Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for PORTLAND, or Isle of Portland

PORTLAND, or Isle of Portland, a parish in Weymouth district, Dorset; at the terminus of the Weymouth and Portland railway, and from 3 to 7 miles S by E of Weymouth. It is also a sub-district in Weymouth district, and a liberty in Dorchester division. It connectswith the mainland shore, on the N W, by the Chesilbank; but is severed from the mainland beyond by thebelt of water lying along the inner side of that bank; and is approached by a timber bridge, 600 feet long, erected in 1838, and by a viaduct of the Weymouth and Portland railway, opened in Oct. 1865. It projects, in the manner of a peninsular headland, south by westward, right into the sea; measures nearly 4 miles inlength, fully 1½ mile in extreme breadth, and about 9 miles in circuit; comprises 3, 100 acres of land, and 455of foreshore; rises in the N to a height of 490 feet; slopesthence gradually to within 30 feet of the sea; commands, from its higher grounds, an extensive panoramic view; presents an evenly and bleak appearance; terminates in the form of a tongue or beak in the S, so as to be therecalled the Bill of Portland; is naturally exposed, allround, to the lash of storms; has protection, on the N E, in common with Weymouth, by a stupendous artificialbreakwater, nearly 1½ mile long, 300 feet thick at thebase, and nearly 100 feet high, mostly all under water, and constructed in 1849-62; consists of oolitic limestone; is famous for the working of that stone in about 100quarries, and for the exportation of it to the amount ofabout 50,000 tons a year; is famous also for a breed ofsmall sheep, well-known for their superior flavour as Portland mutton; contains the villages of Fortunes-Well, Chiswell, Easton, Reforn, Wakeham, Weston, and Castle-ton, and the hamlet of Mallams; and has a railway station with telegraph at its N end, a post-office‡ of the name of Portland and under Weymouth at Fortunes-Well, a wharffor the export of its stone and a pier for steam-vessels at Castleton, and hotels at Castleton and Fortunes-Well. It was known to the Saxons as Port; was ravaged by the Danes in 787, 837, and 982, and by Earl Godwin in 1052; was attempted by the French in 1404; witnessedthe defeat, near its shores, of the Spanish armada in 1588, and of the Dutch fleet in 1653; and gives the title of Duke to the family of Bentinck. The manor was held, under the Crown, by the Bishops of Winchester, by three of the queens of Henry VIII., and by Anne of Denmark; and passed to the Stewards and the Mannings. A ruined pentagonal tower, called the Bow and Arrow Castle, stands on the middle of the E side, on an isolated siteabout 300 feet high; was connected with the mainlandby a bridge; is commonly said to have been built by William Rufus; and was taken in 1142, by the Earl of Gloucester, for the Empress Maud. Portland Castlestands in the extreme N; was built in 1520 by Henry VIII., to protect the coast against a surprise by the French; was garrisoned in 1588, to make resistance to the Spanish armada; was several times besieged and taken by the contending parties in the civil wars of Charles I.; became the residence, after 1816, of the Manning family; and contains some interesting portraits and curiosities. Pennsylvania Castle, situated in a roughdell near the Bow and Arrow Castle, was built at a cost of £20,000, by John Penn, Esq., who died in 1834; is now the seat of G. Penn, Esq.; and contains a collection of Chinese and Indian antiquities. A great convict prison stands in the N E; was erected in 1848; containsapartments for a governor and other officers, and accommodation for about 1, 500 convicts; and, at the census of 1861, had 1, 526 inmates. Barracks also are there; and, at the census of 1861, had 145 inmates. The breakwater in the N E was formed at a cost of about £1,000,000; and the plan of it, exclusive of its own cost, and subsequent to its completion, included a dock-yard for the royal navy and batteries for its protection. Two lighthousesstand on the S E, close to a curious spouting caverncalled Cave's Hole, 1½ mile N N E of the Bill; were erected in 1716 and 1789; and show fixed lights 198 and 131 feethigh, visible at the distance of 19 and 16 miles. A reef, called the Shambles, lies off the Bill; was the place of the shipwreck of the " Abergavenny" in 1805; and sends off, toward the Bill, a rocky shelf which causes a dangerous surf well known to sailors as the Race of Portland. Anancient camp, either Roman or Danish, was on the summitground in the N; two landslips occurred on the coast in 1734 and 1792; and petrified trees, shelly chert, and fossilshells are found among the rocks. Real property, in 1860, £8, 315; of which £4, 290 were in quarries, and £910 in railway s. Pop. in 1851, 5, 195; in 1861, 8, 468. Houses, 1, 115. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £320.* Patron, the Bishop of Winchester. The church contains some ancient monuments. There is also a chapel of St. John, built in 1839, and in the patronage of Hyndman's Trustees; and there are chapels for Independents, Wesleyans, and Bible Christians, a free school, national and British schools, and a dispensary.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Portland AP/CP       Weymouth RegD/PLU       Dorset AncC
Place names: ISLE OF PORTLAND     |     PORT     |     PORTLAND     |     PORTLAND OR ISLE OF PORTLAND
Place: Portland

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