I’VE WRITTEN before on this site about how Bridport’s oldest building – The Chantry in South Street – almost certainly began life as a seamark or primitive lighthouse.
Then, when it was converted to a priest’s house, one of the priest’s duties was to say regular masses to St Catherine.
That’s significant because, as the Dorset coastal [...]

DAVID Graham of On In Bridders – whose purpose is to support, develop, and promote Bridport’s social scene - has written a very thoughtful and observant account of his preview tour of The Market House in West Street.
“Very impressed,” is his overall verdict, although he notes there’s no Wi-Fi, a detail which actually serves to reinforce his overall [...]

PURELY in the interests of informing the readers of this site what-is-what, I managed to bluff my way through the security cordons and gain admittance to the new Market House pub in Bridport this morning.
I must have been in luck because I not only did I get in, but I managed to down a pint [...]

WHAT USED to be a pleasant and uplifting walk along St Andrew’s Road is rapidly being destroyed by the Philistines who are building the new builders’ merchants depot and grocer’s shop alongside the Co-op.
They are completely obliterating the wonderful view of the upper half of Jessop Avenue and all of Happy Island Way. No more will [...]

THE SEARCH has begun for a new use for a relic of Dorset’s social struggles.

Ten interested parties have been shown around the empty Institute in East Street, Bridport, by members of the Bridport Area Development Trust, which has got six months to find a modern purpose for the historic property.
“We’re still in the very early stages,” said Crystal Johnson of the Trust.
“We’re lucky [...]

THE Bridport News and the Lyme Regis News will appear in future on Wednesdays.
The move is announced on the papers’ website but not (that I can see) in the papers themselves.
The shift means the two Newsquest publications will come out on the same morning as the free newspapers View From Bridport, View From Beaminster and View [...]

BRIDPORT is to host the UK’s first ever Hat Festival.
It could become the world’s biggest celebration of headwear and millinery, and it should provide an additional incentive for tourists to visit Dorset in the early autumn.
The plans are being backed by some of the industry’s biggest names.
The first Hatfest will run for three days from Friday, [...]

DORCHESTER’S Roman Town House will be lit up by a moving image projection that tells its unique story for hearing-impaired people.
Dorset County Council is working with Bridport-based arts company PVA MediaLab to appoint an artist-in-residence for the project, called ‘Domus’, using an award of £5,000 from the Big Lottery Fund.
The artist will work with local [...]

BRIDPORT 1/D/09/002009 & 1/D/09/002010 Conservation area and listed building. Satellite dish Electric Palace, South Street (From the latest list of planning applications issued by West Dorset District Council)�
THIS is a cool idea. Honestly, it is. The 1.2m satellite dish proposed for the south wall of the Electric Palace is not just any old dish. It is bespoke.
It will [...]

(Teatime write-up)
SO, AS looked increasingly likely all morning, the planning inquiry into Bridport’s biggest development scheme for 30 years was stopped before it ever got properly going.
Late on in the afternoon, planning inspector Simon Rawle decided that landowners Haywards did not have the right to appeal against West Dorset district councillors’ refusal to allow them to [...]