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Weymouth in
Dorset
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The Sissibo River gives this exciting resort town its character. With numerous aquatic activities like canoeing, charter boating, fishing, scuba diving, to clam digging, beachcombing, and even rock climbing. Formerly a port city and bathing place of George III, the first monarch to follow that trend, the area has now expanded into the second best resort in England. Other things to do include everything from bicycling, bird watching, hiking, golfing, tennis, and camping are only a few. There is even whale watching off the cost of its shores.
Weymouth happens to be a combination of what was once two separate boroughs, Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. Due to fierce rivalry between the two, in 1571 Elizabeth I decided to combine them to form the village found there today. Yet, it took a long while before the feuding and piracy finally fizzled out. In 1593, when the first bridge that was constructed between them was finished, a cannonball struck a building wall from the former Weymouth into Parliamentarian Melcombe. The cannonball can still be seen there today.
There is a lot of history based in Weymouth. John Endicott sailed with five other people from there in 1628 to found Salem, Massachusetts. There is now a statue dedicated to his memory in the gardens opposite the Pier Pavilion to him. Weymouth was also the place from which the Black Plague of 1348-1350 landed resulting in the loss of about a third of the European population. The Tudor house and the ruins of Sandsfoot castle built by Henry VII are also located in Weymouth.
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