The village and castle stand over a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage.

The village lies in the gap below the castle, and is some eight kilometres ( five miles ) south-east of Wareham, and the same distance west of Swanage.

The main route through the village is East Street which forms part of the A351 main road taking traffic to Wareham in the north and Swanage in the south.

Originally the only intermediate station on the London and South Western Railway's branch line from Wareham to Swanage, the station is now a stop on the Swanage Railway, a steam locomotive operated heritage railway.

It is situated just over half a mile ( 1 km ) inland on the Isle of Purbeck on the English Channel coast, south of Wareham and about west of Swanage.

There is a mainline rail service by South West Trains to Wareham, and during the summer the Swanage Railway steam rail service operates from Wareham to Swanage via Corfe Castle.

The nearest mainline railway station to Swanage is Wareham, where connections can be made for South West Trains services westward to Dorchester South and Weymouth.

Swanage & Wareham Rugby Club, who play in the South West 1 East League are based in neighbouring Wareham.

With the coming of the railway from Wareham to Swanage, most ball clay was dispatched by rail, often to the Potteries district of Staffordshire.

At one time it was linked by a branch railway line from Wareham ; this was closed in 1972, but has now reopened as the Swanage Railway, a heritage railway.

Born in Wareham, Dorset, Mellor was educated at Swanage Grammar School, and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association and a contestant on University Challenge.

The steam railway has ambitions to extend its service, currently from Swanage to Norden, near Corfe Castle back to Worgret Junction ( where the mainline and branch divided ) and into Wareham again.

* Wareham Road Methodist Church ( part of the Poole and Swanage Circuit )

On 23 May 2009, the locomotive hauled a railtour from Norwich to Poole in Dorset, and then travelled to the Swanage Railway under its own power, via Wareham and the re-instated link between the main-line and the Swanage Railway at Motala.

Church Knowle is situated about one mile west of Corfe Castle, four miles south of Wareham and about six miles west of Swanage.

The link between the Swanage Railway and the main line at Wareham has been used for materials deliveries, special excursions, locomotive and stock movements only — work is continuing to provide the infrastructure necessary to enable regular services via Wareham to be implemented.

In May ( 4 months later of the same year ), the Swanage Railway Society was formed with the objective of restoring an all-the-year-round community railway service linking to the main line at Wareham which would be ' subsidised ' by the operation of steam-hauled heritage trains during the holidays.

Swanage is represented in a number of sports including Football, Rugby, Cricket, Hockey, Sailing and Rowing.

In part through the process of quarrying, fossils from the dinosaur age have been discovered in the local rock, and the coastline up to and including Swanage Bay has been included in the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

Recent developments on the railway have seen the physical connection between the Swanage Railway and the mainline restored.

None are currently certified for use on the main line-although the Swanage Railway's set was hauled from the railway to Eastleigh and back, for overhaul-and is believed to be the first class 108 to have been seen on main lines for a very long time.

Improvements by Swanage Railway to the track between Norden and Wareham have continued, and together with the permanent ground frame arrangements at Motala have allowed the planning and operation of special railtour services for the first time since 1972.

Here, both the population and range have changed little in recent decades ; it is locally abundant, with the majority of colonies found on the coast between Weymouth and Swanage and on the Purbeck Ridge, a line of inland chalk hills.

Swanage Cricket Club has teams in both the Dorset Saturday and Sunday leagues each in Division 1.

The footbridge has been re-erected at Corfe Castle station on the Swanage Railway ( although some evidence suggests that this was a similar footbridge removed from the site of Merton Park Railway Station.

* May 5 – Construction of the Swanage Railway begins.

* May 20 – The first public train departs Swanage station on the newly built Swanage Railway in England.

* A flotilla of 120 Danish ships is lost in a storm off Swanage.

He worked as an Accommodation Officer for Portsmouth Polytechnic before retiring to live by the sea near Swanage.

Both the current main A351 road Lytchett Minster to Swanage and the Swanage Railway thread their way through the gap and the village.

The railway links the tourist centres of Corfe Castle and Swanage with each other, and with a Park and Ride site at Norden station just to the north of Corfe Castle.

On a family holiday in Swanage, when he was young, Delderfield caught scarlet fever and had to spend three months in an isolation hospital.

The Blues Band was credited with kicking off a second blues boom in Britain, which by the 90s led to festivals all around the country, including The Swanage Blues Festival, The Burnley National Blues Festival, The Gloucester Blues and Heritage Festival and The Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival at Colne.

Her involvement in railways extended beyond parliamentary responsibilities, and in December 2007 she presented the coveted National Railway Heritage Award plaque to a Swanage Railway team of volunteers for the installation of a historic footbridge at Corfe Castle railway station.

Littlehampton was the backdrop for Swanage for the first episode of series 2 of the comedy drama series, The Inbetweeners, with filming taking place on the promenade and River Arun.

In attempting to keep their creditors at bay, the family moved around the country, going to Herne Bay in Kent, then to Swanage in Dorset, and on to Bournemouth ( which was then in Hampshire ), where Archibald ’ s brother, Richard Francis Pechey ( 1872 – 1963 ), had become the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church in 1912.

This chalk outcrop runs through the centre of the Island from Culver Cliff in the east to the Needles in the west, and then continues under the sea to the Isle of Purbeck, forming Ballard Cliff ( near Swanage ), Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door.

It is also believed that The Needles were once connected to Old Harry Rocks ( east of Studland and north of Swanage ) where these strata lines moving from horizontal to near vertical can be seen from the sea.

Further Danish forces had settled on the land before Guthrum attacked Wessex: in East Anglia, and in Mercia between the treaty at Exeter and the attack on Chippenham ; many others were lost in a storm off Swanage in 876-7, with 120 ships wrecked Internal disunity was threatening to tear the Danes apart, and they needed time to reorganize.

In May, 1940, the organization moved to Worth Matravers, near Swanage in Dorset, on the south coast of England.

The site stretches from Orcombe Point near Exmouth in East Devon to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage in East Dorset, a distance of.

Between St Alban's Head and the resort of Swanage is Durlston Country Park nature reserve.