Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BRIDPORT

BRIDPORT, a town, a parish, a subdistrict, a district, and a division in Dorset. The town stands on a gentle eminence, between the rivers Bride and Asker, a little above their confluence, and at the terminus of a branch railway, surrounded by hills, 1½ mile N of the Bride's mouth, 9¼ by railway WSW by Maiden-Newton, and 15 by road W of Dorchester. It had a mint and 120 houses at the time of the Conquest; was occupied by both the royalists and the parliamentarians, but not contested by either, during the civil war; made a riotous outburst at the time of the Duke of Monmouth's landing at Lyme; and had an ancient priory, dedicated to St John the Baptist. It consists of three spacious, airy streets; contains many handsome houses; and commands, from its summit-ground, many fine vista-views. The town hall occupies the site of an ancient chapel; was built in 1786; and is a handsome edifice of brick and Portland stone. The parish church is cruciform, chiefly later English; has a central, square, pinnacled tower; was restored in 1860, at a cost of upwards of £3,000; and contained a monument to a kinsman of Queen Philippa, and some other interesting monuments. St. Andrew's church, near the northern entrance to the town, is a new, small, beautiful edifice. There are chapels for Independents, (a new one,) Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians, Methodists, and Roman Catholics; a free school with £80 a year; alms-houses, with £73; other charities, with £97; and a mechanics' institute. Bridport Harbour is at the mouth of the Bride, 1½ mile distant; has a post office of its own under Bridport, some cottages, and an inn; and takes its name from a basin enclosed by a double wooden pier, flanked by picturesque cliffs, and capable of admitting vessels of 250 tons.

Bridport has a head post office,‡ a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, and two chief inns: is a seat of sessions, a coastguard station, and a bonding port; and publishes a weekly newspaper. Markets are held on Wednesday and Saturday; and fairs on 6 April, Holy Thursday, and 11 October. Manufactures are carried on in shoe-thread, twine, cordage, sailcloth, and fishing-nets. The cordage was at one time a great staple; supplied nearly all the royal navy in the time of Henry VIII.; and became so identified with the work of the hangman as to be popularly called "the Bridport dagger." The vessels registered at the port at the beginning of 1868 were 9 of 1,430 tons; and those which entered in 1867, counting repeated voyages, were 3 of 155 tons from British colonies, 15 British of 2,747 tons and 5 foreign of 640 tons from foreign countries, and 60 sailing-vessels of 10,427 tons coastwise. The customs in 1867 were £2,803. The chief exports are cheese, butter, and the local manufactures; and the chief imports hemp, flax, tallow, timber, wines, spirits, coal, and slate. The town was chartered by Henry III.; sent two members to parliament from the time of Edward I. till 1867; was reduced, in 1867, to the right of sending only one; and is governed, under the new act, by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. The borough includes all Bridport parish, and parts of Burton-Bradstock, Bothenhampton, Walditch, Allington, Bradpole, and Symondsbury parishes. Acres, 656. Taxes in 1857, £3,530. Electors in 1868, 503. Pop. in 1861, 7,719. Houses, 1,581. The town gave the title of Baron and Viscount to the family of Hood.

The parish comprises 62 acres. Real property, £14,102. Pop., 4,6 45. Houses, 992. The property is much subdivided. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £250.* Patron, the Earl of Ilchester. The subdistrict includes also the parishes of Allington and Bradpole. Acres, 1,622. Pop., 8,009. Houses, 1,638. The district comprehends also the subdistrict of Whitchurch-Canonicorum, containing the parishes of Whitchurch-Canonicorum, Chideock, Symondsbury, Wootton-Fitzpaine and Catherston-Lewston, and the parochial chapelry of Stanton-St. Gabriel; and the subdistrict of Burton-Bradstock, containing the parishes Burton-Bradstock, Loders, Askerswell, Chilcombe, Litton-Cheney, Puncknowle, Swyre, Bothenhampton, and Walditch, and the parochial chapelry of Shipton-George. Acres, 33,187. Poor-rates in 1866, £8,658. Pop. in 1861, 16,828. Houses, 3,520. Marriages in 1866, 123; births, 571,-of which 34 were illegitimate; deaths, 357,-of which 128 were at ages under 5 years, and 16 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60,1361; births, 5,694; deaths, 3,529. The places of worship in 1851 were 20 of the Church of England, with 6,992 sittings; 6 of Independents, with 2,150 s.; 1 of Baptists, with 350 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 250 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 474 s.; 8 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1,489 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 140 attendants. The schools were 23 public day schools, with 1,504 scholars; 34 private day schools, with 696 s.; 32 Sunday schools, with 2,839 s.; and 3 evening schools for adults, with 32 s. The workhouse is in Bradpole. The division contains the hundreds or liberties of Beaminster, Beaminster-Forum and Redhone, Broadwinsor, Godderthorne, Halstock, Lothers and Bothenhampton, Poorstock, and Whitchurch-Canouicorum, and parts of the hundreds or liberties of Eggerton, Frampton, Uggscombe, and Cerne, Totcombe, and Modbury. Acres, 87,194. Pop. in 1851, 24,673; in 1861, 23,848. Houses, 5,051.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a subdistrict, a district, and a division"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Bridport CP/AP       Bridport SubD       Bridport RegD/PLU       Dorset AncC
Place: Bridport

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.