Portland stone archway from London will move to Tout Quarry
It's planned to be used as an 'entrance' to the sculpture park
Approval has been given for a stone archway from London’s Fleet Street to be relocated to Portland’s Tout Quarry.
The move is part of proposals for improvements to the quarry sculpture park and nature reserve.
Plans are also underway for improving the existing pathways from Priory Corner by the Memory Stones circle and installing geological interpretation areas within the park as part of a ‘green corridor’ plan.
Dorset councillors unanimously accepted the proposals at an area planning meeting.
The ideas come from the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust which want to place the seven metre arch, made of Portland stone, to provide a ‘gateway’ to the site.
It is currently being stored, in carefully labelled pieces, ready to be erected on the Portland site.
The arch comes from a dismantled listed bank building in London.
It will be sited just beyond the tunnel entrance to the park from Wide Street.
Said a document outlining the proposals: “The view through the architrave (archway) will frame the quarry railroad tunnel linking to the wider Quarry Park and the Portland Coastal Path.
The proposed development fulfils a long-standing commitment… in establishing a visible arrival point to the Portland Quarries Nature Park.”
Portland councillor Paul Kimber said he welcomed the return to Portland of one of its iconic exports.
“The park has been significantly popular with visitors and the Portland Quarry Trust has delivered on everything they said they would do,” he said, including supporting island skills and its heritage.
Wyke Cllr Kate Wheller also welcomed the proposal and praised the work of the Tout Quarry Trust team.
“It is a wonderful resource for Portland and the whole county and really does show the history of this part of Dorset and its impact worldwide,” she said.
The Trust was formed in 1983 to save Tout Quarry from further mineral extraction and to set up the sculpture park covering more than 40 acres which now features more than sixty works of art and spaces where nature is encouraged to regenerate the area.