The timeline below shows events that have happened in the West Lulworth area or have impacted West Lulworth residents.
| Year | Month / Day | Event |
| 1697 | Dec 24 | The Dove, carrying a cargo of wine, was wrecked off Lulworth. |
| 1734 | Records mention ‘a small wrecke having been thrown upon’ a farm at West Lulworth. | |
| 1745 | Oct 23 | unidentified wreck at Hamburrow Farm, Lulworth. |
| 1789 | Aug 3 | The King and Queen of England, as part of the Royal tour, landed at Lulworth Cove and went from there to see East Lulworth Castle.1 |
| 1825 | Jan 29 | The hand of benevolence has been again extended towards the poor of West Lulworth: the Duke of Gloucester has given orders for blankets and other clothing to be distributed among the aged and infirm in that village.2 |
| 1825 | Dec 11 | A ship, [Vigilant], was wrecked a little to the West of Lulworth Cove, laden with barley for Africa (probably involved in the slave trade); 7 men and a boy on board – only one man saved – the rest drowned. The man saved was hauled up the cliff with a rope. ((Note extracted from the diaries of Henry Rolls)) |
| 1825 | A Silver Medal was awarded to Owen Lloyd, a coastguard, for rescuing the mate of the Vigilant wrecked at Lulworth Cove, Dorset on 14 December 1825. The Master, four men and two boys of the Vigilant drowned.3 | |
| 1828 | May 11 | Three dwellings and two barns were burned down at West Lulworth. One house was saved by using wet blankets.4 |
| 1831 | Reform Riots | |
| 1832 | Jul 4 | Thomas E. KNIGHT, Coast Guard at Lulworth was thrown over the cliff by smugglers and died the next day |
| 1833 | Mar 2 | The Abeona, from Milford, became a total wreck in Lulworth Cove; crew, cargo and materials saved. |
| 1841 | Jun 7 | Census |
| 1841 | Jan 28 | Five of West Lulworth’s fishermen were drowned when they were returning to West Lulworth from Weymouth.4 |
| 1841 | Jun 24 | The mill at West Lulworth was burned down.4 |
| 1842 | West Lulworth Church was made larger during the summer of 1842; while the work was being done, the West Lulworth congregation attended services at St. Andrew’s Church, East.Lulworth. | |
| 1851 | Mar 30 | Census |
| 1854 | The new road to West Lulworth was begun in October, 1854 up Burngate Lane. It began to be used in August, 1855 – first of all by the coal waggons who brought the coal, brought by ship to West Lulworth, to the Castle.4 | |
| 1860 | Aug 30 | Dorchester Rifle Corps came to the Castle and then went on to West Lulworth. |
| 1861 | Apr 7 | Census |
| 1862 | National School built | |
| 1865 | Jul | Henry Dorey died after falling in to a boiling vat of harvest beer he was brewing |
| 1870 | May 11 | Holy Trinity Church was built at West Lulworth and opened. |
| 1871 | Apr 2 | Census |
| 1876 | Jul 22 | Alfred Chalmers Fisher aged 22 of New College London drowned whilst bathing in Lulworth Cove |
| 1877 | Jul 31 | Edward George East, 1 year old son of a coastguard, died after pulling a pan of boiling water over himself5 |
| 1881 | Apr 3 | Census |
| 1888 | Sep 14 | Whatley Venn, aged 7, dies at Lulworth after falling off cliff near Arish Mell |
| 1891 | Apr 5 | Census |
| 1901 | Mar 31 | Census |
| 1902 | Apr 3 | King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited Lulworth Castle, after sailing into West Lulworth on his yacht. |
| 1906 | The Volunteers encamped at West Lulworth during August 1906; about 3,000 of them. | |
| 1906 | Aug 25 | Rosa Hilda Morris, aged 7, indecently assaulted on road leading to Hanbury Farm |
| 1909 | Parish Hall erected. It continued in use until 1997. | |
| 1911 | Apr 2 | Census |
| 1912 | Feb | British A3 submarine sank off Lulworth after being accidentally rammed while surfacing by the appropriately-named depot ship HMS Hazard off the Isle of Wight. The vessel was salvaged and subsequently sunk as a gunnery target, now lying east of Portland. |
| 1914-1918 | The Great War | |
| 1914 | Nov 26 | Petty Officer Stoker Frederick George Dorey, 152697, H.M.S. “Bulwark.”, Royal Navy died aged 44. Son of the late William and Teresa Dorey of West Lulworth, husband of Margaret Dorey, of 12, Derby St., Weymouth. |
| 1915 | Aug 21 | Lance Corporal Bertie Whittle and Private Ernest Budden, both born in West Lulworth, were both killed in action on the same day on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey |
| 1916 | May 20 | Private Thomas Hawkins 21440, 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers died aged 27. Son of the late Harry and Sarah Hawkins of West Lulworth. |
| 1916 | Jun 6 | Private Herbert Edward Diffey, 79392, 31st Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Alberta Regiment) died at Ypres aged 29. Son of James Bushrod Diffey and Emma Diffey of Newlands Cottages, West Lulworth |
| 1916 | Dec 21 | Gunner Henry Riggs, H.M.S. “Negro”, Royal Navy, died. |
| 1917 | Apr 2 | Private Frederick Charles Hyde, 26555, 6th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment who died aged 20. Son of Bernard and Jane Hyde of 11, West Lulworth. |
| 1918 | Oct 18 | Private Ernest William Cleall, 22106, 1st/6th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own) died aged 23. Only son of William James and Alice Cleall of 4 Sunnyside Terrace, West Lulworth. |
| 1919 | Eight houses at The Oval were built by German prisoners of war in 1919. | |
| 1928 | Apr 26 | King George V visited the Army Camp |
| 1932 | Sep 26 | Mrs. Lizzie Charles knocked down and killed |
| 1939-1945 | World War 2 | |
| 1940 | Aug 11 | Hurricane P3585 of 213 Squadron from RAF Exeter flown by Sergeant Snowden crash landed on to C Range at Lulworth Camp. The aircraft had been hit by return fire from a Messerschmitt Bf110 that he shot down. Sergeant Snowden crash landed another Hurricane N2646 from the same Squadron at Burton Bradstock exactly two weeks later and was again unhurt.6 |
| 1940 | Aug 23 | A lone German raider attacked Lulworth Camp a few minutes after the All Clear had sounded. Recruits had resumed their infantry training and were in the open as the aircraft approached. Sergeant J. Thompson shouted to them to get down and stay still. Eight bombs were dropped on the sports field, the ranges and at St. Andrew’s Farm which is inside the camp complex. Two men were killed and seven injured, the latter including Sergeant Thompson who received severe leg wounds. He had been in the stores when he heard the aircraft approaching and but for his instant and brave response, when he put himself into the line of fire to warn the men, there would have been a greater number of casualties.6 |
| 1940 | Sep 27 | Anti-aircraft gunners at Lulworth Camp jubilantly celebrated their first definite kill. The unlucky German aircraft was an Me110 which had come low over the huts. There had been an air raid warning and a red alert was in force. The stricken fighter crashed to ground about a thousand yards from the sea.6 |
| 1940 | Oct 7 | Bf.110 ZG26 shot down by 609Sq, crashed into sea 1 mile off Arish Mell Gap, Lulworth. At 15.45 hours a formation of German aircraft, estimated in excess of sixty, approached the coast at Lulworth. At 15.50 the attackers were engaged by the anti-aircraft gunners at Lulworth Camp and by Warmwell’s Spitfires which intercepted them as they crossed the Frome valley. At 15.55, after meeting heavy opposition, the German aircraft turned back towards the sea. At 16.37 the air raid sirens gave the All Clear at Lulworth where an Me110 was seen to fall into the sea about 2,000 yards off the Arish Mell Cap.6 |
| 1941 | May 22 | 3974/1G+ZM He-111H-8 4/KG27 hit hill near Lulworth, crashed at Chideock Farm, Chaldon Herring 2 killed ,3 survivors |
| 1941 | Sep 10 | R6639 Spitfire I 53OTU crashed at West Lulworth during forced landing |
| 1941 | Oct 21 | There was a huge explosion when a FW190 flew in low from the sea and crashed into the side of Bindon Hill. The pilot was killed instantly. He had apparently misjudged his position and course.6 |
| 1942 | Apr 6 | Prime Minister Winston Churchill had a full tour of the Gunnery Wing of the Armoured Fighting Vehicles School at Lulworth Camp. Ranks of Churchill tanks, the first to go into service, received his approval in the Arish Mell valley (Halcombe Vale).6 |
| 1942 | Oct 21 | 5331 FW190A-3 5/Jg2 shot down & crashed Bindon Hill Lulworth Cove at 2110hrs. Pilot Brychy killed |
| 1942 | Dec 14 | The Workshop of the Gunnery Wing of the Armoured Fighting Vehicles School at Lulworth Camp was devastated in a surprise attack by two German fighter-bombers. The first one passed over the camp without incident but the second dropped a 1,800kg high explosive bomb which landed at the road junction at the edge of the camp. It embedded itself in the concrete , leaving several feet of the casing and fins sticking up into the air, but did not explode. Then the second aircraft returned low across the camp and raked the Workshop with 20mm cannon fire. The welder, Sergeant Jack Stevens, was fatally wounded in the head, and three other soldiers were injured. The building was an utter shambles. The aircraft had come from the east, across the tank park, and then turned south-west, disappearing over Lulworth Cove and out to sea.6 |
| 1945 | Mar 29 | PR150 Spitfire 761 Squadron flew into high ground West Lulworth |
| 1952 | Apr 3 | A fire seriously damaged the Cove Restaurant |
| 1953 | Lychgate at Holy Trinity dedicated by the Bishop of Salisbury | |
| 1974 | Sep 4 | Yacht, Elver, wrecked in Lulworth Cove |
| 1977 | Coastguard Station succumbs to landslip and is demolished | |
| 1979 | The 36ft yacht Caroline of Leigh foundered three miles off Lulworth with the loss of four lives. | |
| 1984 | Coach House seriously damaged by fire | |
| 1998 | Lulworth Encyclopaedia by Rodney Legg published | |
| 2002 | The Book of Lulworth by Rodney Legg published | |
| 2002 | Aug 27 | A 14-year-old German girl was hit by rocks falling on her at Stair Hole. She was taken to the neurological unit at Southampton General Hospital where she was in a critical condition. |
| 2003 | The History & Mystery of Lulworth by Devina Symes & James Langan published | |
| 2003 | Aug 26 | A boy aged 8 on holiday with his family survives a 130 feet fall down a cliff face at Man-o-War Bay near Lulworth Cove. |
| 2004 | Memories of Old Lulworth by Wally Dorey published | |
| 2005 | Nov 3 | Mathew ‘Matt’ Myburgh aged 16 and Lucien Frisby ‘Charlie’ Morrell aged 15 were drowned after being swept off rocks into the sea off Lulworth Cove in a violent storm. Their bodies were washed ashore in the Cove six days later. Their friend Richard Lawrence aged 15 had been standing on a higher ledge jumped after them in a desperate attempt to rescue his friends but was thrown back by the waves. He raised the alarm at the Lulworth Beach Hotel. |
| 2006 | Apr | Lulworth First Responders formed. The group of volunteers, who live and work in Lulworth, provides 24-hour cover in early response first aid to potentially life-threatening illness or injury. |
| 2006 | Dec 16 | Rescue teams searching for two fisherman missing off the Dorset coast find the body of walker Benjamin Preston aged 25 on the beach at Bats Head. |
| 2007 | Sep 1 | West Lulworth Church of England First School & Winfrith Church of England First School officially merge. Reception and year one schoolchildren are educated at the Winfrith site, while years two, three and four are based in Lulworth. |
| 2009 | Sep 14 | Fire badly damaged an unoccupied cottage in West Street, West Lulworth. Three other homes, two with thatched roofs, were also damaged but nobody was injured in the fire. A total of 40 firefighters and 14 fire engines took up to six hours to extinguish the fire. |
| 2009 | Sep 20 | A boy aged 9 from Romsey was airlifted with suspected spinal and back injuries after being nearly covered by a rock fall and a younger girl was taken to hospital by ambulance after being hit by a rock and suffering lacerations. |
Page last updated: 12 September 2024
- Information extracted from Parish Registers [↩]
- Report appeared in Salisbury & Winchester Journal 31 Apr 1825 [↩]
- Source: RNLI [↩]
- Note extracted from the diaries of Henry Rolls [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩]
- Blandford and Wimborne Telegram, 10 August 1877 [↩]
- Source: Dorset at War: Diary of WW2 by Rodney Legg 1990 [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩]