The Book of BRIDPORT
	Town, Harboour & West Bay
	by Rodney Legg

The name Bridport used to bring a shudder to the spine in the days when to be 'stabbed by a Bridport dagger' was to be hanged. As well as producing the hangman's rope, this historic and picturesque town served as the cordage centre for the Royal Navy.

Celebrities through the ages have coloured the story of the town, including the runaway King Charles II, medicine-maker Giles Roberts, highwayman Thomas Boulter, and crime reporter Percy Hoskins.

The sea flows in and out of Bridport's history, from the earliest attempts at making an anchorage to J.M.W. Turner's painting of one of its shipwrecks, and the hurricanes of recent memory. The setting is also enhanced by its air of antiquity and beautiful scenery and developments have been held in check by a growing portfolio of National Trust and Woodland Trust properties, which have preserved key parts of the nearby cliffs and countryside. Bridport remains as England in microcosm.

Members of the Legg family abound around Bridport, their native home. Having walked every path in the county, Rodney Legg founded Dorset County Magazine in 1968, and has been writing books about the region for the past three decades. He returns to Bridport in characteristic style to produce the liveliest of looks at the town, harbour and adjoining villages, past and present.

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Rodney Legg visited The Book Shop in November 2003 to sign copies of his book.

THE BOOK SHOP

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