Swanage

Picturesquely set beside a broad, gently curving bay with fine, clear sands and beautiful surrounding countryside, Swanage is understandably popular as a family holiday resort. A previous winner of Southern England in Bloom, the town takes great pride in the spectacular floral displays in its parks and gardens, and its other awards include the prestigious European Blue Flag for its unpolluted waters, and the Tidy Britain Group’s Quality Coast Award. Swanage offers its visitors all the facilities necessary for a traditional seaside holiday, including boat-trips, (with sightings of bottle-nosed dolphins if you’re lucky), water-sports, sea angling and an attractive, old-fashioned pier and bandstand. The Mowlem Theatre provides a seasonal programme of films, shows and plays, and on Sunday afternoons the Recreation Ground resounds to the strains of a brass band. On the clifftops, Durlston Country Park covers some 260 acres of delightful countryside; on the front, the Beach Gardens offer tennis, bowls and putting, or you can just rent a beach hut or bungalow and relax. One attraction not to be missed is a ride on the Swanage Railway along which magnificent steam locomotives of the old Southern Railway transport passengers some 6 miles through lovely Dorset countryside to Norden, just north of Corfe Castle. There are plenty of special events, too and it is now possible to take a ‘Driving Experience’ course for enthusiasts and actually take charge of a train.

In the town itself, the Town Hall is worth seeing for its ornate façade, the work of Christopher Wren. Wren didn’t build it for Swanage, however. It was originally part of Mercers Hall in Cheapside, London. When the Mercers Hall was being demolished, a Swanage man named George Burt scavenged the fine frontage and rebuilt it here. He also brought the graceful little Clock Tower which stands near the pier but once used to adorn the Surrey end of London Bridge; a gateway from Hyde Park for his own house; and cast-iron columns and railings from Billingsgate Market. No wonder older residents of the town refer to Swanage as ‘Little London’.

There is, however, one monument that is purely Swanage – the King Alfred Column on the seafront. This commemorates the king’s victory here over a Danish fleet in AD 877. The column is topped by cannonballs that would have been of great assistance to Alfred had they been invented at the time.

Collectors of curiosities will want to make their way to Tilly Whim Hill, just south of Swanage, which is also well-known for its murky Caves. High above the Caves stands the Great Globe, a huge round stone, some 10 feet in diameter and weighing 40 tons, its surface sculpted with all the countries of the world. At its base, stone slabs are inscribed with quotations from the Old Testament psalms, Shakespeare and other poets. They include moral injunctions such as ‘Let prudence direct you, temperance chasten you, fortitude support you’, and the information that, ‘if a globe representing the sun were constructed on the same scale, it would measure some 1,090 feet across’.

A couple of miles north of Swanage, Studland Bay offers a lovely 3-mile stretch of sandy beach, part of it clearly designated as an exclusive resorts for nudists only.