THE recent article about Weymouth’s history being in the top four per cent of the UK’s Heritage Index and being an untapped source of valuable, all-year round tourism income, is confirmation of what some of us have been saying for many years, but all, sadly, falling on very deaf ears.

Yes indeed, Weymouth has every bit as much going for it as any town and more than most, as far as its history goes, but, the ‘bucket and spade brigade’ have held sway here for so long now, that I doubt they’d even know where to begin in attracting a more cerebral type of well-heeled tourist to the town who would still come here, even when the weather chases away the other, more fickle kind of holidaymaker.

Luckily for the council though, there are a few good local historians who would be only too pleased to point them in the right direction if only they were asked.

The town’s Medieval history is the stuff of legend, Melcombe being the entry port for the Black Death.

The Spanish Armada was fought in part in our waters. And the town’s own glorious and incredible English Civil War story, the Crabchurch Conspiracy, reads more like a script from a Hollywood blockbuster and could so easily be put to good use on the Heritage Tourism front, with its glittering cast of interesting and famous, local and national characters who fought and died here in an episode which could well have changed the course of English history. And that’s before we even touch upon the well-documented Georgian period with its Royal connections.

However, the irony of the article, is almost unbearable of course, given an story which is currently in the news, that of the ‘battle’ over what is to become of the old WPBC offices site, the troubled spawning of which, spelt the sad end for this towns greatest historical prize of all, the old Weymouth High Street, with its rich mix of priceless Medieval, Tudor, Stuart and Georgian architecture, all wantonly destroyed by a totally Philistine and uneducated council of the past.

Will the present council now repeat the hideous mistakes of its predecessors?

Only time will tell.

One thing is certain though, many thousands of pairs of eyes are watching what will happen there and the present council’s decision will be scrutinised and acted upon if they choose the wrong option and deny the townsfolk their will.

MARK VINE

Walpole Street Weymouth

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