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Peter
Cox
Partner
AC Archaeology Ltd
Manor Farm Stables
Chicklade
Hinton nr Salisbury
SP3 5SU
UK
Tel: 01747 820581
The Isle of Portland Industrial Archaeology Survey was commissioned and funded by English Heritage through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) and undertaken by AC archaeology with Peter Stanier during the period November 2006 to March 2007.
The project entails a comprehensive review of industrial monuments on the Isle of Portland, Dorset; an area of unique industrial and social history, which has been exploited for its mineral and marine resources since the earliest human settlement. Modern development pressures, including increased mechanisation of quarrying, potential re-working for aggregates of currently 'disused' quarries, has required a more exhaustive inventory of industrial archaeology monuments than currently exists, to enable future curatorial decisions to be made in a more informed manner. The project will comprise two phases. Phase One has comprised a desktop study to identify past, current and future aggregates extraction areas and has compiled a comprehensive list of monuments from the industrial period which has been used to update the county Historic Environment Record. Phase Two (proposed) will include field survey, assessment of significance and dissemination.
Phase One has identified some 400 sites belonging to the industrial period (c.1750 onwards), mostly from map sources and existing records. The scope is wide but those sites most relevant to the stone industry include: quarries, tramways, railways, stone saw mills and masonry works, limekilns, stone-loading quays and cranes. Other industrial sites on Portland include: lighthouses, navigational aids, coastguard stations, waterworks, gas works, blacksmiths shops, a foundry and numerous boundary stones.