Wyke Regis is a village in south

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The village is part of the south western

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separ ...

s of Weymouth, on the northern shore of

Portland Harbour Portland Harbour is located beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Construction of the harbour began in 1849; when completed in 1872, its surface area made it the largest man-made harbour in the world, and remai ...

and the south-eastern end of

Chesil Beach Chesil Beach (also known as Chesil Bank) in Dorset, England is one of three major shingle beach structures in Britain.A. P. Carr and M. W. L. Blackley, "Investigations Bearing on the Age and Development of Chesil Beach, Dorset, and the Associat ...

. Wyke is south of the county town, Dorchester. The village has a population of around 5,500.

History

All Saints' Church in the village is known to have been frequented by

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

during his summer visits to Weymouth between 1790 and 1805. The church was the main place of worship for Weymouth citizens until the first sizeable church was built in the main part of the town in the 19th century. The victims of the wrecks of the

East Indiamen East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

ship ''Earl of Abergavenny'', including its captain John Wordsworth, brother of poet

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

, are buried in the churchyard, as are bodies recovered from ''Alexander''. Construction of the church started around 1451; it took four years to build and was dedicated on 19 October 1455. The church is constructed of local stone brought from quarries on Portland and at Upwey. Thanks to treacherous local currents and the long sweep of

on which many ships ran aground, the village, as well as the neighbouring

Isle of Portland An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English. However, there is no clear agreement on what makes an island an isle or its difference, so they are considered synonyms. Isle may refer to: Geography * Is ...

gained a reputation for both smuggling and the looting of wrecks. This reputation is reflected today in the name of a local public house, the Wyke Smugglers previously known as the Wyke Hotel. Located close to the Fleet Lagoon of Chesil Beach is the Wyke Regis Training Area.

Industry

The major industry in the area was Whitehead Torpedo Works, which has now closed. As the major employer in the village, Whitehead's funded the building of two schools, which opened in 1897. Whitehead's expertise also led to the Royal Naval establishment at Portland becoming a major anti-submarine and torpedo warfare centre in both the First and Second World Wars. The Whitehead site is now a housing estate. It later became Vickers Armstrong, Wellworthys and finally AE Piston Products. In 2018 London based theatre company The Pensive Federation, inspired by artistic director Neil J. Byden's family and upbringing in Wyke and his parents connections to the factory, set their annual new writing festival in the fictional factory of Reseal9. Significant Other Inc. was performed at The Vault Theatre in Waterloo.

Schools

Wyke Regis Infant school is situated along Portland Road, while Wyke Regis Junior school is on the High Street. There is a Nursery school within the grounds of the Infant school. All Saints Church of England Academy is a secondary school situated on the Portland Road. The school is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

school.

Climate

Location

Wyke Regis looks over

and the Fleet lagoon to the west, the

to the south and

to the south and east. The

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises ...

passes around the coast of the village, which is also around halfway along the

Jurassic Coast The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about , and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-Decembe ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

Landmarks

*On Westhill Road is a folly known as Wyke Castle, dating from the nineteenth century and now divided into three dwellings. * Wyke Regis Methodist Church was built in 1903 and forms part of the Dorset South & West Methodist Circuit. * Wyke Regis War Memorial, erected in 1919 in remembrance of local men who lost their lives in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. * In January 2019, a concrete BMX and Skate pump track was built on the Wyke Regis Playing Fields, said to be the first of its kind in the UK.

References

External links

Wyke Regis Online - The new Wyke website with latest news and features

Wyke Register: Current news and events, plus local history

Church of England Parish of Wyke Regis & All Saints Church, Wyke Regis

{{authority control Villages in Dorset Geography of Weymouth, Dorset