Bridport

Bridport is a market town in west Dorset, 14 miles west of Dorchester, inland from the English Channel, near where the River Brit meets its tributary the Asker. The 2021 census counted 12,295 residents in the built-up area.

The town is known for rope and net making, and in 1211 King John ordered it to make ropes for ships. The unusually wide main streets exist because ropes were once dried along them after being spun in long gardens. Bridport Museum at 25 South Street still has a rope and netting collection, with live ropemaking demonstrations at set times, and covers 180 million years of rocks and fossils as well.

The street market runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays from around 8am until the afternoon, mainly on East Street and South Street, and has done since a royal charter of 1253. The Electric Palace and Bridport Arts Centre both put on live events through the year.

The sea is close. West Bay and its harbour lie to the south, and the village of Burton Bradstock is about 2.5 miles to the south-east. The A35 passes round the town on a bypass. The railway closed in 1975, so there is no station.