the cost of new school buildings - so plans were slowly put in place to build a new National School in Wyke.

In 1858 a new National School was opened at the corner of All Saints Road and Chamberlaine Road, initially with 64 pupils. Old postcards show us that the stone built School had a small playground with an enormous tree that shaded the tall church-like windows. The adjacent headmaster's house was the delightful bow windowed structure that still stands in Chamberlaine Road.

Education was meant to be for the lowly poor and out of the Wyke population of 1,185 it was calculated that 1,016 were those whose children might be expected to attend the elementary school. Accommodation was available for 203 children and the fee was set at 2p per week. Hours were from nine till four and then from seven until nine in the evenings.

The year 1862 also saw a Government Act passed that required each school to keep a daily diary or log book. The first entry for Wyke's National School was on the 1st of July 1863. The diary tells us that the older boys were often absent - to see a fox hunt in the Parish or to help pull the fish ashore on Chesil Beach. Many children were also absent on the village 'gleaning day' that was on the 22nd of September each year. There was a school band and games were held in August in Belfield Park.

In 1870 the school received a state grant, and Mr J.G.Atkins became headmaster. In 1879 the Rector, Henry C. Pigou, recognised that the hamlet springing up "over Lanehouse Hill" was far enough away to make travel impossible for the children in bad weather. He arranged for a classroom for infants to be built at Westham and this eventually developed into St Paul's Church and School Room.

In January 1881 the Wyke log book records that five children died in three months because of croup. Other deaths occurred because of scarlet fever, measles, diphtheria and smallpox.

Mr. Atkins was Headmaster from 1870 until 1889. However, between 1886 and 1889 there was increasing reference to disorder, caning for filthy language, lateness, fighting, and even improper words on a slate. In one instance a boy received two strokes of the cane for spelling "mortally" wrong four times out of six. There was a loss of confidence between Atkins and the curate-in-charge, the Rev. Bell-Salter, and Mr. Atkins resigned in 1889. However, Mr. Atkins and his wife were still held in great respect for giving a lifetime of service to the parish and a memorial tablet now adorns the west wall of the south aisle of All Saints Church.

In 1896 the National School was described by an Inspector as "unwholesome and overcrowded" and in 1897 a new mixed school, the Wyke School, paid for by the Whitehead Torpedo Company, was opened in Victoria Road under the Headmaster Mr. H.B. Vickery. There were 300 boys and girls and many of them started school at three years of age. The school buildings were brick built and had two separate playgrounds - one for the boys and one for the girls. Mr. Russ was one of the best remembered Headmasters at the school in the 1920’s and he was also the choirmaster and organist at All Saints Church.

Mr. Claude Harris Domoney was another very well respected Headmaster of the Wyke School. He was not only a school master but also an accomplished singer and musician, being the Organist and Choirmaster at All Saints Church. If that was not enough he was also a local historian and much of our present knowledge of Wyke stems from his original research. Mr. Domoney was born in 1898 in the village of Stourpaine and he replaced Mr. Russ as the school Headmaster. He retired from Wyke School in 1958 and was succeeded by Mr. F. Hill.

In the late 1980’s Wyke School - nowadays known as the Wyke Regis Junior School - was completely rebuilt.

The old National School building at Chamberlaine Road was replaced in 1907 by the present Memorial Hall. It was brought back into used as a school for a short time after the Second World War, until the Wyke Regis County Infants School in Shrubbery Lane was opened in September 1953.

All Saints Church of England Modern School in Sunnyside Road was opened in 1957.

A private school was known to be run behind 139, High Street for a time by Mr. Vickery. The once grand Sandsfort House at the top of Rylands Lane, built around 1860, became the Thornlow Private School.

Whitehead Torpedo Factory; Tod the Boatbuilders; Oysters in the Fleet; The Army; Some Wyke Farms

Robert Whitehead, the inventor of the deadly torpedo, was born in Lancashire in 1823. He trained as an engineer and draughtsman then went to work on the continent. By 1856 he was the Chief Engineer at a company in Fiume, designing and building warships for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1864 he became interested in the problems of trying to remotely control and detonate underwater explosive charges and in 1868 he successfully demonstrated a practical torpedo to the Austrian Navy. The British Royal Navy became interested and placed an order on the recommendation of Captain Edwin Payne Gallwey - "an expert in torpedo work second only to Mr. Whitehead himself". However, the Admiralty became concerned about the dependency of the Navy on torpedoes being made abroad and so Robert Whitehead decided to set up a manufacturing facility in England.

The newly constructed Portland Harbour was already a popular site for testing torpedoes. It was also used regularly by the Royal Navy’s British Channel Fleet and the Training and Reserve Squadrons. Whitehead therefore decided to build his British torpedo factory on the mainland shore of Portland Harbour, at Ferrybridge in the Parish of Wyke Regis. The site chosen, of some eight acres, overlooked the ancient "Portland Passage" and was wedged between the roadway to Portland, and the Weymouth to Portland railway line.

In February 1891 the Southern Times recorded that "Messrs. Hill and Co., who are at present constructing a new Admiralty Pier at Portland, have received a contract for erecting a Torpedo Manufactury near Ferrybridge, Wyke Regis, for Messrs. Whitehead.".

On the 18th April 1891 the Southern Times again reported "In a very quiet and unostentatious manner, the foundation stone of these very important works was laid on Saturday morning by Mr. Whitehead's daughter, the Countess Hoyos..... the party present at the laying of the foundation stone consisted of the Countess Hoyos, Mr. Whitehead, Mr. Whitehead jun., Captain Gallwey, late of the Royal Navy (who is to have charge of the manufactury).......the works will be of a very extensive character, covering at least four of five acres of land, and their construction will cost several thousand pounds. The buildings will include workshops, smithies, foundry, engine and boiler house, offices & etc., The turnery will be 400ft by 40ft; there will be two wings for lathes, fittings and stores, 300ft by 35ft; and the smithy will be 220ft. by 30ft. There will be a chimney stack 70 ft high. There will be a siding from the railway and a subway leading to a pier 1100 yards from the shore, at the extremity of which there will be 20 feet of water at low water ordinary spring tides".

The early "Weymouth" torpedoes built at the factory were of 14" and 18" diameter and they could reach speeds of up to 20 knots, for distances of some 1000 yards. In 1895 Whitehead introduced a gyroscope into the torpedo guidance mechanism that resulted in the bearing accuracy being dramatically improved.

Finding sufficient skilled staff to work at the Ferrybridge factory presented its problems in the early days and many men were recruited from outside the district. The first General Manager was Captain Payne Gallwey, after whom Gallwey Road is named. To accommodate the influx of skilled men, Whitehead built the triangular terraced rows of houses called Ferrybridge Cottages. Initially the centre of the triangle was called the net drying area - presumably because the torpedo catching nets were laid out to dry there.

The arrival of the Torpedo Factory had a great impact upon the life of the indigenous Wykeites, for the small and ancient village started to expand rapidly. A great deal of new red brick terraced housing was built along with facilities such as the Wyke Hotel, the Methodist Churches, Victoria Road School, Wyke Working Men's Club - all were built around this time. By the end of the nineteenth century the fame of Robert Whitehead's factory at Ferrybridge had spread throughout the land and in April 1902 King Edward VII paid a visit to the Works.

Right from the start the workforce was very active in forming groups for recreation and sports - particularly football. The Weymouth Carnival was always well supported by the workers, with the proceeds going to the Weymouth and District Hospital.

In 1905, at the age of 82, Robert Whitehead died. The Company seemed as though it would survive and prosper, because it passed into the capable hands of Captain Gallwey. Unfortunately he died suddenly a year later and very soon, at the prompting of the Admiralty, two British Companies, Armstong-Whitworth and Vickers Ltd., acquired a major shareholding

Commercially the years leading up to the first World War were ones of international expansion for the Whitehead Torpedo Company, but when war was declared in 1914, the Admiralty took complete control of the Works and production continued day and night. When the War finally ended the Admiralty allowed Vickers-Armstrong to re-assume control. Unfortunately no one wanted large numbers of torpedoes any more, and there was a dramatic slow-down of orders. By 1921 the situation had become so bad that the Whitehead Company went into liquidation - the workforce was sacked and the Factory gates closed. However, the factory was too valuable an asset to lie wasting for very long and by 1923 Vickers Armstrong had formed a new Company to purchase the site and torpedo production was re-started.

In 1934, as a direct result of Germany's growing belligerence, a massive modernisation of the Works was initiated and the Admiralty placed their first order for torpedoes since the end of the First World War. At this time the workforce had grown to some six hundred and by the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 the Works was providing employment for some 1500 men and women. The development of the torpedo had continued apace and the standard 21" diameter torpedoes, powered by compressed air, were approaching speeds of 50 knots.

The workforce had formed their own Sports and Social Club, and they had some of the most talented football, cricket, tennis, rifle shooting, boxing, and bowls teams in the local leagues. They also encouraged water based sports such as boating, fishing, swimming, and diving.

In the early months of 1939, with war imminent, a large number of the men joined the local Fire Brigade and Home Guard. With the declaration of War the factory was once again placed on a war footing and most of the social and sports activities came to an abrupt end.

For the first year of the war production continued at a modest rate, but after the disaster of Dunkirk the Admiralty had a change of attitude and torpedoes were accorded a much higher priority. Many of the skilled men were drafted into the armed services - some never to return - and as a result it became necessary to recruit many more female workers.

The strategic importance of torpedoes and the location of the Factory next to Portland Harbour meant that it was liable to enemy air attacks. The large Home Guard Division at the Works was often called upon to man the locally sited Anti-Aircraft guns. On the 1st May 1941 the factory suffered its first direct air attack when a Junkers 88 glided in low over Chesil Beach and dropped five bombs on the Works. On a second run the aircraft was met by machine gun and pom-pom fire and its bombs fell some 300 yards from the Factory. The first load of bombs caused considerable damage to the assembly shops, to the stores, and to the Experimental Department. Fortunately there were only nine casualties within the factory site and none of them were seriously hurt. On the 12th May 1941 two more air attacks saw only minor damage to the railway line outside the Works and there were no casualties. After the debris had been cleared the actual loss to manufacturing capacity was found to be small and production was quickly resumed.

Dispersal of torpedo manufacture away from Ferrybridge was now considered essential. Part of the production was transferred to three other sites - Bournemouth, Street, and Staines. By the end of 1942 two thirds of the productive machine tools and other vital plant had been moved elsewhere, along with 585 trained employees.

There was a growing demand for torpedoes by the Royal Navy and the Ferrybridge workforce gradually increased to 1,667 workers with production reaching twenty torpedoes a week.

In 1944 the area around Ferrybridge became a hive of activity as the allies prepared for the invasion of Europe. Ferrybridge was vital because it was the only road link to the invasion embarkation points at Portland. Many American soldiers were billeted at what was the old Isolation Hospital.

When the War ended in 1945 the Admiralty ceased to require any more torpedoes and the Ferrybridge Works management team were forced to seek new commercial orders for a variety of different products. Slowly the battle for peacetime work was won and the Company's survival was assured. The Factory still retained a major interest in torpedo design and development and in conjunction with the Admiralty, research was carried out on wire guided and rocket propelled torpedoes. Sadly, many of the traditional craft skills began to be less essential as production techniques were improved. By the late fifties the Foundry had been closed, although the Blacksmiths shop survived until the mid-sixties.

In 1960 the Works was renamed Vickers-Armstrong (Engineers) Ltd., Hydraulic Division and it increasingly specialised in hydraulic equipment. The final torpedo orders were successfully completed for Venezuela and Chile and the last 21" Whitehead .In 1965 it was announced to a shocked workforce that the Vickers Group intended to reorganise their Hydraulic Division and transfer the work at Ferrybridge to Swindon.

Fortunately, the factory was bought by Wellworthy Ltd., a Company specialising in the volume production of components for the automotive industry. Wellworthy carried out major alterations and refurbishment to some of the crumbling factory buildings. The main entrance was altered and in 1968 the old Whitehead pier was demolished. The tall foundry chimney was taken down. By 1975 the main production at the factory was concentrated on four components - pistons, liners, piston rings, and gudgeon pins. An aerial photograph of the Works taken in 1968 still shows the rail and road bridges to Portland, the old Whitehead pier and the foundry chimney.

In 1983 the Downclose Sports Ground next to the Factory was sold off for housing development. Fortunately the sale did not include the bowling green and the old Sports and Social clubhouse. In 1984 these were sold to three trustees acting on behalf of the workforce. By 1987 the workers had built a splendid new Clubhouse on the site.

In 1986 the numbers working at the factory had been reduced to around 350 and by 1989 Wellworthy had become part of a new Company called AE Piston Products that was part of the huge Turner and Newall conglomerate. On the 1st January 1990 the Ferrybridge Works changed its name to AE Piston Products (Weymouth Facility). Of course, the local Wykeites still called it Wellworthy - or Vickers - or Vickers-Armstrong - or even Whiteheads.

In 1993 the owners announced that the factory was to be closed and the 230 workers made redundant. Despite some local resistance the factory was shut down and eventually the site was sold to Magna Housing. In 1997 building commenced for 110 houses and nine flats.

During the demolition of the old factory a search was made for the original Foundation stone laid down by Countess Hoyos in 1891. Eventually it was located and carefully lifted away from the base stone. Unfortunately, most of the artefacts - originally concealed in a glass bottle beneath the stone - had been removed many years before.

Nowadays the Tod buildings at Ferrybridge operates as a small design and manufacturing facility for sophisticated glass fibre and composite products. However, it first started life in the 1930’s as a boat builder's yard. Local resident Harold Cailes worked there full time from 1939 to 1974 and the following information draws heavily on his archives and memories.

Bill and Jack Tod were the sons of a Clergyman at Glanvilles Wootton, in Dorset, and it was there that they first started building and selling small wooden boats. In 1932 they wanted to construct a bigger boat so they decided to move down (temporarily) to the shores of the Fleet, at Ferry Bridge. Their very first workshop was a single wooden hut, but when they were asked to build a second large craft the Tod brothers decided to remain at Ferrybridge and extend their workshop. At that time most of the land now occupied by Tod was used as garden allotments, but the area close to the sandy shores of the Fleet was sufficiently dry and firm to enable them to erect a second, more substantial building.

The business grew quickly and Bill and Jack began to employ local craftsmen to help build the boats. From the start they concentrated on their standard lengths of 19 ft and 25 ft. They also decided to move their families down to Wyke Regis and Bill Tod made his home in the first of the long row of terraced houses on Portland Road, opposite the Ferrybridge Cottages. Jack Tod built a small wooden bungalow on the sloping bank behind their workshops. This was later replaced by the present whitewashed building that is so prominent in photographs of the area. In later years Jack Tod moved to the imposing Westhill House in Old Wyke - demolished in the 1980’s.

Neither Bill nor Jack Tod had the necessary funds, or were sufficiently enthusiastic about the management side to make the business grow. Just before the Second World War a Mr Norman Wright came on the scene and he put the required capital into the Company and gradually assumed overall control.

Very soon the Admiralty began to buy the well-crafted 19ft Tod boats and they rapidly became the standard Admiralty specification for such craft.

Bill Tod left the business in the early nineteen forties. Jack stayed on and not only played a leading role in the business but he also started the 3^rd Wyke Regis Sea Scout Troop in 1943. By 1946 a Wolf Cub Pack was being run by Mrs Tod and when she left in about 1950 they were taken on by Mrs. L. M. Ruffell. They met in Holy Trinity School until 1963 when an old army hut was acquired and erected at Rylands Lane on land provided by Mrs Catherine Dowman of Wyke Lodge. By 1956 Mrs Dowman was the President, Miss Courtauld was Vice-President.

The Brownies and Girl Guides were in existence in Wyke long before the 2^nd World War. In the 1920’s a family called the Warners owned Stormount House and the daughter Jill Warner ran the Girl Guides. They met in the dining room of Stormount but they may also have used the Memorial Hall. Mrs Tod became the Captain of the Girl Guides and initially they used to meet at Markham House when it was the home of Major Swaffield. When the Tod’s moved to Westhill House the meetings took place in their old stables - now converted into a cottage.

During the war years facilities at Tod were expanded to enable the Firm to build not only boats, but a whole range of other components in wood and metal, including a full sized dummy submarine that was moored as a decoy in Portland Harbour. The German Luftwaffe eventually reduced it to matchwood.

About 200 crafts of all sizes were launched from Tods boatyard during the war years - survey craft, fast motor boats known as sea jeeps, 25 ft motor boats and 36 ft harbour launches. Two wooden assault landing craft were also built.

With the Whitehead Torpedo Works being sited on the opposite side of Portland Road, the Ferrybridge area became a focal point for enemy air raid attacks. In May 1941 the Whitehead Torpedo Works suffered considerable damage from enemy bombs but the small Tod boatyard survived unscathed and there were no casualties.

During 1946 the last Admiralty contracts of the War were completed and production was switched to small, high quality wooden craft that were increasingly exported overseas.

Around 1949 Tod discovered that the Americans were building "glass" boats and after investigations the company pioneered the use of glass reinforced polyesters (GRP) for boat building in the UK. Their efforts resulted in the marketing of a 12 ft GRP dinghy in 1950. The range of GRP boats was gradually expanded and eventually Tod's lines of conventional wooden craft were discontinued. A range of splendid GRP craft was designed and built over the years and the company supplied the Royal Navy with some of the first GRP boats to enter the Service. Other pioneering projects included the equipping of the luxury liner "Oriana" with nineteen, 37ft long, GRP lifeboats. At the time they were the largest such units in the world to enter operation.

By the mid-fifties the Company not only made GRP boats but had begun to diversify into other GRP products for such applications as power stations, tracking radar dishes, engine covers etc. Perhaps the most significant development was the increasing amount of work being undertaken for the Ministry of Defence in manufacturing small sonar domes of various types for the Royal Navy.

By the 1960's Jack Tod had left the Company. Norman Wright remained as the driving force and there were plenty of local men contributing towards the firm's success - Harold Cailes, Ralph Lovell, Jimmy James, John Caddy, and Cyril Harden to name but a few.

The amount of work being undertaken for the neighbouring Ministry of Defence Establishment at Portland continued to expand. By 1970 all standard boat production had been phased out. Throughout the seventies there was increasing use of sandwich structures and more sophisticated fibre reinforced composites, including carbon fibre and kevlar.

In 1969 Norman Wright sold out to Westbrick's of Exeter and by the late seventies Tod was marketing its sonar domes along with other underwater products on an international basis to friendly nations. In 1980 Westbrick's was bought out by Beazers but after some difficult financial times in the nineteen eighties it was sold to Cray Electronics. In 1991 it was sold on again, this time to the present management team.

Before Portlander Neville Copperthwaite set up the present day Oyster Farm in the Fleet he carried out some research that revealed that oysters in the Fleet was not a new idea. Oysters settled there naturally many thousands of years ago and residents walking along the landward shore of the Fleet you will find a proliferation of fossilised and semi-fossilised oyster shells.

In the eleventh century King Canute bestowed the fishing rights over the Fleet to his trusty servant Orc who noted that ".....there is little fish in the Flete except eels, flounders, and grey mullet, but is noted for its oyster beds". Orc passed the fishery rights of the Fleet on to his wife Tula, who in turn handed them on to the Abbey at Abbotsbury.

An agreement between the Abbot and local fishermen is dated 1427 and concerns tax to be paid on fish. It shows that two pence had to be paid to the Abbot for every 200 oysters landed, suggesting that oysters were common and plentiful.

The Abbots lost control of the fishery rights in 1543 when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. The rights were acquired by Sir Giles Strangways. It is Sir Giles' descendants who still run the Strangways Estate and control the Fleet.

The next time oysters are mentioned is in 1743 when an entrepreneurial Captain Lysle bought thirty tons of seed oysters from Concall in France. He deposited them in the Fleet Lagoon at Wyke - the first attempt at oyster farming in the Fleet.

Captain Lysle’s business continued almost into the twentieth century when J. Mead Falkner noted in the very first paragraph of his famous smuggling adventure novel "Moonfleet" that "The lake is good for nothing except sea fowl, herons, and oysters...".

Sadly the decision of the Weymouth Port Health Department in 1880 to build a Fever Isolation Hospital at Ferrybridge (where the present Holiday Camp is located) spelt the end of the Fleet oyster fishery business.

However, in the 1970's, after some successful research into farming the fast growing Pacific Oyster in the Fleet the Strangways Estates were persuaded to join forces with Neville Copperthwaite. In 1990 they set up the Abbotsbury Oysters Farm based at Ferrybridge. One hundred years after Captain Lysle's farm ended - oysters were back again in the Fleet.

The Army first came to Wyke in any numbers during the 1^st World War when the fields now occupied by the houses of North Road, Overlands Road and Lea Road were covered with large Army huts.

In 1928 a company of sappers marched from Bulford Army Camp down to Wyke Regis. Their job was to erected tents for the very first contingent of Royal Engineers who were to spend a month camped alongside the Fleet whilst they underwent training in the art of bridge-building. The site chosen was at "the narrows" where the fast flowing tidal waters can reach speeds of 5 knots. Local Wykeites called the site "Lockets Hole" and for generations it had been the base for many of their fishing activities in the Fleet and off Chesil Beach. With the coming of the RE's they were forced to find other locations alongside the Fleet.

In those early days the RE's life-style under training was extremely basic. They lived in tents, cooked in the open and took their breaks on the hard shingle of the Beach - although they still found enough energy to go into Weymouth for a few drinks and to meet the local girls.

A series of photographs of the RE's training on the Fleet in the early 1930's has been made available by Jill and Fred Colbrooke. They illustrate the arduous nature of the work, with pontoon bridges being constructed and cavalry riders swimming alongside their horses across the fast flowing waters.

Since those early days the Bridging Camp has expanded. By the 1970's there was an annual throughput of some 30,000 soldiers, both regulars and reservists - an average summer week would see 700 soldiers in Wyke. The facilities and training were considered as second to none, covering basic combat engineering training, range firing, infantry tactics, map reading, field defences, mine laying, demolition work, water supply, watermanship, rafting, armoured personnel carrier flotation, canoeing and orienteering - but bridging still took pride of place, for Wyke Regis was acknowledged as the best place in Britain for such training.

Nowadays the Bridging Hard and the Fleet are still in regular use by the Royal Engineers, but on a much reduced scale. However, the facilities are continuously being enhanced to ensure that they will always be available for more intensive use by the British Army - should the need ever arise!

Although Manor Farm was the major farm in Wyke during the middle ages there were always other smaller farms within the parish. Hutchins History of Dorset records a farm at Little Francis that belonged to a Dr. Sella Nova (probably in the early 1600’s). By 1867 it belonged to Robert Hassel Swaffield the largest land owner in the parish. A farm at Lanehouse in 1651 belonged to a John Cade - perhaps the Royalist Captain that was hung at the Nothe for his treachery during the Civil War. Lynch Farm once belonged to the Jessops of Chickerell but by 1867 it to was the property of Robert Swaffield. Hutchins also records that in 1867 Manor Farm comprised 138 acres and it belonged to General Hugh Arbuthnott. Charles Penny owned a farm at Bincleaves, Bridge Farm was owned by Colonel Steward of Nottington and Mr. Edward Bailey owned Parkmead Farm.

In the years after the 1st World War there were many small farms within Wyke. Wyke resident Harold Burbidge, who was born in 1910 at Bindon Cottages, remembers the rural nature of Wyke in his early years. In those days there were just fields, trees and bushes between the Cottages and Camp Road, and rolling open fields between Bryants Lane and the shores of the Fleet. The children of the village used to roam the traffic free village streets and the surrounding fields in search of excitement.

Between the two world wars, Wyke Regis was still largely a rural farming community, although things were already beginning to change. There were many small family farms scattered around - Parkmead Farm stood at the corner of Parkmead Road and Portland Road and was run by the Bartlett family before being purchased by the Joslins. Martleaves Farm, in South Road (now the Fleet Equestrian Centre), was initially run jointly by Handsford and Cheeseman. It was eventually divided, with Handsford taking over the fields behind Wyke Castle at Pirates Lane. The Sapsworths first farmed in High Street, by the Junior School, but later they moved to what is now the site of Normans Superstore.

Johnny Downton ran New Close Farm, at the junction of Bohays Drive and Westhill Road, until it became White's Dairy. Bohays Farm, at the top of Castle Hill Road, was owned by Johnny Bird, then Jack Palmer, before being taken on by Bill Munts.

Manor Farm, at the centre of the village, was run by the Start family, and Sheila Wellspring (nee Start) for many years. Joe Hanney had a small farm at the top of Lanehouse Hill, next to the cemetery. On the opposite side of the road, at the top of the hill was another small farm called Richard's Farm, which was run by a Mr Stevens. In the fields down Lanehouse Hill were two large quarries that, up to the 2nd World War, were deep enough to take most of the rubbish generated by the Parish. Like most rubbish pits it was alive with rats.

On the seaward side of Mandeville Road was Mandeville Farm (originally called Barrow Farm and owned by the Swaffield family) and now run by Sammy Hanney. Whittle's Farm (or Littlebridge Farm) occupied a site at the bend in the lane below Normans, but when Ken Walbrin took over the farm he built the present bungalow further down the lane towards the Fleet. Evidently the access lane was known as "Paddy Whittles Lane".

Part of the field behind Normans running down to the wooded area known as Foxholes was called Gentleman's Furze and it was covered in furze bushes. At the bottom of Lanehouse Hill was Vines Farm (the old farmhouse is still there) which was occupied by old man Vines and his three sons - it was a very large dairy farm in those days.

Moving to the Portland Harbour side of Wyke, there was a farm run by a Mr. Bird that was half way along Old Castle Road, next to the Portland railway line. A chalet park was there until recently - perhaps that was the location of the farm once called Ropewalk Farm.

The Belfield Estate in Buxton Road had a farm run by the Honeybun family, with fields that ran down to the shores of Portland Harbour. It must have been in the ownership of the Buxton family at one time.

Another local character that spent his working life on the land was Bill Munts, a farmer, born in 1905 and a Wykeite through and through. Bill's father and mother lived in Bay Tree Place in Shrubbery Lane, which is the group of four red brick cottages next to the Funeral Parlour at the back of Wyke Square.

From a young age Bill Munts enjoyed helping out on the local farms. At different times he worked with the Starts at Manor Farm and the Sapsworth's on their farm in High Street. Sapsworth's farm was demolished before the 2nd World War and the family moved to the site at Mandeville, which is now known as Normans Superstore.

In his younger days Bill worked in the slaughter house in Wyke Square (next to Hamilton House) which was a frightening and noisy place at times. The slaughter house, even in the 1930's, was used by farmers from far and wide and Wyke Square would often be full of herds of cattle and sheep making their way to the slaughter house.

After the 2nd World War Bill Munts worked at Bohays Farm (at the top of Castle Hill Road). The tiny farm had once been part of Littlebridge Farm. Eventually Bill Munts took it over and managed it until his death in 1985. Today the only remnant of Bohays Farm is a large brick barn with a rusty red tin roof, standing in the upper corner of what is now called "Dr. Mann's" field in Westhill Road. In its prime there was an another smaller barn, and a tiny dairy house alongside, but nowadays only Dougie Timm's cows keep it company.

There were several other small farms scattered along the shores of the Fleet. Little Bridge Farm and Martleaves were the largest, but there was also Broadmeadow Farm in the field behind lower Westhill Road and down towards the Fleet was another smallholding called Roughholes Farm. It was here during the 2nd World War that Bill Munt's dog chased a rabbit into a mine field and was killed. During the war the shoreside fields of the Fleet were mined all the way from Ferrybridge to the Bridging Hard and a permit was needed by residents if they wished to get down to the Fleet.

Belfield House; Wyke Social Club; Wyke House; Wyke Square; The Albert Inn; Hamilton House; Van Courtlands; High Street; The Willows; Wyke Castle; New Close Farm; Shrubbery Lane; Church Cottage & Wyke Cottage; Wyke’s Terraced Houses; Wyke Working Mens Club; Portland Road; Foords Corner; Wyke Hotel; Burgundy House; The Ferry Bridges;

For centuries there has been a home of some sort on the site of the present elegant Belfield House, with the first mention being made in 1424. The present House was once surrounded by rolling parks and farm land and during the time of George III there were frequent royal visitors. It was built around 1780 to the designs of John Crunden (1740 - 1828) for Isaac Buxton, a wealthy London merchant and is a small local example of the Paladin style of architecture, with its plan based on geometric shapes. The main elevation has a central projecting portico with four Ionic columns. The central doorway is approached by a curved flight of stairs at either side of the portico. The flanking walls contain single venetian windows in the principal rooms. The plan of the principal floor comprises a semi-circular entrance hall with an impressive and elegant staircase. The estate entrance pillars are still visible along Wyke Road as is the old Coach House in Buxton Road. Opposite the Coach House on the other side of the road are the remnants (now part of a house) of the old Belfied farm house.

Isaac Buxton’s grandson, Thomas Fowell Buxton, was elected an MP for Weymouth in 1818 and became a prominent anti-slavery campaigner. When Thomas Fowell Buxton died he left a sum of money to be used at the discretion of the Rector of Wyke, the Rev. Chamberlaine, who built four almshouses for poor widows. They are at the top of Gypsy Lane on the Wyke Road. Belfield House was sold out of the Buxton family by Fowell’s son, Sir Edward North Buxton in 1855.

Part way down Chamberlaine Road on the left is what is now the Wyke Social Club, followed by a row of three simple but attractive cottages. The Social Club is shown as the New Inn public house on an 1864 map of the village and before that it had been the White Hart Inn. The first deeds are dated 1684 and in 1694 a Mrs Tizzard was mentioned as the owner of the House and Garden. In 1779 John Orton Tizzard "surrendered the land, the Mansion House with orchard, barn and stable commonly called The White Hart Inn...this parcel of land was formerly in the hands of John Patton, Thomas Gilbert and John Gilbert in the Manor of Wyke Regis and Elwell". It passed into the possession of the Buxton family then the Swaffields. In 1851 the name was changed to the New Inn. It became the Whitehead Social Institute in 1897 with Captain Payne Gallwey as its first President and in 1948 it was renamed the Wyke Regis Social Club.

The Wyke House occupied the site behind the Social Club (now Wooland Gardens). It was not the first building on the site because the gently sloping area must have been one of the best in the village and was probably in use from the earliest times. The first written evidence of its occupation relates to the wealthy Gilbert family of Portland who were stone masons by trade. One of them obtained a contract to ship Portland stone to London for the Queens Palace at Greenwich, which was being built by Sir Christopher Wren.

Gilbert also shipped stone for other prestigious buildings and built up what must have been a prosperous business. Although they were a very old Portland family, Thomas Gilbert described himself in wills and legal documents as "of Wyke Regis". He was married to Elizabeth Pauncefoot, who was descended from an old and well respected Catholic family of Gloucestershire. In her will of 1715, Ann Pauncefoot instructed that the property in Wyke Regis, which had belonged to her daughter Elizabeth Gilbert, should revert to her son John, Elizabeth being by then deceased.

In 1737 the building was still owned by John Gilbert and was described as "that mansion house with the barns, stables, outhouses, courts and orchards and gardens adjoining Lane (?) Close and pastures called Home Close counting 4 acres". It passed to John Gilbert’s son Thomas and then in 1777 to his daughter Eliz. Crouch and hence to her son Thomas Crouch, a mariner of Weymouth.

In 1805 Thomas Crouch sold it to Josh Johns who demolished the old house (the old house can be seen in a Delamotte view of Wyke Regis village) and erected the substantial Wyke House, perhaps designed by James Hamilton. Johns sold Wyke House along with 5 acres in 1811 for £3000 to John Swaffield of the Navy Pay Office. It served as the Swaffield family home for many years.

An obituary notice of Alfred Owen Swaffield (aged 85) in 1937 stated that he was the last surviving son of Robert Hassell Swaffield DL JP of Wyke House. His great grandfather was Joseph Swaffield, three times Mayor of Weymouth. Alfred Owen Swaffield left one son and three daughters - one of who was Miss H. D. Owen Swaffield.

When the Wyke House site was redeveloped in the 1990’s for new housing the old stone gateposts in Portland Road still had John Swaffield’s original Coat of Arms, which had been inherited by his grand-daughter Ann Orton in 1820 - sadly they were destroyed. Wyke House evidently passed between the families of Orton, Lewis, Owen and Swaffield - all these families were first cousins.

When Alfred Owen Swaffield lived in Wyke House he regularly held summer fetes in the grounds for the village children. When the Swaffields eventually moved to Markham House the Wyke House was taken over by the Collingwood family - it was the same Collingwood who became Captain of the Home Guard in Wyke during the 2nd World War. Collingwood's daughter married and became the Mrs Brock who lived for many years in Westhill House in Westhill Road.

Wyke House became an Hotel and Club during the 1960’s but it was finally demolished in 1974. In the early 1990’s the site was redeveloped for housing.

The Old Wyke Square was in reality only a small triangular shaped area, bounded on two sides by houses and on one side by the high wall of the Wyke House site. Despite this it was well loved by local residents and was the centre for village celebrations down the ages. The first gas lamp in Wyke was erected in the Square in 1905.

The present Old Wyke Village Store and Post Office is said to have been a pub called the "Brewery Tap". At the turn of the century Eli Hatcher, a part time fisherman, was the landlord of the nearby Swan Inn and brewed his own beer. At that time the Swan Inn was covered to the roof with ivy. Hamilton House, next to the Swan, was built by the Georgian architect James Hamilton. On the other side of the Swan was what was once Start’s Bakery shop. The Swan Inn was turned into flats in the 1970s.

On the corner of Chamberlaine Road and All Saints Road stood one of the old village blacksmiths. Next to it was a barber shop. The old building was finally demolished in 1995 and two smart new houses now stand on the site. Another blacksmith operated in the Square (now a double glazing window company). Not only did the blacksmith shoe horses but he also used to make carts and milk floats for local farmers.

A plentiful water supply was always of prime importance and what is now the enclosed horse trough was the largest pool in the village. It was reputedly the only one never to dry up - even in the driest of summers. Those who could afford it had wells sunk in their gardens. The poorer people had to collect their water from the pool - even if the cattle on their way to the nearby slaughter house had stopped for a paddle and a drink.

Part of Wyke’s old folklore is that you cannot consider yourself to be a true Wykeite until you have been in the horse trough - deliberately or not! The village stocks also stood in the Square close to the water pool. The last "real" occupant was recorded as an habitual drunkard who on release from the stock was cooled off in the adjacent water pool.

With the redevelopment of the Wyke House site the old high boundary wall was taken down and the present larger Wyke Square was built, along with the modern "town" housing and car parking.

The Albert Inn, close to Wyke Square, is listed as a building of special architectural interest. In 1879 it was sold for £850 by Matthew Henry Edwards Edwards, a "Vichialler", to Devenish, the Weymouth brewers. Then it had a skittle alley. A visitor, Mr. Jarvis Harker, taking a stroll around Wyke in the 1880s noted that "....the voice of the thrush singing in his small prison house by the door of the Inn, invited me to test the quality of the choicest ''Tap". Mr. Thrush allured me. In a cleanly and flower garnished parlour, whose walls were ornamented with German prints illustrating Greek and Roman Mythological stories, I acted upon the bird's suggestion. Mark well this fact that at three o'clock in the afternoon there lay on the shining top of an old fashioned piano the latest issue of a London daily newspaper!"

Hamilton House was built around 1800 and in the early 1900s it had a very active slaughter house as a neighbour. It is three storied stucco faced with cornice and is in the austere style of James Hamilton, the architect of much of Weymouth's Georgian seafront - a heritage that has become recognised as one of the architectural treasures of England.

Hamilton was born in 1748 and died in January 1829, flourishing professionally at Weymouth during the period around 1785 to 1816. He probably worked for a time in the stone quarries on Portland and by 1784 he had designed and erected an obelisk to the memory of James Frampton at Moreton. In 1795 he rebuilt the south-east wall of the "Cobb" at Lyme Regis. He married twice having a total of six children - the last one in 1828 when he was eighty years old!

King George III came to visit Weymouth and Melcome Regis almost every year from 1779 to 1805 and Hamilton’s architectural practice flourished as he took advantage of the rapid building expansion taking place. During this time a whole series of apartments, terraces, hotels and public buildings was built along the sea front. James Hamilton played an important role in the design of many of these, the most celebrated being the four houses next to Gloucester Lodge; the terrace called Royal Crescent; the King’s Statue and the White Horse at Osmington. He was also responsible for the design of some of the prominent Georgian buildings on the outskirts of the town including Rodwell House at the top of Rodwell Avenue.

We know more about Hamilton's death in 1829 than his early life because his funeral at All Saints Church, Wyke Regis was very well reported. Being a long serving Master Mason in All Souls Lodge in Melcome Regis, Hamilton was accorded a full Masonic funeral. The funeral procession wended its way from the Masonic Lodge in Frederick Place through the narrow streets of Weymouth and along Wyke Road to All Saints Church "…..the funeral took place at Wyke Regis, the Rev. George Chamberlaine officiating …….the procession ….moved slowly on to Wyke Regis followed by a vast multitude and presenting a most imposing spectacle…the funeral service was read in a most devout and solemn manner by the Rev. George Chamberlaine. On entering the Church a solemn-dirge was performed ……the Master then concluded the ceremony at the grave with the usual solemn address"

Van Courtlands is largely hidden from view and is linked to the adjacent Bindon Cottages. Both appear to have evolved from smaller and much older buildings. Van Courtlands has a distinctly Regency elevation, although the interior low ceilings and winding stairs denote the much older origins. The present deeds only go back to 1810.

Some simple form of housing probably existed in the High Street area even back before the Saxon period. The houses at No. 10 and 12 are very old and it is possible that they may have been occupied by a community with church connections. It is interesting that close by is a house that is still referred to by older Wykeites as "the Manor House". Two ancient thatched cottages burnt down here in the 1920’s.

At one time the High Street boasted several pubs - the Mermaid Inn, the Masons Arms and the Albert Inn. There was also an Off License on the corner of Gallwey Road run by the Ruffell family. The original Post Office was at No. 8 High Street and was opened by Abel Whittle in 1856. On his retirement in 1898 it was taken on by his daughter, but when she died in 1914 it was transferred to Wyke Square.

Most of the village houses and cottages in Old Wyke date back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and were built for artisans and labourers. The house at No 91 High Street must be the smallest in Wyke!

In 1843 the house at No. ....High Street, sometimes referred to as "the Manor House" was the home of a baker called Charles Edwards. It had a bakehouse and ovens at the back as well and a stable for the horse and delivery van. Two small cottages - called Manor Cottages - faced the Manor House. Opposite, at right angles to High Street, was the old terrace called Britannia Cottages that were demolished after the war.

It is not known exactly when the house called the Willows in High Street was built. We do know that in May 1845 Sir John Franklin brought his two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, into Portland Harbour and he then came to Wyke to visit his maiden aunts who lived at the Willows. Immediately afterwards he sailed for Greenland and beyond to explore the Canadian Arctic region and the elusive "North West Passage". The ship became caught in the frozen ice and none of the crew were seen again.

Mr. William Budden, a retired farmer, bought the Willows in 1891 - described as " a pretty detached cottage villa surrounded by a substantial wall". Mr Budden died in 1896 as a result of an accident with his horse and trap in Portland Road. A Dr. Key then purchased the house and he became the first resident Wyke doctor since 1862. He lived there and ran the Wyke Practice until he died in 1903, when the house and the practice were taken over by a Dr. Harvey who remained there until he retired in 1922.

The practice was assumed by Dr. Pitcairn and then by Dr. Ellis Hughes Parkinson who ran his surgery at the Willows until 1965. The practice was then moved to the present Health Centre in Portland Road.

Wyke Castle, at the top of Pirates Lane, is a remarkable Victorian oddity built by a Dr. Andrew Fenoulhet (1820 - 1862) around 1855. Local folklore suggests that he was a refugee from the French Revolution who had the Castle built where he could look towards his native land. However, Wyke historian Ted McBride’s research suggests that he was born in the Borough of Islington and moved to Weymouth in 1842. Nineteenth century resident Fred Morris wrote that in 1857 he was unwell and his mother took him to the doctor at the newly built Wyke Castle in Westhill Road. He was told that he needed his tonsils out and... ''he took hold of my head and put it between his legs as if he were shoeing a horse. Before you could say 'Jack Robinson' he had nicked them out with a knife''.

The Castle itself consists of a castillated central squat tower with short wings and a cellar. Nowadays it is divided into three dwellings. In the early twenties it was occupied by Mr. And Mrs Edmund Selous. Mr Selous was a well-known naturalist, author and traveller. His brother was also a famous explorer. The glass roofed round room of the Castle was once adorned by his collection of butterflies.

Mrs Selous was a great benefactor in Wyke and she started the local branch of the Women's Institute.

Before the 1^st World War Mr. H. "Johnny" Downton owned New Close Farm, at the junction of Bohays Drive and Westhill Road and he ran the dairy of Downton and Son.

Not a lot is known about New Close Farm itself, but parts of it are thought to date to some time in the 1700’s. It is built of stone and the circular headed sash windows to the South were added later. The single story dairy was on the eastern side. The plain north front facing up Westhill Road has an unusual Portland stone porch with a pagoda shaped head and a floriated finial. The present house may once have been two cottages.

"Walt" White purchased the farmhouse and dairy from Mrs Downton in the 1920’s and it became White And Son’s Dairy. Joan Asker (nee White) lived at New Close Farm until 1986, when the property was sold and turned into the present modernised accommodation. Joan remembers old tales of New Close Farm being used by the smugglers of Wyke, who would put a light in the upstairs window as a signal to pirate ships in Lyme Bay. One of the tiny downstairs window facing what is now Westhill Road was used to keep a lookout for the Preventive men.

In the days when the Downton’s lived at the Farm the only other houses in that area were Wyke Castle and Cheesman’s Farm (at the corner of South Road and Westhill Road). Westhill Road ended at Wyke Castle and a lane continued on down to New Close Farm. The Lane was called Pinchy’s (or Pinchers) Lane - evidently after a previous tenant called Charlie Pinchy, who had a reputation for "pinching" additional land. He would go out at night and move his perimeter fences. The Downtons originally farmed a considerable number of acres and had a large dairy herd. When the White’s ran the farm and dairy it had been reduced to some six acres and this included an orchard. Part of the farmland opposite Wyke Castle was sold off in the 1950’s to enable prefabs to be built. They were replaced by the houses and flats of Westbay Crescent and Chesil View.

If the thatched cottages in the once narrow and twisting Shrubbery Lane had survived the 2^nd World War the Lane would nowadays be one of the treasures of Wyke. However, on the 28^th June 1942 the Ship Inn received a direct hit and many of the surrounding cottages were destroyed. The landlord of the Ship, Mr. Bilke, was rescued from the ruins but his wife Mrs Kate Bilke was found dead at daybreak in a garden many yards away.

The oldest house in the Lane was probably the original Shrubbery Lodge but this was replaced around 1896 by the present building, which survived the wartime bombs. Bay Tree Cottages (or Place), sited by the narrow entrance into the back of Wyke Square is the oldest surviving group. In the years since the war the road has been realigned and a variety of houses and bungalows have been introduced - including the inappropriate Ministry of Defence houses of Churchill Close.

Eric Ricketts, in his popular series of books on the buildings of old Weymouth, described Church Cottage in upper Portland Road as "a little house of eighteenth century charm". It has a mansard roof (a roof of two angles that can accommodate an attic storey of the maximum dimensions) so typical of the Weymouth area, along with an elegant doorway and Georgian sash windows. The front of the house is relatively unspoilt but the interior has been extensively modified to make a comfortable modern home. Church Cottage was used in Victorian times as the village Police Station and by 1866 it included a tiny "lock up" at the rear. Nothing now remains to remind a visitor of its turbulent past.

Both Church Cottage and the adjacent Wyke Cottage were at one time owned by the Swaffield family as is clear from the deeds of the property, which have been carefully preserved by the present owners, George and Glenys Miller. The deeds add some interesting facts to our knowledge of Wyke's nineteenth century families and they are included for interest at Annex A.

Many of the red brick terraced houses in Wyke date from the period following the opening of the Whitehead Torpedo Factory in 1891. Whitehead initially built houses for his workers at Ferrybridge Cottages along with a separate terrace of "Foremans Houses" close by in Portland Road. The Inclosure map of 1797 shows that this part of Portland Road was once called "Goose Lea".

Gallwey Road is named after Captain Payne Gallwey, the first manager at Whitehead. The Victoria Road School was built by Whitehead in 1897 and the road and school were named in honour of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee of that year. In a short space of time red brick terraces spread down Parkmead Road, High Street, Sunnyside and Williams Avenue.

A new Liberal Club was also built in Victoria Road in response to the political demands of some of the workers at the Torpedo Factory. It was officially opened on the 27^th March 1901 and by 1911 it had changes its name to the Wyke Working Mens Institute. Over the years it has extended and improved its premises and despite competition from the Wellworthy Club and the Social Club it continues to provide its members with excellent facilities.

The main road to Portland was originally via Sandsfoot but by 1811 the main route to Portland was along Wyke Road or Buxton Road and then down Portland Road (sometimes referred to as Bridge Road) to the ferry with its Passage House. In the nineteenth century the only buildings in the lower part of the road were Beachcliff House (incorporated into the Whitehead factory) and Parkmead Farm. The Post Office at Broadmeadow was opened in 1901 and run by Mrs Selby. The Wyke Garage, run by Maurice Selby, was situated in Portland Road between Sunnyside and Williams Avenue. Almost opposite was the Wyke Hotel and the Liberal Club (now the Working Mens Club).

The adjacent land, once part of Home Close Farm, was purchased by the Weymouth Corporation in 1935 and laid out as the now familiar public gardens, tennis courts and Home Close allotments.

One of the oldest photographs of Wyke shows Foords Corner in 1888. The ancient common fields of Broad Meadow and Down Close can still be seen rolling down to the Portland harbour foreshore. Research by Ted McBride has discovered that Henry Foord of Melcome Regis and his wife Elizabeth moved into a Glebe Cottage (it was Glebe or church land) there in 1849. Henry was employed as foreman in charge of the convicts who prepared the stone for the new Portland Harbour breakwater and Elizabeth, known as Granny Foord, was the local mid-wife. She died aged 78 in 1909 and Henry died in 1910 aged 76. In the 1930’s the Honeybun family took over the cottage and ran a small market garden on the site. The Glebe Cottage was demolished after the 2nd World War to make way for road improvements. By the 1980’s the volume of traffic was such that further improvements were needed and the construction of a roundabout in 1995 made a considerable improvement.

By 1900 the centre of population of Wyke was beginning to move away from the old village around Wyke Square and spread out along Portland Road. It was decided that the old Fisherman’s Arms on the corner of Portland Road and Chamberlaine Road should therefore be closed and a new public house - to be called the Wyke Hotel - should be built farther down Portland Road (nowadays the Wyke Smugglers). James Winzar, who ran the Fisherman’s Arms, took over the new pub, which in 1905 became the terminal point for the first motor bus service in Weymouth. It ran from the Wyke Hotel to the Spa Hotel at Radipole. The site for the Wyke Hotel had been purchased by Devenish Brewery in 1894.

Burgundy House, on the seaward side of Westhill Road was built in the 17th Century and although much altered it is still well proportioned. It has remarkable views over the Fleet, Chesil and Lyme Bay and if its walls could speak it would surely tell some tales of smuggling, storms and ship wrecks.

With only a crude ferry boat and a rough two mile track along the Chesil beach to provide a link with the mainland, Portland had "from time out of mind" remained isolated and self-sufficient, with distinct laws and practices. However, by the end of the eighteenth century demands were beginning to grow for a bridge across "the Passage" at Ferrybridge. In 1776 a petition with over 260 names was drawn up, but no action to have it presented appears to have been taken until after the first visit of George III, in 1795. The petition itself, beautifully written on vellum, is now preserved in Portland Museum. With the loss of the ferry and the ford across the sand bar in the Great Gale of 1824, residents of Portland began to agitate even more vigorously for a bridge to be built. Nothing happened until Governor John Penn formed a committee with the task of obtaining the necessary Act of Parliament.

On 21st July 1835 an Act of Parliament was published "for making and maintaining a Bridge over the River called "The Portland Ferry" in the County of Dorset, with proper Approaches thereto". Eighty-nine of the most important men in the locality - men prepared to put up the capital and provide a toll bridge - were listed as the proposed Commissioners. Among the names were Hugh Arbuthnott, Granville Penn, the Reverend George Chamberlaine, John Swaffield Orton, William Devenish, and Gabriel Tucker Steward.

Plans were drawn up for a narrow 600 foot long timber trestle structure and the first stone of the bridge abutment was laid with great ceremony on the 29th May 1837. A band entertained the "immense concourse of people" who witnessed the historic event. For eighteen months the most popular walk from Weymouth was on to Smallmouth Sands to witness the progress of the new bridge. In January 1839 the Dorset County Chronicle reported "This day, Wednesday the 30th, the ceremony of opening the new bridge over the passage or Fleet took place. A detachment of the 6th Dragoon Guards.......were joined by the Town Band. A procession formed on the north side of the bridge at one o'clock, and moved forward, reaching the toll bar; the military formed a line on each side of the road, and the cavalcade comprising the committee, landowners, tenants, etc., preceded by the Band, passed over the bridge, toll free". With the opening of the bridge, the isolation that had bred a unique way of life and custom on Portland was inevitably swept away.

People wishing to use the new bridge were expected to pay a toll, and the Act of Parliament included a full list of charges. People passing on foot over the bridge had to pay one and a half pence but this was still cheaper than the rate charged by the ferryboat - "for every foot passenger being an inhabitant of Portland the sum of two pence; and for every foot passenger not being an inhabitant of Portland, the sum of three pence". Many of the poorer residents of Wyke and Portland continued to use the ford across the dangerous channel.

In 1862 the new Weymouth and Portland Railway Company announced plans for a public railway to Portland. Progress was rapid, and by May 1863 piles were being driven for a viaduct across Smallmouth, parallel to the road bridge. The first train journey to the Island took place on the 25th May 1864, and the first scheduled service was on 9th October 1865. The new rail link certainly opened up Portland to even more social changes and enabled the stone industry to rapidly reach new markets. One side effect was that the Ferrybridge tolls immediately dropped by a half. The rail bridge was almost completely rebuilt in 1903. Wyke Halt, serving the torpedo factory rather than Wyke village, did not open until 1909.

In 1867 the span of the road bridge across Smallmouth was drastically shortened in order to reduce maintenance costs. This resulted in a loosening of its piles and the bridge had to be virtually rebuilt. It was becoming increasingly clear that it was uneconomic to maintain a wooden bridge in such an exposed site. In 1890 the Dorset County Council bought in the engineer Sir John Coode, the creator of Portland Breakwater, to survey the bridge, which he immediately condemned.

Although the Portlanders wanted a new stone bridge it was eventually decreed that an iron bridge to Coode's design should be built. The first half of the bridge was opened in September 1895, and the completed bridge was fully opened to traffic in March 1896. The bridge, designed in the age of horse and carriage, lasted for some ninety years and successfully coped with far greater weights and traffic volumes than could ever have been envisaged by its designer.

By 1950 the passenger trains to Portland were losing money, as more and more people preferred to use the bus service. The decision was eventually taken to end passenger trains to Portland. The last passenger train ran across Ferrybridge on the 1st March 1952, although goods trains ran on for another 13 years. The final train to run across the bridge was on the 9th April 1965. In 1970 the rail lines were taken up for scrap and in 1971 the old viaduct across Smallmouth was finally blow up.

In October 1979 it was announced that John Coode's 1896 road bridge had to be replaced. A scheme was prepared that required a new bridge to be built on dry land on the Portland side. Then the waters of the Fleet would be diverted into a new channel carved out beneath the new bridge. The scheme had the advantage of allowing the old bridge to be used whilst the new bridge was being constructed. It brought opposition from some people who predicted that moving the channel link between the Fleet and Portland Harbour would bring disaster to local fishing and to Chesil Beach itself. After five years of arguments work was at last started in June 1983 and soon a white stone faced bridge was in place. The waters of the Fleet were then diverted to run under the new bridge. Finally the "Coode" bridge was dismantled and the ancient Passage - the scene of so many incidents and tragedies over the centuries - was filled in.

Victorian Families in Wyke; Markham and Little Francis; The Beacon; Stormount; Boulton Villa and Wyke Lodge; The Court Leet Records; The Law in Wyke; The Conservation Area; Traditions and Customs; Growth of Population in Wyke; Modern Churches of Wyke; The Port Sanitary Hospital; Lanehouse Hill; Wyke’s War Memorial; The Women’s Institute; Wyke Coastguards; The First Footballers of Wyke;

Wyke's more recent written history is inextricably linked in with the lives of some of its most prominent Georgian and Victorian families and the large houses they occupied. The most prominent names were the Arbuthnotts who ran Manor Farm; the Rev. Samuel Payne; the Swaffields and the Ortons of Wyke House; the Rev. Pigue of Stormount; the Buxtons of Belfield House; the Pretors and the Ashtons who lived at Belfield House and also at Rocklands; the Lynes of Boulton Villa (also called Wyke Lodge) and Sandsfoot House (now Thornlow School); and Mrs Bennett of Markham House. Other substantial houses were Westhill House and Burgundy House in Westhill Road; the Willows in High Street and Hamilton House and Van Courtlands in Wyke Square.

The wealthy Victorians had a life style that was vastly different to those of the poorer villagers. The wives of the gentry occupied their time by founding a charity organisation called ''The Dorcas Society'' for the relief of the poor but respectable married woman in Wyke. Subscribers in Wyke in 1883 were recorded as:-

Mrs. Bennett Markham House 5 Shillings
Mrs. Lynes Sandsfoot House 10 Shillings
Mrs. Robert Lynes Wyke Lodge 5 Shillings
Mrs. Ashton Pretor Belfield House 1 Pound
Mrs. Pretor Rocklands 1 Pound
Mrs. Pigou Stormount 1 Pound
Mrs. Owen Swaffield Wyke House 10 Shillings

Markham House looks out across the old farming lands of Markham and Little Francis that were once part of the Manor of Wyke Regis. The very name Francis is derived from the Norman French "Le Franchise" meaning a district over which the privilege of corporation (of Wyke Regis) extended. There is mention of a Franches Barn in the Ilchester Estate papers of 1554 and Hutchins "History of Dorset" records that the farm of Little Francis once belonged to Dr. Sella Nova of Weymouth. In l797 the farm was run by William Issac and by l867 it belonged to R.H. Swaffield of Wyke House, who was one of the largest landowners in the Parish. In the early 1900’s it was farmed by Mr. And Mrs Bazell but sadly in 1923 the old thatched farmhouse was destroyed by fire.

Farming in the fertile valley of Little Francis must have taken place from very early times and the views down to the Marsh and Weymouth backwater must have been outstanding. It was crossed by the ancient droves of Cockles, Roundham and Markham. The droves were used in the middle ages for moving the large flocks of sheep around. More recently the Sapsworth family made use of them for driving cattle to their slaughter house (now Normans Superstore). The area once supported three farm holdings but those days are long since past. It is now surrounded by housing estates and farming no longer takes place.

There is great pressure for the wooded fields to be developed for housing but it is still an area of great landscape value. Long may it remain a peaceful haven for those of us who live nearby and long may it remain a safe habitat for the wide variety of wildlife that still inhabit the area. With a little imagination it could become a superb semi-natural parkland to compliment Wyke and Weymouth’s outstanding coastal shoreline.

A house called Beacon Hill was built in 1897 close to where the present television mast now stands and it was occupied by Captain Payne Gallwey. He died suddenly in 1907 and the property was bought by an Alfred Tucker who died in 1916. The property was eventually demolished and the present Beacon House (Courtauld House) was built in the 1930’s by the heirs of Samuel Courtauld, the man who successfully produced synthetic fibres.

Henry Pigou was Rector of All Saints from 1855 to 1882 and his sister Harriet Pigou lived at Stormount on Buxton Road until her death in 1899. Wyke historian Ted McBride records that the house was then purchased by Oliver Warner and his wife Leila who had four sons and two daughters. Three of the sons were killed in the Great war 1914-18 and all are duly recorded on the village war memorial.

Warner died at Stormount in 1929 and in 1931 the Dorset Public Assistance Committee bought the house for their new Childrens Home. In 1997 the house was demolished to make way for a housing development.

The present Wyke Lodge housing estate stands on the site of the now demolished home of Mrs Catherine Dowman and her husband Captain Wilfred Dowman. Originally called Boulton Villa, it was built in the 1850’s and occupied by the Rev. Lynes and his family. The Dowmans lived at Falmouth at one time and it was there that they rescued the famous old clipper ship the Cutty Sark. They moved to Weymouth in 1935 and purchased what became known as Wyke Lodge. The northern boundary of the Lodge’s grounds adjoined the southern boundary of The Beacon in Wyke Road, which was the home of Mrs Dowmans sister, Miss Courtauld. Captain Dowman died in 1936 and in 1937 Mrs Dowman gave the Cutty Sark to the Nation. It is preserved at Greenwich.

Wyke Regis was a "Liberty" so the Lords of the Manor had jurisdiction over offences which in normal circumstances would have been dealt with by the Hundred Court. Normally a manor Court such as Wyke's was called a "Court Baron" and it only dealt with the domestic and agricultural affairs of the manor. A "Liberty" entitled the Lord of the Manor to receive and inflict fines, to receive the Heriot on the death of a tenant and to receive "Relief's" - payments on the admission of new tenants. As an "Ancient Demesne of the Crown" - having been Crown land at the time of Domesday - Wyke tenants had certain privileges such as the right to dispose of their land as they wished as long as it was registered through the Court Leet.

There are two old Court Books covering the first half of the seventeenth century and they are mostly written in Latin with the occasional lapse into English. We know that these Court records were kept in a locked chest - the Parish Chest - probably in the church. The whereabouts of Wyke’s Parish Chest is lost in the mists of time. The old Court books record that in 1635 "The 3 keyes for the chest Wherein the Writings are, one of them Mr. Richard Martin keepeth, another in Mr. Kelwayes and Mr. Jefferies, and the third in the hands of Richard Gray wch was broken upp".

The earliest laws in Wyke were exercised through the Court Leet when offenders were "presented" for their misdemeanours. The Court Books in the Dorset County Records Office provide some clues as to the crimes and punishments meted out by the Court. For very serious charges the accused would find themselves up before a Judge at the Dorchester Assize.

As Judge Jeffries demonstrated in 1685, the punishment could be brutal. At the "Bloody Assize" after the Monmouth rebellion the citizens of Wyke were dramatically reminded of the need to observe the law. Four quarters from the victims of Jeffries ruthless sentencing where sent to Wyke to be exhibited - probably from the church tower - as a deterrence to the public.

By the middle of the 19^th century a Police Force had been constituted and Wyke had its very own Policeman or "Peeler" - a Sergeant Pitfield. A Police House with a prison cell was established in Wyke Cottage on Portland Road.

Time and space does not permit us to describe all of the fascinating groups of cottages and individual buildings of distinction in the vicinity of Old Wyke Square - Chirton Lodge, Oban Cottage, West Bay House and Westhill Cottage. In 1982 the Wyke Regis Protection Society successfully lobbied for the older part of the village to be declared a Conservation Area and the accompanying map shows the nationally listed buildings. The local Planning Department of the Weymouth and Portland Borough Council should be consulted before any changes are made to the buildings in the Conservation Area.

Most of Wyke’s old traditions and customs have been forgotten but we do know that at one time the "May Day" celebrations were a very important part of village life. The celebrations were held on the 1^st May, when the children would go into the fields and lanes to gather flowers and the May from the Hawthorn trees. These were then woven into garlands and wreaths, the garlands were sometimes long enough to stretch across the road. They were suspended on poles and then the children would march in procession around the village singing their May Day song:-

Holloa maidens, holloa maidens, make the bells ring,
Holloa maidens, holloa maidens, God save the King.
Good morning missus and master, we wish you a happy day,
Please to smell my garland, because it’s old May Day.
Hip, hip, hooray, for the thirteenth of May,
Give me a few ha’pence and I’ll run away.

After walking around the village the children trooped to the beach to give the garlands to the fishermen to put on the bows of their boats.

The following figures give a very approximate guide to the growth of the population in Wyke which has increased dramatically over the last two centuries:-

1332 Dorset Lay Subsidy Roll - 31 Names
1641 Dorset Protestation Returns - 119 Names
1662 Dorset Hearth Tax Returns - 111 Names
1851 Census - 1898 Names
1891 Census - 4148 Names
1901 Census - 1910 Names
1981 Census - 5026 Names

Figures for 1901 reflect the boundary changes of 1895 when the Westham part of Wyke Regis was transferred to Weymouth. In 1933 further boundary changes resulted in Wyke Regis losing its Parish status. It became part of the Borough of Weymouth and Melcome Regis.

Collins Lane, which runs between High Street and Shrubbery Lane, is named after Mrs. Collins, a baker and shopkeeper who lived there during the 1860’s. Half way along the lane is the old Methodist Chapel where the Weslyans held their first meetings. It was built in 1842 but has been considerably extended. In later years has been used as a bakery and is currently used as a store. Around 1900 the Primitive Methodist group in Wyke bought a piece of land in Gallwey Road. They built a Church there which was opened in May 1901 (It is now the WI Hall).

Almost immediately the Weslyans decided that their Chapel in Collins Lane was no longer suitable. They purchased a plot of land in Portland Road and in 1903 opened the present Methodist Chapel. When the Weslyans and the Primitive Methodists decided to amalgamate in 1932 they agreed to share the Portland Road Church and the Church in Gallwey Road was put up for sale. Eventually it was bought by the Women's Institute. In the early 1950’s the Parish of All Saints recognised that the expanding Lanehouse area needed to become a parish in its own right, with its own church. In 1954 St. Edmunds Church, Lanehouse Rocks Road, was opened.

In 1955 the Roman Catholic Church of St Charles was opened in Sunnyside Road and in 1962 the Downclose Gospel Hall was built at Doncaster Road.

The Port Sanitary Hospital, opened in 1880, was originally built at Ferrybridge to provide an isolated place to treat sailors that might be suffering from contagious diseases. It became redundant in the 1930’s and was converted into a holiday centre by the Methodists Holiday Fellowship. It is now the centre of the modern caravan holiday centre at Ferrybridge.

Lanehouse Hill

The road to Chickerell and beyond was always via the long and steep Lane House Rocks hill, so called because of the several quarries on either side of the hill, which provided much of the material for the characteristic old grey stone walls around Wyke. The quarries are now all filled in and covered over.

Wyke’s 1st World War Memorial

Investigations by Ted McBride has revealed that Wyke’s 1^st World War Memorial to those that died during the war was designed by Captain Francis Haig. He was posted to the Whitehead Torpedo Factory in 1914 and he lived for a time in Wyke Castle. The Portland stone memorial was dedicated on Sunday 30^th November 1919 in the presence of some 3000 people.

On the 15^th May 1923 the villagers of Wyke Regis had a meeting that decided to form a Women’s Institute. Forty members were enrolled and Mrs. Selous of Wyke Castle was elected as the first President. Various meeting places were used through the early years until in 1934 the members managed to raise a mortgage on the disused Methodist Chapel in Gallwey Road. It cost £750 and all the members worked to raise the money to pay off the debt. In 1944, in spite of war shortages, a dinner was held to celebrate the debt being cleared. During the war the hall was used by Ghurka, Canadian and American troops when they called in to have a drink and a chat.

A Coastguard Officers House (now Centre House) was built around 1845 between High Street and Westhill Road - presumably as a deterrent to local smugglers using the Ship Inn and New Close Farm as bases for the contraband coming up Pirates Lane (or Red Lane). Various Station Officers lived in the house during the 1800’s and in 1886 the additional red brick houses were added along with the Coast Guard’s lookout which gave a wide view of Lyme Bay and Portland Harbour. A volunteer Coastguard unit was formed at the station in 1888.

On Chesil Beach, opposite the Coastguard Station, a Rocket Hut was erected to store the life saving equipment used to get a line onto wrecks coming ashore on the Beach. Only the concrete base remains - now occupied by a large wooden beach hut. When the Coastguard Station was first fitted with a radio it was sited in "Centre House" but eventually the radio room and lookout were moved out to Foxholes overlooking the Fleet Narrows. By 1972 this had become inadequate and a new building was erected at Bincleaves. In 1976 it moved to the Coastguard Station at Grove Point on Portland and in 1988 it was transferred to its present site at the Old Customs House on Weymouth Quay. The station at Westhill Road is still used by the local Wyke Regis Auxiliary Coastguard response team.

The Dorset County Football Association was formed on the 13th April 1887 but the first record of a team from Wyke Regis playing in one of their competitions was in 1893/94, when Whitehead Athletic beat Blandford's second team 4-3 in the Junior Challenge Cup Final. In 1894/95 the "Whitehead" Minor Challenge Cup was instituted and in 1896 Captain Payne Gallwey, General Manager of the Whitehead Torpedo Works at Ferrybridge presented a beautiful silver plated cup as the trophy for the winners. In 1896/97 a Wyke second team won the Whitehead Minor Challenge Cup with a 2-1 victory over Hamworthy St. Michael, after an initially drawn game. The following year the Whitehead's first team took the Senior Challenge Cup. They repeated their success in 1900/01 by defeating Poole 2-1.

In 1901/02 the Whitehead team made an impact in the F.A. Amateur Cup. They beat Lowestoft Town from East Anglia 3-1 before a crowd of 500 at their pitch at Parkmead. In the next round they travelled to New Brompton and won by the only goal. At the quarter final stage Whitehead achieved a highly creditable 1-1 draw away to Ilford before losing the replay by 6 goals to 3 at Parkmead.

Whitehead continued to be a force in local football, and in 1904/05 they beat Weymouth 5-1 to win the Dorset Challenge Cup for the third time. In 1907/08 they won the Senior Cup Final for the third time, while in the same year a team called Wyke Regis beat Wimborne Amateurs 2-1 to win the Whitehead Minor Challenge Cup.

In the 1908/09 F.A. Cup Exeter beat Weymouth 14-0 and in the next round defeated Whitehead by 4 goals to nil. In the 1911/12 season two goals by the Ferry Bridge team saw them to victory over Wimborne Amateurs in the Whitehead Minor Cup.

With the coming of the First World War football in Wyke had to take second place to more important considerations.

The Growth of Housing - Wyke Lodge, Wyke Square, Wellworthy, Stormount, Little Francis, Church Nap and Green Lane; Industry; Traffic, Roads and The Fleet; Ferrybridge and Sandsfoot.

After the signing of the Charter in 988 by King Ethelred The Unready, the tiny village of Wyke Regis remained virtually unchanged for many centuries. However, starting with the building of the Portland Breakwater and the Torpedo Factory at Ferrybridge there has been a steady increase in prosperity and house building. This has resulted in a relentless swallowing of many acres of Wyke’s green fields.

At the end of the Second World War housing development accelerated, starting with the Broadmeadow Road area, then Portland Road, Downclose, Rylands Lane, Camp Road, Mandeville, Lower Westhill Road, Broughton Crescent, Marlborough Avenue and on into Walker Crescent. More recent developments have seen the demolition of Boulton Villa and the building of the Wyke Lodge Estate, along with the construction of estates at Mountbatten Close, Barrow Rise, and on the old Wellworthy sports field. Worthy of special praise is the fine new Sports and Social Club at Downclose opened in 1987 and built largely through the efforts and determination of the workers at the Wellworthy factory.

Manor Farm yard has succumbed to yet more dwellings, as has the site of the old Wyke House - which included a complete remodelling of Wyke Square to provide houses at Lymes Close and Wooland Gardens.

Even the old Whitehead Factory at Ferrybridge has now been demolished, the site flattened and over 100 houses are currently being constructed. Stormount House was also demolished during 1997 and more new houses are being built there. The Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have approved the building of houses on the allotments at Church Nap and at Green Lane.

The few remaining open areas in Wyke such Markham and Little Francis are under continuous threat. The Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have approved a request by Wessex Water to a large increase in the Sewage Treatment Works at Martleaves.

To improve the road link to Portland and assist the commercialisation of Portland Harbour the Council have also approved the construction of a new road - the "western by-pass" - through the beautiful and unique meadows alongside the Fleet. If the road is ever built then the pressures to put houses in the marginalised land between the present development line and the new road will be enormous. The few remaining small farms in Wyke will be lost forever and the Fleet will be under threat as never before.

The foreshore along the Portland Harbourside from Sandsfoot to Ferrybridge, once the preserve of "locals", is now under constant pressure from marine-related developments such as sailboarding and sailing. Care will have to be exercised if the right balance is to be struck between the long established rights of the local residents and the desires of developers to exploit the area. There is no doubt that planting and landscaping of the foreshore, with the provision of attractive footpaths and cycle ways would be of benefit to residents and tourist alike. These aspects will assume even greater importance if the "western bypass" is eventually rejected and the old Weymouth to Portland railway line is used for a new road or rail link.

At one time the Whitehead/Wellworthy factory at Ferrybridge provide a living for many local families. Those days have gone and with the re-development of the factory site the only major engineering industry remaining in Wyke is at Tods. The growth of the smaller leisure based interests around Ferrybridge such as sailboarding, fishing and boating and the Oyster Farm will no doubt continue and we must hope that they prosper. Certainly there is growing interest by tourists in the natural ecology of the Chesil Beach and the Fleet lagoon.

The residents of Wyke have much to be proud of in the history of the area but there is still much to be improved or protected over the coming years. Let us ensure by our common efforts that our successors in future years will still be able to say:-

Wyke Regis, the village rich of quaint associations
and traditions of olden times,
richer still in melancholy memories of the dead
whom the Storm King slew,
and richest of all in natural beauty and splendour.

1. Wyke Regis and its Church by C.R.Domoney
2. Weymouth:- an Illustrated History by Maureen Boddy and Jack West
3. Portland:- an Illustrated History by Stuart Morris
4. The Buildings of Old Weymouth by Eric Ricketts.
5. Old Portland by Jean M. Edwards and Rodney Legg.
6. Domestic Architecture in Wyke by Anne Tate. (unpublished)
7. Wyke Regis Millennium by Doug Hollings & Nigel Tate
8. The Wyke Regis Working Mens Club by Doug Hollings
9. The Whitehead Torpedo & Engineering Works by Doug Hollings
10. All About Ferry Bridge by Doug Hollings
11. Geology Explained in Dorset by John Perkins
12. How Old is that Church by Pamela Cunnington
13. Hutchins History of Dorset
14. The Lure of the Lerret from Weymouth & Portland Borough Council.
15. The Wyke Regis Junior School Millennium News of 1988
16. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, edited by Anne Savage
17. Anglo Saxon England by Sir Frank Stenton

The earliest Deed dates back to 1803, and relates to the transaction that took place in the Wyke Court Baron under the Stewardship of one Edward Boswell. The Deed commences "The Manor of Wyke Regis and Elwell to wit the special Court Baron of the Right Honourable Earl of Ilchester Lord of the said Manor there held on Monday the 13th day of May in the 43rd year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King Defender of the Faith and in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and three.

The property was once in the ownership of a Mr. Henry Vye, but by 1803 it was in the shared ownership of Francis Bussell, mariner, and his wife Mary of Weymouth and Melcome Regis and Samuel Summers, a mariner of Wyke Regis. They surrendered, in full court, into the hands of the Lord of the Manor, "all that house and gardens and premises with its appurtenances lying and being within the said manor......to the life behoof of William Isaac of Weymouth and Melcome Regis in the said county, cabinet maker, his heirs and assigns forever according to the custom of the said manor".

A second Deed brought before the Court Baron is dated Wednesday the fourth day of May 1808 and is again signed by Edward Boswell, Steward. This time William Isaac "surrendered into the hands of the Lord of the said manor by the rod by the hands of acceptance of the said Steward all that house garden premises late in the occupation of the Henry Vye situated lying and