Chardsmead Baptist Church

The red brick chapel on the outskirts of Bridport is one of those places you'll walk past a dozen times before actually stopping. Chardsmead Baptist Church sits quiet and unassuming, built in the 19th century when Bridport's rope-making industry was booming and nonconformist congregations were spreading across Dorset like wildfire. Inside, you get that particular calm that older chapels have - simple wooden pews, high ceilings, nothing fancy. It's the sort of building that tells you far more about everyday Victorian life than any museum ever could.

This is really for architecture enthusiasts and local history types rather than casual tourists. If you're the sort who likes tracing how ordinary communities worshipped, or you're keen on red brick Victorian dissenting chapels, you'll find it genuinely interesting. Everyone else will probably spend ten minutes inside and move on.

The church sits well within a Bridport-based holiday park break. Highlands End Holiday Park is barely a mile and a half away, and Parkdean Resorts West Bay Holiday Park not much further, so you could easily tack this onto a morning's exploring before heading to West Bay's cliffs or the beaches around Freshwater. It works as a quiet interlude between the busier attractions rather than a day-long draw. Bridport itself has decent high street shops and a proper farmers' market on Saturdays worth timing a visit around. Worth a look if you're in the area, but don't go out of your way.