Portland Sculpture & Quarry Trust

The name Portland is synonymous with the stone that has provided material for fine architecture, carving and sculpture in cities throughout the world. Both man and nature have formed the contours of the Island's coastline; the geomorphology and geology have informed how the landscape has been worked. Once there were eighty working quarries on the Island, now there are just four. The skills and understanding of working with stone by hand, have been passed down through generations of Portland families in the tradition of 'Quarry Gangs' but this knowledge is now being lost as technology advances.

The work of the Trust has preserved the knowledge and skills of stone working on Portland through an ongoing programme in Tout Quarry, Independent Quarry and the Drill Hall. The project brings together the arts, cultural heritage, earth sciences and education in the quarry environment. Today this work forms a central part of the 'Quarry Park' initiative for Portland under the designation of World Heritage Status for the East Devon and Dorset Coast, the only natural World Heritage site in England.

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The Trust was founded in 1983 with the sculpture project in Tout Quarry. The project was part of the year of Beautiful Britain, a nationwide initiative for people to become involved in improving their environment. The Director of the campaign, who opened the Tout Quarry Sculpture project, remarked that "... it exemplifies what the year is about; approaching the environment with verve and imagination, and involving everyone in improving it". At this time the quarry was disused, and in a state of neglect with scrap iron, motor vehicles and discarded domestic appliances. Many pathways were blocked subsequent to a boulder contract that had taken place the year before. The Trust formed working parties with visiting artists and local people, and hired heavy plant to clear the site and pathways for public access.

This was a time when many other 'sculpture in landscape' projects were being developed in Britain, but Tout Quarry was unique in that it was the only sculpture park in a quarry. Forty artists created work in the first year, and it was this event that attracted the local community to the quarry, and established a relationship between visiting artists and Portland stonemasons, who shared their skills and understanding of working with stone and the landscape from which it comes. This was an exchange about the history and cultural heritage of stone working on the Island. Artists in their response to the environment of Tout were able to bring an outside perception to the qualities of the place. Antony Gormley, the first artist to create work in the quarry, wrote afterwards.

"... The quarry is itself a powerful inspiration and tribute to the small bands of men that worked it, using blocks and wedges as well as natural layering and fissuring to cut the stone. Their technique (using neither complex machinery nor explosives) was a mixture of science, intuition and hard teamwork that is a model for us all. Working with stone is a fine job, working with stone in a quarry is a challenge, you have to consider the material as part of the place; part of the earth. The joy of this project in Tout is that this very special place provides the inspiration, the material, the studio and the exhibition space ..."

Artists were inspired by the surrounding elements of sea, sky and stone, integrating their work into a landscape originally quarried by hand, where evidence of geological time had been revealed by the quarrying process. The continuing work of the Trust has brought a new vitality and meaning to the disused quarry workings - giving back to the environment through education and creativity, where in the past so much has been taken away.

The Trust is dedicated to preserving a knowledge and understanding of stone and the landscape from which it comes, through:

• keeping alive the traditional stone-working skills of the Portland quarrymen and stone masons through demonstrations, exhibitions, audio-visual recording and collation of archive materials
• bringing together a diverse range of people interested in Portland's quarry landscape and its stone, enabling the exchange of learning, the opportunity for training and acquiring new skills
• developing a progressive vision for the quarry environment that connects the cultural heritage to the arts, environment, education and earth sciences
• encouraging new approaches to the regeneration of quarry landscapes, through educational and community based projects / programmes
• a project that is holistic, concerned with the sharing of skills and knowledge in a respectful and mutually supportive way, using the past to inform the future, and imparting a new experience and understanding of the land, and our relationship to it

This work brings an increased public awareness of our environment, and is in keeping with Agenda 21 priorities both in a local and global context, and accurately reflects our objects and powers as a charitable Trust.

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The working life of Independent Quarry is coming to an end after 150 years, and the quarry is now the subject of a dedicated regeneration programme, drawn up by Albion Stone Quarries Ltd, with proposed features by the PSQT. This will be the first time on Portland that a worked-out quarry will be specifically regenerated for the public good, for leisure, environmental and educational use. The project will include:

• an amphitheatre space for multi-purpose use - performance, projection, drama, dance, story telling, open air lectures, presentations on geology, etc
• a stone maze designed by the community with input from local schools and constructed by artists, stonemasons / carvers
• an interpretive pathway on the geological formation and uses of Portland stone, descending from the Drill Hall to the quarry floor and ascending back to the building
• a major site-specific sculpture integrated into the geomorphology / geology of the landscape, created by sculptor Peter Randall-Page and linked with an educational programme for the National Curriculum - Key Stage 3 'Natural Form' and geography
• a purpose built workshop at the rear of the Drill Hall which will be linked to a dedicated area of the quarry floor for the creation of sculpture and work in landscape
• a geological viewing tower overlooking the quarry. This tower - a monument to time would be built using the whole section of the geological strata, and include camera obscura to give an all-round view of the surrounding 'Quarry Park' with its contrasting quarry environments.

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Tout is the one of the last and best surviving examples on Portland of a traditionally hand-worked quarry. Naturally regenerated for nearly a century, the quarry has only been intermittently worked during this time. The quarry was revitalised in 1983, when the Trust initiated the first sculpture project. Since then over 120 permanent and temporary works, including installation and performance, have been created in response to the environment. The Trust has developed a successful creative and educational resource over the past 20 years that has become well known, both nationally and internationally, with stone carving and sculpture workshops held for the community, local schools, colleges and the general public from May to September.

Future improvements to the Trust's facilities in the quarry will include a retractable canopy for the open-air stone carving and sculpture workshop, and an interpretive guide for Tout Quarry. Towards this, the Trust has mapped the landform using a photogrammetric survey (a three dimensional computer model) that will allow the overlaying of the artistic, industrial, cultural, geological and special scientific interest (SSSI) of the quarry. This data will include specialist and local knowledge of Tout Quarry, to be used as an educational / interpretation tool, and to monitor any future environmental change.

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Jordan Quarry, a quarry for the future, will be a demonstration quarry, dedicated to public and educational use. It will show the traditional stone-working techniques of Portland, and provide informative geological mapping techniques and interpretation of the landscape. "There is nowhere else on Portland where evidence of the complete cross section of strata is so clearly shown, apart from Blacknor Point" (the late Emeritus Prof. Michael House). The development of Jordan Quarry will use Tout Quarry as an exemplar - where the experience of earth scientists, stone workers, artists, landscape architects, planners, environmentalists and academics can be exchanged. It will draw upon the best traditions of the past, joining them to a creative vision for the future, providing a centre for education and training for a new generation on the Island, and the creation of a new landscape for the 21st Century.