Priory Corner, Portland, Dorset

Welcome to my web site which contains maps, stories, history, advice and over 800 photographs to help you explore Portland, Dorset - The Jewel of the Jurassic Coast

Priory Corner

Portland, Dorset

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.

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

This area covers Priory Corner. Traffic reaches Tophill by this main road (although there is a scary alternative narrow track leading to The Verne.

For over a century, horses pulled trucks over hundreds of tramways from the quarries to converge at this point. The stone blocks were then transferred to wagons which descended, mainly under gravity, to waiting boats in Castletown.

Please click here for a detailed street 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.

This area can be seen on Google Street View by clicking here.

Tout and Inmosthay Quarries

In the bottom right-hand corner of the aerial picture above is a worked out quarry. There used to be a Victorian tramway at this spot.

This shows the tramway marked with stone sleepers. This used to pass through a couple of tunnels under the road.

These tunnels still exist but are bricked up and heavily overgrown with brambles.

However, plans were published in January 2008 to open up these tunnels to make a safe passageway under the main road between Tout and Inmosthay quarries.

An extensive network of tramways crisscrossed Tophill in Victorian times. Three bricked-up tunnels once took railway lines under the main road near the Portland Heights Hotel. Early in 2003 the brickwork blocking the main northernmost tunnel was smashed down by vandals. This gave me the opportunity to get into the tunnel and take the right-hand picture. Notice how the interior of the tunnel appears to be constructed from carefully cut stones and no mortar.

In the arch of this tunnel entrance is an inscription on the keystone which reads

"E. C. Gillingham. May 26th 1944"

which was when this part of Portland was occupied by the armed forces as a radio station.

In 2010 it was decided to unblock this tunnel to provide a pedestrian walkway under the main road.

In the process of demolishing the brick wall on the western end of the old railway tunnel the false keystone bearing the inscription

"E. C. Gillingham. May 26th 1944"

was removed and is presumably destroyed. The original keystone is now clearly visible (see left) stating that the tunnel was built by J C Lano in 1862.

A rare view inside the southernmost of the tunnels that used to run between Inmosthay Quarry and Tout quarries.

Note the excellent quality of the internal stone work - not as crude as the tunnel in Waycroft Quarry, see 690725

A small entrance discovered in 2011 to what appears to be a small chamber - probably a quarry workers' shelter. I have not yet managed to get into this to explore it.

Above left - the sun sets behind a monumental stone above Tout Quarry and, above right, a panoramic view over a large area where a radio station stood in World War 2. Traces of the old buildings can still be found.

This is the main entrance to Tout Quarry.

When it was a working quarry a tramway ran along here bring stone blocks and waste rubble. The former were loaded onto the Merchant's Railway at nearby Priory Corner whilst the waste was tipped over the cliff to make the enormous scree slopes that we can still see.

The stone blocks in this track way carried the rails over which wagons were pulled by horses. Look carefully at these stone blocks and you will see the holes where iron pegs were driven in to hold the rails. In fact, some iron pegs can still be found.

Nearby - and here is a challenge! - can be found a length of narrow-gauge tramway rail.

Priory Corner

Priory Corner in 1989.

This was the gathering point for stone blocks transported by the huge number of tramways that crisscrossed Tophill. The picture below shows the same point at the end of the 19th century.

This area was completely realigned in the 1990s due to concern that the road might collapse.

This view no longer exists.

68572509

Picture reproduced by kind permission of Stuart Morris from his book "Portland - An Illustrated History" - see links for publication details.

Above - Priory Corner in late Victorian times.

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

This aerial photograph taken in 1999 shows the newly aligned road. The blue dots show the route of the old main road which, by the 1990s was cracking and there were fears that it would collapse over the adjacent cliff.

The red dots show the track of the Merchants' Railway - most of which can still be walked and which still has the stone sleepers with iron pegs embedded to hold the rails.

The gauge of this railway was 4 ft 6 in - unique in Britain - but it pre-dated the invention of the steam railway with its 4 ft 8¹/₂ in gauge.

The view at Priory Corner in 2002 where the reconstructed road has been taken away from the cliff edge for fear of collapse.

An old hand-operated quarry crane stands as a welcome to visitors.

Sunset behind an ancient castle?

Not quite!

The turreted tower is the reservoir behind the Portland Heights Motel!

Here the Portland Reservoir is seen in daylight - a far less romantic 'castle' than when seen at night!

Portland's water now comes from the Mainland.

In Victorian times it came from local sources - see 690700 but typhoid resulted in all local wells being abandoned.

The Portland Heights Hotel stands in a magnificent position overlooking Chesil Beach. For details of the hotel and its facilities please go to http://www.s-h-systems.co.uk/hotels/portland.html
This spectacular fossilised tree stands in the car-park of the Portland Heights Motel. In the background is Chesil Beach.

Back to Portland Home Page		Back to Portland Map Index page
	MOVE


Two more tunnel entrances. The left-hand one is very difficult to climb into.


Dowsett Motors stood at the roundabout opposite the Portland Heights Motel but moved to Wyke Regis.