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Suckthumb Quarry Area

Portland, Dorset
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All the pictures on this page showing a thick border are thumbnails. Clicking on the picture will produce a larger version. Use your browser BACK button to return to this page.
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This area includes part of Avalanche Road and Suckthumb Quarry - which is now filled in with quarry waste. The dark green area in the central and upper left parts of the aerial photograph were all a deep quarry until about 1990.

Just to the east of the road, close to No 70, is a tree-covered mound - the remains of a limekiln of which  many on Portland survive.

The row of houses in the top left-hand corner of the red square stand where Weston pond used to be and the Prince Alfred pub - the latter was demolished in the 1970s.

Please click here for a detailed map. Click the BACK button on your browser to return to this page.

Please click here to visit the satellite image of this area on Google Maps. Click the BACK button on your browser to return to this page.
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A remarkable stroke of luck!

This, the last standing in-situ Portland quarry crane operated by hand, was discovered and photographed by me in July 1989. 

A few weeks later it was demolished and vandalised as shown below.

This part of Suckthumb Quarry was filled in soon afterwards and this quarry no longer exists.

 

The pathetic remains of the above crane by mid-1989.

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Then, in October 2002 I discovered the remains again - dumped nearby the edge of the in-filled quarry at OS 689705.

Amazingly, the main wooden spar of this dumped crane can be seen from space - it is at the centre of the satellite image reached by clicking here.

What a shame that Portlanders neglect their heritage. There are several rotting ancient cranes scattered around Portland. 

Still, at least one has been preserved at Priory Corner.
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By 2007, the last remaining wooden spars of this crane had been burned by vandals.
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