In 1649 the inhabitants petitioned Parliament for a grant of £3,000, to enable them to enlarge Melcombe Church, build a new bridge, and free the harbour from rubbish.
Doorway Sandsfoot Castle
The “Old Castle,” otherwise Sandsfoot Castle, situated about half a mile from Weymouth proper, is to-day nothing but a mere shell of the former stronghold. It was built by Henry VIII., about 1539, and was part of his scheme for the fortification of various parts of the coast, particularly Portsmouth, Portland, and Weymouth, against a possible invasion on the part of Papal Europe on his throwing off the Roman yoke in 1540. Leland calls it “a right goodlie and warlyke castel, havyng one open barbicane.” The existing masonry shows its form to have been a parallelogram, and from its commanding position it, no doubt, was a fortress of considerable strength. It is difficult to identify, from its crumbling remains, the various portions of the castle, but that portion to the north, from its vaulted character, appears to have been the Governor’s apartment; while fronting south was the gun platform, as the embrasure shows. This platform would also flank its east and west sides, which were also pierced for big guns, while almost level with the ground was the barbican, with two tiers of loop-holes for small arms.
On a tombstone at Whitchurch Canonicorum is the following inscription:—
Here lyeth Iohn Wadham of Catherstone, Esquyer, who deceased A.D. 1584, who was dewring his life time Captayne of the Queene’s Maties castell called Sandesfote, besides Waymouth in the countye of Dorset.
Among its other Governors were George Bamfield, 1631; Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1643; Colonel Ashburnham and Colonel William Sydenham, 1644; and Humphrey Weld, of Lulworth, 1685. It is a matter for regret that this old building should have been so neglected, as each year sees large masses of its masonry falling over the cliff. As a writer as long ago as 1829 said:
Its remains even now attract many an inquisitive enquiry as to why it has been so neglected, as where the neighing of hostile steeds, and the busy clang of arms once sounded to the battle’s din, the humble grass now grows, its walls are the dormitories of the birds of the air, and its rooms afford pasturage to the cattle; a change certainly more gratifying to us as a nation; but still its bold towering appearance, as seen ascending the hill, or viewing it from the hill, reminds us of some bygone tale.
In addition to the castle, the town was further protected by several forts. Probably none of these were in the nature of permanent fortifications, except the Blockhouse, which stood near the east end of Blockhouse Lane. The New Fort, or Jetty Fort, was erected at the entrance of the harbour, at the end of the old pier, and was dismantled in 1661, although in Hutchins’ time three guns were placed in position on the same site. Then there was Dock Fort, under the hill, west of the Jetty Pier, St. Nicholas’ Chapel converted into a fort by the Parliamentary troops, and a small fort called the Nothe Fort.
