History Tour

Portland history tour

The Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, centre for the sailing events of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Osprey Quay which was previously a Royal Navy base for 150 years. Next door to Portland Castle which was built by Henry VIII and designed to work as a pair with Sandersfoot Castle on the other side of Portland Harbour to protect the Portland Roads anchorage.

Beyond that in Castletown is the old Naval mess buildings which have now been converted in to Ocean View Apartments, situated either side of the Merchant Railway. This runs directly up from the port side to the top of the Island, it was openned in 1926 and was used to lower trucks laden with stone connected to a steel rope down the incline to Castletown for transportation by ship. The weight of the loaded trucks would be used to pull the empty trucks back up to the top. This replaced the cruel practice of using horses to hold back the heavy loads.

At the top of the Island is Verne Common Road which is accessed via a pedestrian tunnel at the end of the Merchants railway. Before going through the tunnel there is a spectacular view behind you over Portland Harbour, Weymouth Beach, Chesil Beach, the 18 mile long pebble beach and Lyme Bay.

Further south there’s the rear entrance to the famous Verne Prison, in 1847 a start was made on temporary prison buildings know as the Verne Citadel for prisoners building the Prison Breakwater. The first of 64 prisoners were landed on 24th November 1848 at Castletown from HM Steamer Driver.

The Verne Citadel was designed by Captain w. Crossman of the Royal Engineers and enclosed an area of 56 acres. A full workforce of 180 prisoners laid three million convict-made bricks in two years!

Further South East is the Young Offenders Institute (YOI) which was known as Portland Prison and openned in 1848 originally holding adult convicts. It was from here in 1855 that 80 convicts were transported on the ship William Hammond to Western Australia. The prison also held a number of high profile Irish Republican prisoners. In 1921 Portland Prison was converted into a borstal and in 1988 Portland became aYoung Offenders Institution for men aged 18 to 21. Recently the BBC has made a documentary called Football Behind Bars here.

On the Eastern side of the Island there is an old dismantled railway line, although work started here in 1888, the Eastern Branch of the Portland Railway only openned in 1902 after many difficulties were encountered on the unstable route. Although picturesque it was costly to maintain and after WWII it was little used by passengers. The Portland Railway finally closed to passenger traffic on March 1st 1952.

Towards the southern point of the island is Rufus Castle, Portland with it’s anchorage, fertile soil and detachment yet closeness to the mainland has been invaded by Celts, Romans, Saxons, The French, pirates and many others. Rufus Castle was built on earlier fortifications by Richard de Clare 1259 following the Norman Conquest to defend the beach at Church Ope, one of the few landing places on the south side of the Island.

On the road to Southwell from Church Ope can be seen in the distance Avalanche Memorial Church which was built by public subscription to commemorate the collision in 1877 between the Iron Clipper Avalanche taking 63 passengers to New Zealand, and the heavy built wooden ship Forest, in ballast on it’s way to America. Whole families died in the tragedy but the people of Portland acted with great heroism and rowed their lerrets into the storm in attempts to rescue them. The church is aligned in the direction of the collision rather than the normal east/west and has an interesting stained glass window with reflective lenses inset, on for each of the victims. In all 106 passengers and crew died from both ships.

Cheyne House was built by the Admiralty for the attendant of the adjacent pumping station and featured chimneys made out of a single piece of Portland Stone, some of which have been cracked by lightening. Beyond the house is the pumping station which contained the machinery to pump water up from near sea level.

At the southern tip is the Famous Portland Bill Lighthouse. The walk to the Bill from the East is above the Limestone cliffs whcih drop directly into the sea. The caves are both natural and as a result of mining the stone which has been going on since Roman times. Cranes were used to lower the stone to waiting barges for transfer to larger ships. The small strip terraced fields beyond the coast are of medieval origin and are of the few remaining that have not succumbed to quarrying. The present lighthouse at Portland Bill, the third, was built by Trinity House in 1906 and became fully automated in 1996. It can be seen 18 miles away on a clear night.

Heading back north up the western side from Portland Bill there is the Coastwatch Station and Higher Lighthouse. The Coastwatch Station is part of a voluntary organisation set up in 1994 to restore a visual watch along UK shores after many small Coastguard stations closed due to Government cutbacks. The Higher Lighthouse was built in 1716 and worked in conjunction with the taller Lower Lighthouse to be seen on teh coast, (now a bird observatory). They were not successful and following the loss of 14 ships in the area in one storm in 1901 the current red and white iconic lighthouse was built.

North again along the Coastal Path there is Blacknor Point, a victorian Fortress originally built around 1902, being re-equipped with 9.2 inch guns during WW1. Proposals have been mooted to turn the building into a private dwelling which would enjoy magnificent views of Lyme Bay, the West Weare cliffs, Chesil Beach, Portland Harbour, Weymouth and the hills beyond.

Keep heading back north towards the mainland and you’ll be walking along New Road whcih was built as the old one it replaced became perilously near the eroding cliffs. The Spirit ofPortland was sculpted by Joanna Szuwalska in 2000 in Portland stone and has a stone mason on one side and a fisherman on the other representing the twin industries of the island. It stands near the point where the stone was loaded on to trucks to start their journey down the Merchant railway to Castletown.

Down hill then into Fortuneswell, originally Fortunes Well, derives it’s name from wells from Roman times; there might well have been a Roman temple or villa there. it is somewhat rundown from it’s hayday when the Naval Dockyard was in full swing and the army occupied the Verne when it was a bustling town. It now has a village atmosphere and hopefully it will be rejuvanated with the current housing developments and the impetus of the 2012 Olympics.

From Fortuneswell, back towards the mainland and Weymouth is Hamm Beach which is owned by the Crown Estates and is a special Area of Conservation (SAC) because it has a diversity of shingle vegitation communities. It carried the Portland Railway and evidence of this can be found in the track way and pieces of coal can still be found.

Turnstones and Kestrals can frequently be seen in the area. Before the first bridge was built in 1839 the only alternative to using the ferry as Small Mouth near the Ferrybridge Inn, was the 10 mile walk along the shingle of Chesil Beach.