Fleet, Dorset

Fleet is a small, scattered village and civil parish in south Dorset, England, situated approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of Weymouth. It consists of the small settlements of East Fleet, West Fleet, Fleet House, and Fleet Common, all of which are close to the shore of The Fleet, a brackish lagoon behind Chesil Beach. The name "Fleet" is derived from fleot, Old English for an inlet or estuary.[2] Dorset County Council estimated that the population of the civil parish was 60 in 2013.[1]

Fleet
Moonfleet Manor Hotel
Fleet Location within Dorset
Population	60 [1]
OS grid reference	SY634805
Unitary authority	Dorset
Shire county	Dorset
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Weymouth
Postcode district	DT3
Police	Dorset
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	West Dorset

The Great Storm of 1824 caused waves to breach Chesil Beach, and many of the buildings in the village were destroyed, including the nave of the original parish church.[3] An eye-witness described the event:

At six o'-clock on the morning of the 23rd I was standing with other boys by the gate near the cattle pound when I saw, rushing up the valley, the tidal wave, driven by a hurricane and bearing upon its crest a whole haystack and other debris from the fields below. We ran for our lives to Chickerell, and when we returned found that five houses had been swept away and the church was in ruins.[2]

A new church, Holy Trinity, was built a short distance inland and only the chancel of the old one stands today.[2]

J. Meade Falkner's smuggling novel Moonfleet is set in the village. There is a brass memorial to Falkner in the old church, together with brass plate memorials to members of the Mohun family whose name was used in the novel.[2] Moonfleet Manor Hotel is a Georgian building[2] in the west of the parish on the shore of The Fleet, previously called Fleet House.