Bridport features in the short story "Fellow Townsmen". Hardy describes how hemmed-in the town really is by the hills, and this shot, taken from the west side of the town, shows it has not changed very much - although the area on the West Bay Road where much of the action .takes place is now dominated by a giant Safeway/Morrisons supermaket. You can also see more of Bridport Church at this link.
West Bay is the harbour for Bridport, consisting of a small village with a caravan site at the end of the road described in Fellow Townsmen. It's quite a strange, understated place for the English south coast. A couple of chip vans, a penny arcade, a caravan park and a couple of pubs. "Bridport Arms" used to be a good place for a decent pint of Palmers' - . it features in "Fellow Townsmen" as the "Harbour Inn". Sadly it is (Mar 2005) under redevelopment.
The cliffs at West Bay are steep, and a source of fossils. (You should look for fossils on the beach, not in the cliffs, which have a habit of falling down). West Bay is the start of Chesil Beach, which heads to the east, and part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage site, which heads to the west.
The harbour has been redeveloped in 2004-5, being officially re-opened by Prince Andrew on March 8.
These pictures show the completed works at the harbour. The picture taken from the cliffs shows the striking difference in the size of the East and West beaches, due to the work of the sea and the layout of Lyme Bay.
The harbour is normally very quiet, except for when Victorian ladies are setting out for a quiet row.... However in rougher weather, the difference between the calm water in the harbour and the chaos outside the piers can be quite amazing. Try walking down the piers when the weather's getting a bit lively and you will see.
Views of the redeveloped harbour from closer up:
Mind you, it's not a great place for swimming. What you can't see from this picture is that the beach slopes like a black run on the Alps. You can make out on the right some massive piles of shingle and sand - I've no idea what they use them for, but bolstering up the beach mid-winter springs to mind. The view is looking west towards Eype (and beyond that, towards Lyme Regis and Devon). This particular view is famous from a British TV program called "Harbour Lights", which I hope wasn't sold to the rest of the world as frankly it was pretty awful. This picture, taken in 1998, shows West Bay before the redevelopment of the harbour.
Below is a view of West Bay harbour...
The harbour is very quiet, except for when Victorian ladies are setting out for a quiet row.... The difference between the calm water in the harbour and the chaos outside the piers can be quite amazing. Try walking down the piers when the weather's getting a bit lively and you will see.
Bridport Harbour redevelopment
Bridport Harbour - West Bay Geology