Radipole is a suburb of Weymouth in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, England.

History

In 1931 the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

had a population of 340. On 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Weymouth and

Chickerell Chickerell is a town and parish in Dorset, England. In the 2011 census the parish and the electoral ward had a population of 5,515. History Although Roman remains have been found, indicating that there has been settlement in the area for m ...

. It remains a separate ecclesiastical parish. Radipole stands at the head of, and is named after, the

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

, now an

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

nature reserve, into which the

River Wey The River Wey is a main tributary of the River Thames in south east England. Its two branches, one of which rises near Alton, Hampshire, Alton in Hampshire and the other in West Sussex to the south of Haslemere, join at Tilford in Surrey. Onc ...

flows, and which leads into Weymouth Harbour. Until 1984, it had Radipole Halt railway station on the

South West Main Line The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south wes ...

and

Heart of Wessex Line The Heart of Wessex Line, also known as the Bristol to Weymouth Line, is a railway line that runs from to and Weymouth in England. It shares the Wessex Main Line as far as Westbury and then follows the course of the Reading to Taunton Line ...

out of Weymouth. There is some evidence of prehistoric occupation, and it is believed that the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

s had a small port or landing stage at the head of the lake. A Romano-British burial site was found nearby when the upper playing field of Southill Primary School was constructed. A Roman road runs from Radipole to Dorchester (the former ''Durnovaria''), and indeed still forms by far the greater part of the line of the present road between Weymouth and Dorchester. The parish of Radipole predates by centuries the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

Melcombe Regis Melcombe Regis is an area of Weymouth in Dorset, England. Situated on the north shore of Weymouth Harbour and originally part of the waste of Radipole, it seems only to have developed as a significant settlement and seaport in the 13th cen ...

, which grew up on its wastes on an exposed spit of shingle by the sea in the 12th century. The church of St Ann was the mother church of Melcombe Regis until 1606. The church is distinguished for its triple bellcote, consisting of a single arch above double arches. A daughter church, St Aldhelm's, was built in 1939–41. In the last decades, Radipole has experienced suburbanisation and accompanying road-building, as nearby Weymouth has expanded northwards. However the centre of the old village still remains. The attractive architectural group formed by the church and the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

is well known locally. The field known as ''Humpty-Dumpty Field'' immediately to the south of the churchyard, on the slope leading down to the head of the lake, is supposed once to have covered the site of the lost mediaeval village, and possibly even

remains, but any such evidence was destroyed by the action of the then landowner. Radipole was a part of the district of

Weymouth and Portland Weymouth and Portland was a local government district with borough status in Dorset, England from 1974 to 2019. It consisted of the resort of Weymouth and the Isle of Portland, and includes the areas of Wyke Regis, Preston, Melcombe Regi ...

until the creation of the unitary Dorset Council in 2019. It makes up the Radipole ward which elects two councillors to the council.

References

External links

* ''Dorset'' (

The Buildings of England ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

), by John Newman and

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

. Page 355. Published by Penguin Books 1972. Reprint 1975.
Radipole & Southill Local Community & History
{{authority control Villages in Dorset Geography of Weymouth, Dorset Former civil parishes in Dorset