I’m pleased you have an appreciation of the South West, Jelena,
particularly West Dorset. 🙂
What is Bridport like?
Magical, surreal, inviting, communal, ancient, quirky … with possibly
the widest, streets of any town in the UK. (Due to its net making
heritage).
Despite hailing from nearby Yeovil, Somerset, (17 miles N of here), my
family and I had always had an affinity with Bridport and West Bay and I
had been coming here since being a baby in arms.
I actually popped down here in May 1977, originally for just an
afternoon, to help my uncle Norm with a building project problem … and
never went back home!
“What’s that, Uncle Norm”, I said, pointing at a first floor window of a
quaint old extension of a 17th century bakery. (With the ground floor
below turned into a showroom / shop).
“One of my empty flats, Chris” said land owner uncle Norman.
“Can I move in?” I asked.
“You want to? You fancy living down here then?”
Within the hour, I was holding the keys to my new home and … well,
I’ve been living in the town ever since. 🙂
I feel there may possibly be nowhere else on earth like my quirky town
though it is difficult to list or note exactly why or how I have come to
that statement. Lets just say that Bridport has a charisma like a
fascinating person … or a quirky, very communal character entirely
unique and juxtaposed from any other town I have ever known.
One element, one component that cannot ever be ignored or misunderstood
is the awesome prehistoric gravitas and pedigree the very soil and rocks
of the earth have in this area. (I mean that historically and
geographically).
We have ancient bronze and iron age tumuli burial mounds, Iron Age hill
forts, Anglo-Romano settlement ruins, a castle or two and, of course, a
coastline where we still occasionally uncover the giant fossilised sea
monsters that swam here hundreds of millions of years ago.
… and the view of Chisel bank gracefully hugging the tide line in a
gentle curve for 20 miles, as I can see from Thorncombe Beacon clifftop
a short cycle ride from here, is utterly breathtaking to behold.
And talking of the coast … 🙂
This time of the year, I normally set my alarm for the hour before dawn
and, with anticipation, gather my fishing tackle together, pack a
breakfast, pocket my digital camera and set about tying my fishing rod
to the crossbar … and then I cycle the few minutes down to the Bay.
(West Bay).
Sadly, this year, the inclement weather has stifled such adventures. I
can still share some mental images of the area with you though.
The harbour, Bridport Harbour, nestles between two cliffs, East cliff to
the left, a vertical sandstone promontory and West cliff to the right, a
sloping face of shale and layered sedimentary rock now fashioned and dug
back by man’s machinery in an effort to halt or at least slow the
entropy which threaten to erode the rock and worry the houses perched
above.
Actually Jelena, do you recall the terrible incident of a couple of
weeks ago when a young girl in her 20’s got trapped under 500 tons of a
landslide at Burton Bradstock here on the coast? That location is mere
minutes from here.
I’m still shaking my head in recalling that incident. I mean … what
was it? Fate? Destiny? Some quirk of quantum physics that brought that
poor girl to that particular section of the beach exactly as the
incident occured? I mention the quantum thing because our very existence
only continues to take the shape it does as a result of zillions of
POTENTIAL choices we make every second of our day. Brrrrr. Doesn’t do to
think about that too much, does it?
Anyway … Let me continue 🙂
Cycling over the sluice gate bridge, the river Brit at dawn can
sometimes look like another planet, what with the mist lingering and
hovering atop the serene, mirror glass water. Another mysterious vision
gifted me by nature and, like the sky, each day no two compositions are
ever the same.
Snap. Click. Whirr! I always try to capture such magic with my camera
but have yet to capture it’s true essence.
Oh, goodness … and I haven’t mentioned the ancient twice a week market
or the Palace Cinema right opposite my cottage .. rated as one of the
UK’s hottest and coolest music / performing venues with great talents of
the last 20, 30, 40 years all choosing to do gigs there week after week
and month after month.
So … aside from the history, the geology, the character and all the
other stuff, Bridport is a tad bohemian, often outrageous and always
idiosyncratic! 🙂
As for my 1950’s style garden … That will have to wait until another
day. 🙂
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