Bridport is a market town and civil parish in Dorset, England, inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and within the town's boundary is West Bay, a small fishing harbour also known as Bridport Harbour.
The town features as Port Bredy in Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels. In the 21st century, Bridport's arts scene has expanded with an arts centre, theatre, cinema and museum.
At the 2021 census, the Bridport built-up area had a population of 12,295. The town is twinned with Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, France.
History Bridport's origins are Saxon. During the reign of King Alfred it became one of the four most important settlements in Dorset – the other three being Dorchester, Shaftesbury and Wareham – with the construction of fortifications and establishment of a mint.Bettey, p29
Bridport's name probably derives from another location nearby. In the early 10th century the Burghal Hidage recorded the existence of a fortified centre or burh in this area, called 'Brydian', which is generally accepted as referring to Bridport. 'Brydian' means 'place at the (River) Bride', and this name may have come from an earlier burh in the Bride Valley a few miles to the east, which perhaps was abandoned or not completed in favour of the harbour site at Bridport. A probable location for an earlier burh is at Littlebredy. In 1086 the Domesday Book recorded that the town was called 'Brideport'; 'port' is Old English for a market town, thus 'Brideport' may have described the market town belonging to or associated with Bredy. At a later date, in a reversal of a more typical derivation, the town lent its name to the river on which it stood; previously this had been the River Wooth, but it became the River Brit.
The Domesday Book recorded that Bridport had 120 houses in the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). In 1253 the town was awarded its first charter by Henry III, and by the subsequent reign of Edward I Bridport sent two members to Parliament.Bettey, p109 In the 14th and 15th centuries, like other Dorset coastal towns, Bridport suffered heavy losses due to frequent outbreaks of the Black Death; one 14th-century account by Geoffrey Baker recorded that the disease "almost stripped the seaports of Dorset of their inhabitants".Bettey, p46 Around this time the town was also subjected to attacks by raiding French and Spanish forces.
Since the Middle Ages Bridport has been associated with the production of rope and nets. The earliest official record of this industry dates from 1211, when King John ordered that Bridport make "as many ropes for ships both large and small and as many cables as you can". The raw materials needed, flax and hemp, used to be grown in the surrounding countryside, though they were superseded in modern times by artificial fibres such as nylon. Bridport's main street is particularly wide due to it previously having been used to dry the ropes, after they had been spun in long gardens behind the houses. Ropes for gallows used to be made in the town, hence the phrase "stabbed with a Bridport dagger" being used to describe a hanging.
In the English Civil War (1642–1651) the population of Bridport mainly supported the royalists.Bettey, p111 At the end of the war in 1651 Charles II briefly stayed in the town at The George Inn as he sought to escape Parliamentarian forces after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester. Local loyalty to the king again played a part in the first action in the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion when on 16 June 1685, 40 cavalry and 400 foot soldiers, commanded for Monmouth, moved on from Lyme Regis to Bridport, where they encountered 1,200 men from the local royalist Dorset militia. The skirmish ended with retreat of the rebel force, although many of the militiamen deserted and joined Monmouth's army.
Many buildings in Bridport, particularly in the main street, date from the 18th century. Bridport Town Hall was built in 1785–6, with its clock tower and cupola added about twenty years later. Older buildings can be found in South Street, and include the 13th-century St. Mary's parish church, the 14th-century chantry and the 16th-century Bridport Museum.
The population of Bridport in 1841 was 4,787.The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol III, London, 1847, Charles Knight, p.805 During the 19th century Bridport's population grew little, unlike many Dorset towns,Bettey, pp.72–73 although many sturdy buildings were constructed at this time, showing that at least parts of the population remained prosperous.Bettey, p140 In 1857 the Bridport Railway was opened, which joined the town with the existing national rail network. This benefitted the town's textile industry and brought cheaper goods such as coal to the area. In 1884 the line was extended from Bridport's station to a new terminus on the coast at Bridport Harbour, which was renamed West Bay as part of attempts to promote it as a resort. The West Bay extension closed to passengers in 1930 and all traffic in 1962. The entire Bridport line closed in 1975.
The town gave its name to Bridport, Vermont and Bridport, Tasmania.
Governance
In the UK national parliament, Bridport is within the West Dorset constituency. , the Member of Parliament (MP) is Edward Morello of the Liberal Democrats.
Bridport has two-tiers of local government. At the lower level, Bridport is a civil parish governed by a town council of 20 members elected from 5 wards representing neighbourhoods of the town. At the upper level, Bridport is part of Dorset unitary authority. Bridport electoral ward (which also includes neighbouring Symondsbury) elects 3 of the 82 members to Dorset Council.
In 1835 Bridport became a municipal borough, the district contained only the parish of Bridport from 1894. in 1974 the district and parish were abolished and it became part of West Dorset district. A successor parish was formed covering the same area as the former district and its parish. In 2019 Bridport became part of Dorset unitary authority area. The rural hinterland around the town formed Bridport Rural District from 1894 to 1974.
On 1 April 2024 the parishes of Bothenhampton and Allington were abolished and merged with Bridport, part of Allington also went to Symondsbury.
Geography Bridport is in the county of Dorset in South West England. Measured directly, it is about west of the county town Dorchester, SSW of Yeovil in Somerset, east of Exeter in Devon and inland from the English Channel at West Bay. The town centre is sited between the small River Brit and its tributary the Asker, about north of their confluence, at an altitude of . Another small tributary, the River Simene, also joins the Brit to the west of the town centre.
Bridport contains several neighbourhoods, some of which used to be separate villages. These include Allington, Skilling, Coneygar, Bothenhampton, Bradpole, Court Orchard and St Andrew's Well. South of the town centre and within the town's boundary is West Bay, a small fishing harbour known as Bridport Harbour until the arrival of the railway.
The geology of Bridport comprises rocks formed in the Pliensbachian, Toarcian, Aalenian, Bajocian, Bathonian and Callovian ages of the Jurassic period, overlain by superficial Quaternary deposits of alluvium alongside the rivers. There are several faults in the area, including the Mangerton Fault, which is aligned SSW-NNE and runs from West Bay up the valleys of the River Brit and Mangerton River. This intersects with several E-W faults, including three in the lower Brit Valley, between Bothenhampton and West Bay, that run east, and two, north of the town centre, that run west. The land beneath the town centre and to the west and southwest (around the neighbourhood of Skilling) is mostly Eype Clay, a micaceous mudstone, though slightly younger Down Cliff Sand crowns the hill at Watton Cross. The hills immediately north of the town are formed from Bridport Sand, with Allington Hill and Watton Hill having small caps of Inferior Oolite. North of the hills, moving away from the town's built-up area, undifferentiated Down Cliff Sand and Thorncombe Sand is separated from the Bridport Sand of the hills in most places by a band of Beacon Limestone. The hills east of the town, around Walditch and Loders, are also mostly of Bridport Sand capped by Inferior Oolite, with the Beacon Limestone outcropping near their base and the undifferentiated sands closer to the town. To the south east however, the faults running east from the lower Brit Valley are associated with a change to slightly younger material, mostly calcareous mudstones and sandstones (Fuller's Earth, Frome Clay and Forest Marble), with small outcrops of Cornbrash limestone and Kellaways Formation to the south of Bothenhampton parish church.British Geological Survey (2005), 1:50 000 Series, England & Wales Sheet 327 (Bridport, Bedrock & Superficial Deposits),
The coast at Bridport is part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site that covers a continuous of coastline in Dorset and neighbouring east Devon. Chesil beach starts at Portland and ends at West Bay. The east pier of West Bay is at the east end of Chesil beach. All of the town is also within the Dorset National Landscape area, a protected landscape designation of national significance. The town's most notable landmark is the conical Colmer's Hill, its distinctive shape and small clump of summit trees being very noticeable from West Street.
Bridport is a Met Office coastal weather observation point.
Demography At the 2021 census, Bridport civil parish as it was then defined had a population of 8,205 people in 4,175 households. The Office for National Statistics also define a Bridport "built-up area" which includes parts of the three other parishes that in 2024 were merged into Bridport parish; this area had a population of 12,295 in 2021.
Census population of Bridport and its predecessor civil parishes Census Bridport Allington Bothenhampton Bradpole Sources 1801 3,117 716 334 575 1811 3,567 941 344 789 1821 3,742 1,139 385 926 1831 4,242 1,300 424 1,018 1841 4,787 1,545 533 1,357 1851 4,653 1,748 548 1,391 1861 1871 1881 3,936 1,709 536 1,567 1891 3,768 1,771 490 1,641 1901 5,710 253 449 805 1911 5,919 254 481 524 1921 5,909 233 502 581 1931 5,917 228 564 696 1951 6,272 525 813 870 1961 6,530 249 943 1,230 1971 6,370 210 1,310 1,410 1981 6,880 430 1,660 1,610 1991 7,290 640 1,770 1,990 2001 7,743 614 2,186 2,270 2011 8,332 766 2,131 2,339 2021 8,205 926 2,100 2,322
According to council tax records, in 2014 the proportion of homes within Bridport's built-up area that were second homes was 4.8%. The figure for Bridport parish alone was 5.6%.
Economy
Writing in 1965, Ralph Wightman stated that "in the best possible meaning of the word Bridport has always been an industrial town, and its industries always had a connection with the countryside and the sea [...] Bridport has not had any industrial revolution. It has not blasted the countryside, and it has escaped the worst depressions. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that it has always been famous for good food and drink".