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The above image is copyright Dorset County Council 2000 and is reproduced here with permission.

An unremarkable area of Portland - which is a polite way of saying it's rather BORING!

The main features are the road leaving Southwell Village going to Portland Bill and the sewerage pumping station built in the late 1980s on the seaward side of the road.

Two quarries exist. The large obvious one is located on the right-hand edge of the red square and can be explored from the coastal path. The other is a 'secret' quarry at the back of the Eight Kings pub - the green patch near the top centre of the red square.

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The construction in the late 1980s of the sewerage pumping station a short distance to the south-east of The Eight Kings pub was a huge undertaking with most of the works below ground level as at left.

It is difficult now to recognise how much is hidden underground - see the above picture taken in 2007.

Sewerage from Portland is now collected and sent in a huge pipe which mainly follows the line of the disused railway track. 

Eventually, all Portland's sewerage reaches the Mainland where it is disposed of at the new treatment works in Wyke Regis.

Accepting Portland's sewage is perhaps a small compensation for the murder and mayhem inflicted on Portlanders at the Easton Massacre - please click on 680725!

The small quarry is hidden away at the back of the Eight Kings pub. It is so overgrown that it was only possible to see and photograph it when a large area of surrounding brambles were cleared in association with the sewerage pumping station across the road.

Avalanche Church can be seen on the far left of the picture.

Within that part of the coast are these smooth boulders where my very good friend Sandra is sitting. They have clearly been worn over centuries by the action of the sea but are now about 100 feet above sea level.

Why would so much effort be used to get three boulders up from the sea?

I was exploring this area and spotted, high on a ledge in a manmade cave - see picture at right - a battered old suitcase.

For some reason I did not climb up to it and look inside. 

When I returned a few days later - it had gone! 

I now wonder if it was stuffed with cash - the proceeds of a robbery left to 'cool off' until the police had given up searching. 

Who knows?

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