In this week’s collection of photographs from Charmouth, the pictures show the Heritage Centre on the beach in the early 1900s.

It was bought by local businessman George Frean in the mid-19th century and was originally built as a cement factory, using the limestone that was found on Charmouth beach to make the cement.

It was somewhat of a white elephant in the town due to its size, but soon came to be a pillar of the local community.

The Charmouth Scouts group used it as their base in the early 1900s and one of the pictures shows the scouts leaving their base for a swimming excursion.

It stayed as a cement works until 1938 when it was brought by Charmouth Parish Council, who turned it into the Heritage Centre, and it has been key to promoting the town to tourists ever since.

Our thanks again go to Neil Mattingly, who collects photos taken during this era, especially those from West Bay- based photographer Claude Hider.

To see more of his photos, or for a detailed history on the Charmouth Heritage Centre, visit freshford.com where he has collated the majority of his images and also included documents from the time, ranging from maps to tax documents.