The Portland Sculpture & Quarry Trust's project will honour the skills of the quarrymen who have shaped Portland’s coastal landscape over 18 generations. The project based at Tout Quarry Sculpture Park & Nature Reserve and Portland Drill Hall will re-engage older people with the landscape and with the 'Living Land Archive', a rich source of quarrymen's working histories collected over 40 years, and an extensive collection of quarry tools. It will also give younger people creative opportunities through writing, video and sound recordings to develop podcasts and short films to inspire and educate future generations. The project will celebrate Portland’s working-class histories in one of the most deprived communities and intensively quarried landscapes in the UK.  

Hannah Sofaer, Creative Director at the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust, said: "We’re excited to have Historic England’s support to explore the island’s quarrying heritage that created the labyrinths and gullies built by hand from huge blocks of stone in Tout Quarry and the older network of quarry workings. This is important to our community and young people who can use their creativity to provide a link in the chain to the extraordinary skills of the quarrymen in the ‘winning of stone’, that has given rise to the pathways and landscapes we cherish today.”

@HistoricEngland

2025