Portland

In the course of our mini-break at Poundbury, we had thought to spend a day doing Dorchester, a place with more than enough for a tourist day, but it was a fine sunny day and we wound up going to Portland instead - a place we had only previously seen in the winter or in the mist.

First stop was at a viewpoint looking north from the top of the island.

Chesil beach

It seemed rather odd, looking down on the town, all very Italian. Chesil beach running away to the north, what was the naval base around the lagoon east. A rather sobering memorial to those who lost their lives in H.M.S. Sidon in 1955, the result of an explosion of a torpedo, nothing to do with its warhead, rather an engine fault. It seems that it was the custom to start the engines of torpedoes while they were still in their tubes to get them warmed up - and this one went badly wrong. A rather silly memorial to the sailing Olympics.

Sailing Olympics

A memorial complete with warning sign and rather tatty wooden fence. From there down to the Bill, with tourist attractions (old lighthouses and such), a seamark and the pulpit rock.

Sea mark - land side

The second of the three faces just about visible to the right. I was reminded of the sea mark up on Ashey Down, on the Isle of Wight, the one I suspect of being a dig at the Masons on account of its eschewal of right angles. See reference 1.

Sea mark - sea side

Pulpit rock just visible, with fishermen, to the left of the sea mark. Rather larger in real life than it appears here. Gurglings both interesting and alarming to be heard in the various cracks and crevices.

Ledges

Lots of Portland Stone to be seen, some of it very much reminding me of the stone facings and trim of GOGGS (the large government building facing onto both Parliament Street and Horse Guards Road), with erosion over the years leaving lots of odd looking fossils standing out from the face of the stone. Especially the sills to the windows overlooking the courtyards and light wells of the interior.

A couple of chaps had climbed up to the top of Pulpit Rock and were doing a spot of sea fishing, catching, while we watched, something that looked like a small conger eel, perhaps a yard long. Not a place that I would care to fish from, even supposing that I cared to fish at all.

After taking tea in the café - a top of the range wooden shed - by one of the lighthouses, we picnic'd in a shallow crater next to the car park, presumably what remained from some quarrying operation. Now mainly grassed over and with plenty of rabbit sign, samphire and swallows. And a couple of serious tweeters with serious bins. We managed a cormorant, while they concentrated on the albatrosses, too far out for us to see.

Picnic table

Next stop Cheyne Wears, a well known beauty spot, for a bit of sunbathing. As befits the home of Portland Stone, perhaps the only beauty spot in the land to be equipped with solid stone picnic tables and benches.

The next stop was to have been the small museum, but that failed and we visited a stone yard instead.  Very bright and white in the afternoon sun.

Stone yard

Stones

With the outer stones carrying what looked like an identifying number and a weight, possibly in metric tonnes. We also came across a small tree which was alive with sparrows - clearly lots of them - but we did not actually tweet more than one or two.

Our last stop on the island was a rather curious church, St. George's, only visited because we happened to notice its rather curious tower in the distance. It turned out to have been built in the middle of the eighteenth century and according to Wikipedia: 'designed by architect and quarry merchant Thomas Gilbert, St George's is regarded as one of the most impressive 18th-century churches in Dorset'. Now a white elephant.

St. George's East

Equipped with two pulpits, one for reading the word of the Lord and one for preaching. Equipped with impressive box pews (it does get cold on the island in the winter), all facing the pulpits, which means that the ones nearest the altar are facing away from the altar: the word was more important than the sacrificial slab. Another unusual feature of the pews was that they were sold freehold to the faithful, which eventually meant that there were a lot of empty pews which could not legally be turned over to the needy. Children, servants and such like sat upstairs in the galleries. No box pews for them.

Reverse pews

The talkative trusty allowed BH to ring the bell, the first time she had done such a thing, at least for a very long time. Quite a performance to get the thing going.

Lots of rather exuberant memorials outside.

St George's North

The curious west tower, just visible in the snap above, was modelled on one of the west towers of St. Paul's Cathedral. Apparently someone who was something to do with this church knew, or at least did business with, Sir Christopher. There was also a connection with Quaker Penn of Pennsylvania.

Dorset Wine

Back to Poundbury to take a drop of white at Dorset Wine, and to buy a couple of bottles. An outfit not unlike that at Tunbridge Wells, noticed at reference 2. Good selection of wines, cigars for those who still do, drifting towards tastings, suppers and private functions. I sat outside with my tipple (snapped above), carefully avoiding the sun, while another couple, equally carefully, sat in the sun. Perhaps they had been in offices all day. We also had a rather grand Bentley with two not so grand lady occupants. Tipple good.

Upstairs restaurant on this occasion. More Sancerre. Pork, chard and rösti for me, arranged in a mountain, with rather chewy pork lumps at the summit. Plentiful and good chard in the middle. Rather damp rösti at the bottom. Like the fish and chips of the day before, it would have been better served conventionally. BH very happy with her fish with polenta fingers, looking rather like fish fingers. No.3 thought his fish and chips - the variety I had had the day before - was rather fussily presented - but then he was on the ginger beer. I took lemon tart for desert, not bad, but the pastry base was not too clever. While the waitress tried hard to please, but she was rather too inexperienced to succeed.

All that said, all carping aside, a pleasant meal in a pleasant ambience. We like the high ceiling and the tall windows looking out over the square. Most impressed that sash windows of this size ran so smoothly, although we were not at all convinced that they were made of wood as the frames looked far too light for the weight of glass involved. And the fake pictures all over the walls continue to entertain.

Reference 1: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/07/tweet-tweet.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/04/tunbridge-tipple.html.

Reference 3: https://www.dorsetwine.co.uk/shop/.

Reference 4: http://www.hanewald-schwerdt.de/. For Hanewald-Schwert Weissburgunder. Bing only seems to know about the 2016 vintage and I can't make enough sense of this website.