Bridport

Rope-making shaped Bridport for centuries, and this compact Dorset market town retains a dense concentration of listed historic buildings alongside a café and arts scene — including a theatre, cinema, and museum — that punches above its size. Saxon in origin, it sits near the confluence of the River Brit and the Asker, with the fishing harbour of West Bay within its boundary. Thomas Hardy used it as the model for Port Bredy in his Wessex novels.

• Population12,295
• Nearest water from center0.3 km
• Nearest mountain from center0.5 km
• UNESCO within 50 km7