Stories beginning to come in following public launch at The Spa

1. 'My Grandad used to get the bus into Weymouth from here and said that he took his dog Shoka onto the bus with him one day. The driver asked if Shoka was his dog and when Grandad said yes, he said, 'That dog's been getting on my bus every day alone, to go down to the beach!'.'

 

2. 'As Weymouth has always been a busy port, what about treating it as a 'nautical' gateway with a two-way directional element to the sculpture to mark the comings and goings? After all, the ferries have always meant you would come to Weymouth to go to France and the Channel Islands. A number of the Pilgrim Fathers' ships left from Weymouth in the carrying Dorchester families and it was through Weymouth that the plague (or 'black death') was introduced. Something nautical and relating to the Olympics sailing events of last summer. The black death coming into Weymouth! Maritime theme: Ferries, Pilgrim fathers, Spanish Armada, wreckers, plague, smuggling, fishing

 

3. 'I remember the farm that was on the site when I was a boy. It had a big white, five-bar gate into the farm with a sign on the gate and on the sign was written one word; 'Eureka' which translates as 'I've found it!'. It was a lovely place. Rocky Knapp – opposite the turn off to Morrisons, was where the cows were milked and I can remember the farmer stopping the traffic on Dorchester Road, when he drove his cows across from the fields.

 

4. 'We used to play in 'Two Mile Coppice' – it was like a playground for children and the bird life was wonderful!' 2 Mile Coppice is an ancient woodland.

 

5. Something around fashion and New Look's operations in the area. Something about the story of New Look from market stall to multinational company.

 

6. Wildlife: Deer, Lizards, slow worms, newts and birds on posts, casting a shadow in Sainsbury's roundabout. Bird Life! Large black mats – used to capture slow worms and wild-life to release in nature reserve. Black cage? Used to catch wild life? Wildlife: Bats (rare breeds), newts, lizards, deer, birds. We have three Nature Reserves: Lorton Meadows, Radipole Lake and Preston (Lodmoor). Also well known for 'reed beds'.

 

7. Boot – with wild life under it. “Grand Old Duke of York” nursery rhyme about marching troops up Bincombe Bumps then wildlife under that has reduced in numbers.

 

8. Viking burials – beheaded corpses found

 

9. Something evoking the memory of the Roman Dorchester Road – now partially replace by the new relief road.

 

10. The intersection of the transport links (roads, railway lines, cycle paths and footpaths) at the site

 

11. Fossils and the Jurassic Coast