Isle of Portland

For the humorous television series, see Portland Bill (cartoon) The Isle of Portland is a 4 mile (6 km) long by 1.5 mile (2.4 km) wide limestone island in the English Channel. It is near Weymouth in Dorset, England. The island is connected to the mainland by a large pebble tombolo, Chesil Beach, and by the A354 road bridge to Weymouth, and is therefore often incorrectly referred to as a peninsula or tombolo - it is properly referred to as an island.

The island is a central part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, with a spectacular landscape and important ecology and bird life. Additionally, the island's name has been used for one of the British Sea Areas, and been exported as the name of several North American cities. High quality Portland limestone, still quarried here, has been used extensively in British architecture, and in war memorials. Fears have been expressed that current demand for Portland limestone for building stone and gravestones and memorials will result in the Isle of Portland being quarried away down to sea level before the year 2100.

Portland is notable for its large, deep artificial harbour which was an important Royal Navy base during World Wars One and Two, though now a small civilian port and popular recreation area. England's National Sailing Academy is situated at the harbour and will host all of the sailing events for the London-based 2012 Olympics.

Settlements

The island of Portland comprises several distinct settlements, the largest being Fortuneswell and Easton. The other villages are Weston, Southwell, Castletown, Chiswell, Wakeham and the Grove.

Fortuneswell, Chiswell and Castletown are at the north end of the island and occupy a steeply-sloping area of land called Underhill. Easton, Weston, Southwell, the Grove and Wakeham are relatively flat, as they occupy the top of the island, atop the slab of Portland limestone. This area is known as Tophill.

In Thomas Hardy's Wessex, the "Isle of Slingers" is based on Portland, with Street of Wells representing Fortuneswell and The Beal as Portland Bill.

The entire Isle constituted a single urban district from 1894 to 1974, when it became part of the Weymouth and Portland borough. It had previously been a liberty.

The vast majority of houses and buildings (almost all older buildings) on the island are built out of Portland Stone blocks, so Portland houses tend to all look similar, and have similar layouts, and have quite thick (30-60cm) walls, which were governed by the culture and living standards at the time in which they were built. Some houses have been painted, whilst most retain the yellow-grey colour of the stone, giving the Island a unique character.

Climate

Portland has a rather milder and sunnier climate compared to most of Britain. This is because the prevailing wind is from the southwest, which brings warm air from the tropics, and clear skies from over the sea. Winter temperatures rarely dip below 2°C at night, frost is rare and it almost never snows; even when it does it never settles and melts quickly. In summer, the area around Portland and Weymouth receives little rain and has few clouds compared to the rest of Britain, being in the "rain shadow" of Dartmoor. It is far enough east to be less affected by the Atlantic storms that Devon and Cornwall experience.

History

Portland has been inhabited since at least the Mesolithic period. There is strong evidence of Mesolithic inhabitants near Portland Bill, and of all ages since. The island was occupied by the Romans, who reputedly called the Island "Vindelis" (although there is no evidence to support this). One of England's best-loved authors Thomas Hardy called Portland "The Isle of Slingers", as it is well documented that the inhabitants were expert stone-throwers in the defence of their island. He also named it "The Gibraltar of the North", not just from its physical geography, but also partly from its warmer climate and the winding Mediterranean streets in Underhill.

Portland is recorded in an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Annals of St. Neots as the site of the earliest Viking raid on mainland England in the year 789.

Portland Castle was built by Henry VIII in 1539 in response to attacks by France, and cost £4,964 to construct. The castle is one of the best-preserved castles from this period of British history. It is administered by English Heritage and is open to the public.

The island is an ancient Royal Manor, recorded as "being held by the king" in the Domesday Book, and until the 19th century remained a separate liberty within the county for administrative purposes. It was the crown who opened many of the quarries which make Portland famous. After the Great Fire of London Christopher Wren used six million tons of white Portland limestone to rebuild much of London, and some well-known buildings which are built of Portland stone include St Paul's Cathedral in London and the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City. After World War I a dedicated quarry was opened to provide stone for the Whitehall Cenotaph and half a million gravestones. A further 800,000 gravestones were carved after World War II. Portland stone is still used to renovate and expand some of the world's most prestigious buildings, a recent example being the British Museum. The very popular Portland Cement is not manufactured here. The strong cement mix was a German invention, and was named Portland Cement due to its similar colour to the even then famous Portland limestone when mixed with lime and sand.

Portland harbour, at 2130 acres (9 km²), is one of the largest man-made harbours in the world, and the second deepest. The harbour and Weymouth Bay have an unusual feature: a double low tide, caused by the time it takes for high tide to round the island, and its tidal race at the Bill. The first stone of the Breakwaters was laid by Prince Albert in 1849, and the last stone of the first phase by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1872. The breakwaters were constructed mainly civilian contractors but all the stone was quarried by convicts. 22 men lost their lives during its construction. The breakwaters contain 5,731,376 tons of stone and cost, in 1871, £1,167,852. The final cost was much higher.

The island and its harbour were home to much of the Royal Navy during World War II, and because of this the island was heavily bombed. To protect the harbour from torpedo and submarine attack, HMS Hood (1891) was sunk in the Southern Ship Passage between the southern two breakwaters. Much of the naval base closed at the end of the Cold War in 1995, and the Royal Naval Air Station closed in 1998. The island is still home to HM Prison the Verne and HMYOI Portland, and the harbour contains Britain's only prison ship, HMP Weare, closed during 2005, but still berthed in the port.

Portland Bill and the Race

Portland Bill should not be confused with the Isle of Portland. Portland Bill is a narrow promontory (or bill) of Portland stone which forms the most southerly part of Tophill. The Bill has a lighthouse, as it is an important waypoint for coastal traffic passing the navigation obstacle caused by the Isle and its Race. Refurbished in 1996, the lighthouse is now entirely computer controlled. There is a visitor centre with information about the lighthouse and its history, and guided tours of the lighthouse are available. Two earlier lighthouses stand slightly further inland, one of which is now an important bird observatory used by ornithologists, providing a long term (over 50 years) record of bird migration and accommodation for visiting birdwatchers.

The tidal race to the south of Portland Bill is caused by the Portland Ledge, a 10 metre / 33 foot deep, 1.3 nautical mile long, underwater extension of the island into the English Channel at a place were the general depth of Channel is 20 metres / 65 feet to 40 metres / 130 feet. The current only stops for brief periods during the twelve and half hour tidal cycle and can reach 7 knots at spring tide.

Trivia

Locally rabbits are associated with bad luck, and as such use of the name is taboo with them often being referred to as "Underground Mutton", "bunnies" or "Long-Eared Furry Things". The fear of rabbits seems to be because workers in the Isle's famous quarries would often see rabbits emerging from their burrows immediately before a rock fall, and that the rabbits' burrowing was often blamed for increasing the risk of such dangerous (and sometimes deadly) landslides. In past times when the quarrying was done by hand, if a rabbit was seen in the area, the quarry man would pack up and go home for the day, until the safety of the area had been confirmed. There were instances of cave-ins, and once a crane-operator died when his crane toppled due to weak ground over rabbit burrows. Even today Portlanders will be offended or go quiet at the mention of the rabbit.

This superstition came to national attention in October 2005 when a special batch of advertisement posters were made for the Wallace and Gromit film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. In respect of the local belief the promoters omitted the word 'rabbit' and replaced the film's title with the phrase, "Something bunny is going on". [http://www.weymouth.gov.uk/main.asp?svid=7&svaid=294&svapid=1356

In Literature

There is another piece of trivia that relates to this small island, the literary conjecture that Portland was once the Isle of the Dead, a place of internal exile hundreds of years ago, where the causeway was guarded to keep the 'dead' (some of them being insane) from crossing the Fleet and returning back to Britain. This is not archaeological fact, but mere conjecture based on Bernard Cornwell's 1990s books The Warlord Chronicles.

In Thomas Hardy's fictionalised version of Wessex, the Isle of Portland was known as the Isle of Slingers.

Settlements

Climate

History

Portland Bill and the Race

Trivia

In Literature

External links

Photographs

Further reading

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Isle of Portland

Settlements

Climate

History

Portland Bill and the Race

Trivia

In Literature

External links

Photographs

Further reading