In the year 1600 Weston was a small village with a very small population, but it had its own manor, held then by William Arthur of Clapton. This manor passed, by marriage, to the Winter family who held it until 1696 when the estate was sold to John Pigott of Brockley. The Pigotts held the manor until the estate was sold off in 1914. The title ‘Lord of the Manor’ was sold in the 1970s and there is nothing left of the estate. The Pigotts built a summer holiday cottage in The Grove, now Grove Park, in the centre of Weston. The Reverend Leeves of Wrington built his own seaside cottage on the dunes, which were then a feature of the bay at Weston, a fragment of this cottage still survives as The Old Thatched Cottage Restaurant. This, together with Glebe House, once the rectory, are all that remain today of the 18th century village of Weston.

By the middle of the 18th century, doctors began to extol the virtues of drinking, and bathing in, sea-water. King George III tried it at Weymouth in 1789 and so set the fashion. At this time most people bathed naked and for this reason the sheltered and secluded cove at Anchor Head was chosen as Weston's first bathing place for ladies whilst gentlemen often just stripped on the sands and ran down to the water. As modesty prevailed the bathing machine was invented, which was a hut on wheels. The bather entered and, as the machine was drawn down to the sea by a horse, they changed into a bathing dress. They were then able to descend the steps directly into the water, unseen from the beach. Visitors to Weston rented rooms or a whole house, from local people and the first hotel, part or which remains as The Royal Hotel was opened in 1810.