Prior to 1884, the West Bay Hotel was formerly known as The Neptune Inn and would have played host to the many fishermen, and no doubt, smugglers that lived and worked in the area. The property was built in 1739 and it was only when ‘the railway came’ that the name was changed as tourism was being encouraged in the area. 

In 1857 The Bridport Railway Company opened it’s branch line from Maiden Newton to Bridport.  An operating licence for the line was awarded to The Great Western Railway who were later to take overall control of the line and extend it to Bridport Harbour.  The chosen name for the Station was 'West Bay'.  Sadly, on 5th May 1975 the line was to close after having become Dorset’s last branch railway.

Records of Bridport Harbour (West Bay) history can be traced back to the 13th Century when sluices were constructed across the River Brit to form a navigable entrance.  In the 1800’s local businessmen including the archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers and The Earl of Ilchester established The West Bay Building Company to build Villas and lodging houses for visitors.  Only a terrace of ten lodging houses was completed – designed by Arts & Crafts Movement Architect Edward Schroeder Prior in 1885.  The terrace remains a prominent feature of the harbourside to this day. 

Bridport Harbour was also important during the 19th Century for shipbuilding and for exporting rope and nets.   Thomas Hardy, the Dorset renowned Novelist and Poet, made reference to West Bay in his books under the disguise of 'Port Bredy’