Name: Portland Museum
Rating: 5.0

Portland Museum

Portland Museum, 217 Wakeham, Easton, Portland, Dorset DT5 1HS, UK

1-99 Years

Paid

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Description

Portland Museum is a museum on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, southern England. It is located at the southern end of the hamlet of Wakeham. The museum is housed in two 17th-century thatched cottages, which have both been Grade II Listed since 1951.

It houses a collection based on the themes of quarrying and the Portland stone industry, maritime history, archaeology, folklore and local customs, and fossils and the Jurassic era. Portland Museum was founded in 1929 by Dr Marie Stopes, the famous writer, paleobotanist and birth control pioneer.

Price starts from £5.00 for Adults, £1.00 for Children and £10.00 for Family. If you are looking for Best place for day out with kids and families then this is the perfect destination offering fun, adventure, and unforgettable memories for everyone.

Features

Paid
Host birthday parties: No

Features

Portland Museum Collections: Portland Museum has been collecting an eclectic variety of objects since 1930 when Marie Stopes first founded and curated the museum. Since then, we have amassed around 3,500 items, many of which, fall into the four key themes categorised below. Outside of these themes, we also exhibit: a local archaeology display that includes some of the remains of nearby St Andrew’s Church (of Anglo-Saxon origin), Bronze Age and Roman pottery, Mesolithic tools, and two, unique iron ingots, also known as Double pyramid & Bi-pyramid bars; a Portland Prison display; a railway and local transport display; a cabinet of pre-war audio/visual items designed by the local Marshall brothers that includes the Portland III valve radio and an early Televisor/Spinning Disc Television; a folklore and customs display that features mummified cats and other objects stored in homes to ward off evil spirits; an exhibition of Court Leet related items including the unique reeve staffs: an ancient system of recording rent paid to the Crown by local landowners.
Rufus Castle 3D Tour: Portland Museum is delighted to announce that their virtual 3D tour of Rufus Castle is now available for everyone to enjoy. Visitors to our website now have the freedom to safely explore this fascinating castle and enjoy a guided tour by archaeologist Gordon Le Pard. As well as Gordon’s historical guide to the castle you can also enjoy listening to the 1950s boyhood memories of Portland Museum volunteer, Alan Tune.
The Earl of Abergavenny: The story of the Earl of Abergavenny is as dramatic and tragic as any recorded. A British East Indiaman, on a trading voyage from Portsmouth to Bengal and China, it was wrecked on the evening of February 5th 1805. A combination of human error, the peculiarities of the local coastline and stormy weather forced the ship onto the notorious Shambles sandbank, located 2 1/2 miles southeast of Portland Bill. After eventually floating free of the bank, she headed for shelter in Weymouth Bay but sank within sight of land with the loss of 263 lives.
Portland Stone: Housed in Avice’s Cottage, the museum’s stone collection tell the story of the Portland Stone industry; from quarrying and processing, to its use in prestigious buildings and memorials around the world.
Portland People: People are known to have lived on Portland since Neolithic times and over the centuries the Island has hosted foreign invaders, pirates, military garrisons, convicts, sailors, itinerant workers and artists, all of whom helped expand the population and contributed to the varied character and landscape. Portland’s Museum reveals something of the nature of the local people whose lives were often based around the skills and knowledge required to work with the sea, the stone, and the soil.
Portland’s Maritime History: Whilst the sea around Portland can be particularly hazardous to shipping, the island has provided shelter for mariners from earliest times, and, since the construction of Portland Harbour, a safe and secure anchorage known to seafarers from around the world.
Jurassic Portland: The Isle of Portland is situated on the most southerly point of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site significant for its outstanding geology and landforms.