Osmington Mills

Osmington Mills
Dorset
The Smugglers' Inn at Osmington Mills
Location
Grid reference:	SY734820
Location:	50°38’8"N, 2°22’31"W
Data
Post town:	Weymouth
Postcode:	DT3
Dialling code:	01305
Local Government
Parliamentary constituency:	South Dorset

Osmington Mills is a coastal hamlet in Dorset. It lies within the parish of Osmington, about five miles north-east of Weymouth.

Geology

The coastline around Osmington Mills is part of Dorset's Jurassic Coast, and fossils can be found in the cliffs. The rocks consist of Kimmeridge Clay and the Corallian group from the Oxfordian (Upper Jurassic) and have an interesting trace fossil assemblage. To the west are Black Head and beyond that Redcliff Point, with fossils in the Upper Oxford Clay.

Tourism

Osmington Mills is popular with tourists, providing facilities such as camping and caravan sites, a public house (of which the site has been traced back to the 13th century), and attractive coastal walks.

John Constable

The area around Osmington Mills and Osmington Bay was painted by the landscape artist John Constable in the early 19th century. He spent his honeymoon in the area in 1816. Paintings include:

• Osmington Bay
• A View of Osmington Bay
• Weymouth Bay from the Downs above Osmington Mills
• Weymouth Bay: Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill

Gallery

• 

  The rounded nodules on the beach to the east of Osmington Mills are of calcite-cemented sandstone and come from the Bencliff Grit Formation which is found at the base of the cliffs.

• 

  Poetry at the
  'Smugglers Inn' (Based on Rudyard Kipling's A Smuggler's Song)

Further reading

• Callaghan, Christopher. "The Palaeoichnology of the Oxfordian of Osmington Mills, Dorset". https://port.academia.edu/ChristopherCallaghan/Papers/602493/The_Palaeoichnology_of_the_Oxfordian_of_Osmington_Mills_Dorset. 

References

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Osmington Mills)

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