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'Swanage' is a small town in the south east of Dorset, England. It is situated at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck, approximately 10 km south of Poole and 40 km east of Dorchester. The town has a population of 10,124 (2001). Nearby are Ballard Down, Old Harry Rocks and Studland Bay to the north and Durlston Country Park to the south.
The town was a small port and fishing village until the Victorian era when it became a seaside resort. It also has a long history in quarrying along the cliffs to the south at Durlston, and was one of the largest producers of Purbeck stone and marble. Today, tourism is the main industry, employing many who live in the town, while some 40% of the workforce commute to Poole. Swanage has several pubs in proximity to the town square. The square itself has three takeaway restaurants, though only one has a seated dining area.
The town has a wooden 19th century pier with two branches; one was refurbished in 1999 and the other is derelict. Sightseeing and angling boats operate from the "new" pier. Scuba diving takes place under the piers and at nearby coastal wrecks. Indeed Swanage is considered by many to be the home of British Scuba diving as not only is it one of the most popular sea water training sites for dive schools and clubs to take trainee divers due to the sheltered conditions within the bay, but the dive shop still situated on the pier was the first dive shop ever to open in Great Britain. There is a sandy beach, on Swanage Bay, along the edge of the town. The beach was improved in 2005/6 by construction of new greenheart timber groynes and the placement of 90,000m³ of sand as beach nourishment ^[1]. Cliffs to the south-east of the town are used by climbers. The town is a gateway town for the Jurassic Coast, a popular world heritage site, and because of this it is a popular destination for educational field trips and romantic meals.
Swanage is one of the few towns in the UK to have a crater on Mars named after it.

Contents

History

Sport and recreation

Literature

Twinned with

See also

References

Bibliography

External links

History

An old clock tower from one end of the old London Bridge has been set up at the seashore. A facade from one of the old London guild houses is on the front of the Town Hall. These relics and many more were brought to the town in the nineteenth century by John Mowlem and his nephew George Burt, who became successful builders in London. It is said that the items brought from London were used as ballast for the empty vessels which transported Purbeck stone to London.
The Swanage Railway, a volunteer-run heritage railway, connects the town with Corfe Castle and runs both steam and diesel locomotives. It runs on tracks reconstructed on an alignment abandoned by the national railway system in 1972.
In 877 Alfred the Great fought a sea battle against the Danes in Swanage Bay. A hundred of their ships which had survived the battle were driven by a storm onto Peveril Point. A monument topped by cannon balls was set up in 1882 by John Mowlem to celebrate this event and is situated at the southern end of the promenade (Ward Lock’s).

Sport and recreation

Swanage has a King George's Field in memorial to King George V, which recently became home to a new skate park (which continues to expand though fund raising by locals) and a new hi-tech play area, funded in a similar way to the skate park. Planning applications have been submitted for a sports pavilion. Additionally, the sea cliffs and quarries to the west of Swanage provide excellent venues for rock climbing.

Literature

Swanage is called Knollsea in Thomas Hardy’s novels. In “The Hand of Ethelberta” it is described as “…a seaside village lying snug within two headlands as between a finger and thumb”.

Twinned with

★ Rüdesheim am Rhein in Germany

See also

★ Swanage rail and bus station

★ List of Dorset beaches

★ Jurassic Coast
Local villages:

★ Langton Matravers

★ Corfe Castle

★ Harman's Cross

References

1. Swanage Beach Replenishment 2005/2006

Bibliography

★ Cooper, Ilay. (2004). Purbeck Revealed. Bath: James Pembroke Publishing.

★ Hardy, Thomas. (1876) The Hand of Ethelberta. (online). The Literature Network. Available from: http://www.online-literature.com/hardy/hand_ethelberta/31/.

★ Ward Lock’s (no date). Swanage and South Dorset: Illustrated Guide Books. (Twelfth edition). London: Ward, Locke and Co. Ltd.

External links

★ Census data

★ Town Council website

★ Local tourism guide

★ Community forum(blog)

★ Dorset Online Parish Clerks (online parish registers)

★ Pictures of Swanage

★ Swanage RNLI Lifeboat Station
Travel information:

★ Local bus information

★ Swanage Railway