Wyke Regis is a village in 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 ...

of Weymouth, in south

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. The village is part of the south western

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

s of Weymouth, on the northern shore of

Portland Harbour Portland Harbour is 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 human-made harbour in the world, and it remains ...

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 Associ ...

. 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 King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

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 Indiaman East Indiamen were merchant ships that operated under charter or licence for European trading companies which traded with the East Indies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The term was commonly used to refer to vessels belonging to the Bri ...

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 poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...

, 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 The Isle of Portland is a tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. The southern tip, Portland Bill, lies south of the resort of Weymouth, Dorset, Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A barrier ...

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. In 1931 the civil parish had a population of 4378. On 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Weymouth and Chickerell.

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 State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

school.

Politics

Wyke Regis is part of South Dorset constituency for elections to the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

. Wyke Regis is part of the Rodwell and Wyke ward for elections to Dorset Council.

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 footpaths in the UK, long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harb ...

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

Jurassic Coast The Jurassic Coast, also known as the Dorset and East Devon 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 ins ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Landmarks

*On Westhill Road is a folly known as

Wyke Castle Wyke Castle is a residence at the top of Pirates Lane, in Wyke Regis, near Weymouth, Dorset, England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain ...

, 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. * In January 2019, a concrete BMX and Skate

pump track A pump track is a purpose-built Track cycling, track for cycling. It has a circuit of rollers, banked turns and features designed to be ridden completely by riders "pumping"—generating momentum by up and down body movements, instead of pedaling ...

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 Former civil parishes in Dorset Geography of Weymouth, Dorset