My parents live in Bridport, Dorset, and whilst I’ve seen them fairly regularly in London over the past year, it’s been too long since I’ve been to stay.
I remedied this last weekend when I was in Bridport for the Hat Festival. For those of you that don’t know, Bridport is a market town on the South Coast in Dorset, about half way between Bournemouth and Exeter. It’s at the west end of Chesil Beach. Bridport is part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site and where Paeleontology was invented!
The town really has a personality all its own. You won’t find many chains there – there’s a Costa, but no McDonalds and there is a market that seems to be on every time I go there. The market itself is huge for the size of the town and takes over the entire town centre. In the Summer, it can compete with Borough in terms of crowd density!
The Market is really eclectic, with bric a brac, crafts, artisan food available. Fishing supplies and socks also seem to feature quite prominently. Not spending a lot of money here is always a struggle. I didn’t manage to get a picture, but there was a stall selling handmade wooden bowls that were just beautiful.
So, hats on heads, we ventured into town to see what we could see. I wore my Explorer’s hat (as you can see below), and thought I’d be quite cock of the walk.
It turns out I wasn’t even playing the same game! I managed to get some pictures of the hats, but there were some beautiful examples that took serious creative effort.
After walking past a little stage set up for some live music (I have no idea who was signing at about 10:30, but she had a beautiful voice) We stopped off for a coffee in the George which has been turned from a dark, old fashioned boozer to a bright & airy pub that has managed to retain almost all of the original charm and also serves great food. I understand that there were some concerns when the new tenants started renovations, but they’ve done a fantastic job and it’s a lovely place to stop and grab a drink. Inside, I had to stop this lady who had a magnificent cider themed hat. (please excuse the quality, I’ll work on my photography skills!)
In Waitrose, there was this wonderful knitting themed hat. I saw it and had to chase down the lady concerned!
Out the front of the store were these ladies – the hat on the left wobbled worryingly, but never seemed to fall! The fishing theme was very appropriate for the location. I had to queue to get their photo – I don’t imagine they got much shopping done that day…
The hats weren’t just reserved for the women, I saw this gentleman on several occasions and finally managed to flag him down for a picture.
Also this Mexican chap. You can’t see it but the hat had a ribbetting frog on it!
I loved this meta-hat.
We saw all these on the walk up to Rawles Butchers up on East Street. This is one of three quality butchers in the centre of town, along with Framptons and RJ Balson & Son. For those of you who are bacon fans, Rawles is a must visit. My favourite bacon is Denhay, which I usually get on my online shop. It’s not cheap, but worth it for the taste and the animal welfare. On chatting to my parents, it turns out that Rawles, who raise their own pigs, supply meat to Denhay for bacon. In return, they sell the Denhay offcuts.
Denhay bacon is £3.15 for 200g or about 8 rashers, in the shops. Worth the money, undoubtedly, but you can buy the offcuts for just £5 for a kilo! Now offcuts you say, aren’t they just the scratty bits at the end? Not at all – if anything they’re the bits from the other end that are too large to go into the packs! I eat bacon and eggs for breakfast every morning, and I usually get at least 28 rashers from each kilo pack. 3 Packs of bacon later (2 smoked and 1 unsmoked, just to compare you understand) and I was on the way home.
Bridport is a lovely place to live and a great place to visit. I will post more on my adventures in Bridport when I get the chance, but if you’re a foodie, or appreciate a slightly alternative view on life, it’s well worth the time visiting. It doesn’t have a railway station, but it’s not far from Dorchester which has a half hourly train service from Waterloo, and the X31 runs from Dorchester to Bridport and beyond. You probably need a car for more than a weekend. The seaside is a 20 minute walk away down to West Bay, though the beach is pebbly. Lyme Regis is a bus ride away, which has a sandy beach.
Note: The Bridport Hat Festival happens on the first weekend in September. Their website is here: http://www.bridporthatfest.org/