Moonfleet

A Memory of Weymouth.

I have great memories of Weymouth, we used to stay just outside Weymouth at Moonfleet Manor. My parents first stayed there just after the 2nd world war, it was a complimentary holiday after a double booking at blackpool. The owners had just purchased Moonfleet and turned it into a hotel as it was used as a hospital for the troops in the war. We went every year after I was born until my dad died in 1970. I had great friends there as we all seemed to go the same weeks. The hardys from Birmingham, Lyn and her brother I think was named Christopher. Lesley came with her parents from Nottingham. We would all go exploring around the countryside, Donkey Island just up the fleet was full of adders so we had to be careful. The hotel had a boathouse and it was great to row across to Chesil beach with a picnic from the kitchens. I've been back with my husband and son in the late eighties but the new owners have ruined it with a ridiculous zig zag corridor to get from the car park to the back of the hotel! And a pool house where the tenis court was, totally out of keeping with such a beautiful old house. We would all set off for Weymouth; dad used to park by the harbour, and there was an old man in a rowing boat who taxied people to the othe side. Then we would go on the beach, you seemed to walk out to sea for miles and the water still only reached your knees. Punch and Judy, the boat swings the carousel and donkey rides it was a childs paradise. Dad would get bored and head off to the Black Dog for a drink. We also had days at Portland; going up the lighthouse, having lunch in the Lobster Pot cafe, or we would go to the Pensylvania Castle hotel and eat there. We would then go to the end of the gardens and down the cliff to the pirates graveyard which was half way down and then on to the cove at the bottom, people had brightly painted huts down there. Then one night on each holiday dad would take me into Weymouth to the fair, I think I loved it more than dad did though! I don't think there is a fair there anymore. Does anyone else have memories of these places?