Dorset

Dorset /ˈdɔːrsᵻt/ (or archaically, Dorsetshire) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the non-metropolitan county, which is governed by Dorset County Council, and the unitary authority areas of Poole and Bournemouth. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres (1,024 sq mi), Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, and Hampshire to the east. The county town is Dorchester which is in the south. After the reorganisation of local government in 1974 the county's border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch. Around half of the population lives in the South East Dorset conurbation, while the rest of the county is largely rural with a low population density.

The county has a long history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorset's indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the early Middle Ages, the Saxons settled the area and made Dorset a shire in the 7th century. The first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles occurred in Dorset during the 8th century, and the Black Death entered England at Melcombe Regis in 1348. Dorset has seen much civil unrest: during the English Civil War an uprising of vigilantes was crushed by Cromwell's forces in a pitched battle near Shaftesbury; the Duke of Monmouth's doomed rebellion began at Lyme Regis; and a group of farm labourers from Tolpuddle were instrumental in the formation of the trade union movement. During the Second World War, Dorset was heavily involved in the preparations for the invasion of Normandy, and the large harbours of Portland and Poole were two of the main embarkation points. The former was the sailing venue in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and both have clubs or hire venues for sailing, rowing, sea kayaking and powerboating.

Fleet, Dorset

Coordinates: 50°37′21″N 2°31′09″W / 50.6224°N 2.5191°W / 50.6224; -2.5191

Fleet is a small, scattered village and civil parish in south Dorset, England, situated in the West Dorset administrative district approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of Weymouth. The village consists of several small settlements—East Fleet, West Fleet, Fleet House and Fleet Common—which are sited on or close to the shore of The Fleet, a brackish lagoon behind Chesil Beach. The name 'Fleet' derives from fleot, Old English for an inlet or estuary.Dorset County Council estimate that in 2013 the population of the civil parish was 60.

On 24 November 1824 strong winds and a storm surge caused waves to breach Chesil Beach, and many of the buildings in the village were destroyed. Seventy-three years later an old man of the village described the events he had witnessed on that day as a boy:

A new church was built a short distance inland and only the chancel of the old one stands today.

J. Meade Falkner's smuggling novel Moonfleet is set in the village. There is a brass memorial to Falkner in the old church, together with early 17th-century brass plate memorials to members of the family whose name—Mohun—was used in the novel.

Chesil Beach

Coordinates: 50°36′14″N 2°30′58″W / 50.604°N 2.516°W / 50.604; -2.516

Chesil Beach /ˈtʃɛzᵻl/, sometimes called Chesil Bank, in Dorset, southern England is one of three major shingle structures in Britain. Its toponym is derived from the Old English ceosel or cisel, meaning "gravel" or "shingle".

The beach is often identified as a tombolo, although research into the geomorphology of the area has revealed that it is in fact a barrier beach which has "rolled" landwards, joining the mainland with the Isle of Portland, giving the appearance of a tombolo. The shingle beach is 29 kilometres (18 mi) long, 200 metres (660 ft) wide and 15 metres (50 ft) high. The beach and the Fleet are part of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the location for a 2007 novel, On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.

At the eastern end of the beach at the village of Chiswell, against the cliffs of the Isle of Portland, the beach curves round sharply to form Chesil Cove. This part of the beach protects the low-lying village from flooding. The beach has been the scene of many shipwrecks, and as such was named by Thomas Hardy as "Dead Man's Bay". Westwards the shingle forms a straight line along the coast, enclosing the Fleet, a shallow tidal lagoon.

Fleet

Fleet may refer to:

Vehicles

A fleet is a collection of ships or vehicles, with many specific connotations:

Places

A fleet is a saline waterway found in river marshes:

Fleet is found in place names:

Jurassic Coast

Coordinates: 50°42′20″N 2°59′23.6″W / 50.70556°N 2.989889°W / 50.70556; -2.989889

The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Orcombe Point near Exmouth in East Devon to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage in East Dorset, a distance of 96 miles (155 kilometres). Chartered in 2001, the Jurassic coast was the second wholly natural World Heritage Site to be designated in the United Kingdom. Its entire length can be walked on the South West Coast Path. The site was featured on the television programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the South West (of the UK), and in a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Jurassic Coast was named as the fifth-greatest natural wonder in Britain.

Geology

The Jurassic Coast consists of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous cliffs, spanning the Mesozoic Era, documenting 180 million years of geological history.

The site shows excellent examples of landforms, including the natural arch at Durdle Door, the cove and limestone folding at Lulworth Cove and an island, the Isle of Portland. Chesil Beach is a fine example of both a tombolo (a deposition landform in which an island is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar) and a storm beach (a beach affected by particularly fierce waves). The site has stretches of both concordant and discordant coastlines. Due to the quality of the varied geology, the site is the subject of international field studies. This area was home to Mary Anning, a palaeontologist who studied the fossils of the coastline around Lyme Regis and discovered the first complete Ichthyosaur fossil at the Spittles.