St. George's in the South-West

This amazing church would seem more in place in a big city, as in St. George's in the East, London---with which it is roughly contemporary. Or even Italy, looking at the baroque spire. But here it is on the almost-an-Isle of Portland, connected to Dorset's mainland by the Chesil Beach. And what a contrast to my last visit in the greyness December 2020, when the country had emerged from a "lockdown-lite" only to descend into a deeper lockdown until the spring of 2021. A walk from the nearby village of Southwell takes me to Portland Bill, with onlookers viewing the lighthouse (or their phones). The Chesil Beach is a famous example of the stones being graded so that those on the southern end are larger than the ones up towards Lyme Regis. It's said that smugglers could tell where they had landed from the size of the pebbles.

Lyme Regis itself, an unhurried 2-hour bus ride from Weymouth, is a resort popularised by the novel and then the film, "The French Lieutenant's Woman". The final two images show the village of Abbotsbury, known for its swan reserve but also the warm brownish limestone of its historic buildings. Much less troubled by crowds one might find in the Cotswold villages.Read more