File:Portland Bill - New Lighthouse - Lighthouse Centre - inside - matchstick model - Matchstick Model of Portland Bill Lighthouse & Visitor Centre (7223326204).jpg

After we left Weymouth, we went to the Isle of Portland, mainly to go to the lighthouse at Portland Bill.

We may have gone when I was little, but back then the lighthouse was closed. This time it was open.

The island (well it's not really an island as it is connected by a land bridge to the rest of Dorset) is where the famous Portland Stone comes from.

The New Lighthouse is Grade II listed.

<a href="http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-381998-new-lighthouse-with-boundary-walls-portl" rel="noreferrer nofollow">New Lighthouse with Boundary Walls, Portland</a>

PORTLAND

SY67NE PORTLAND BILL ROAD, Portland Bill 969-1/1/162 (South side) New Lighthouse with boundary walls

II

Lighthouse with coastguard accommodation. Opened January 11th 1906, (report in Weymouth Telegram, 12.01.06), built by Wakeham Brothers of Plymouth, at cost of »13,000. Painted render; flat roof to coastguard house assumed asphaltic. Lofty (35m)tapered shaft to heavy moulded cornice carrying cylindrical domed lantern set to balcony with cast-iron balustrade in 12 bays; heavy moulded posts and three plain rails. Various openings in five stages, deep-set 2-light casements to cambered raised lintels and heavy stooled cills. Trinity House badge set to south face; entrance door on NW side. Single-storey link to flat-roofed coastguard house in two storeys, 4 x 3 bays, mainly two light casements with transom, to stooled cills. In second bay from south each side a projecting square flat-roofed porch with part glazed doors; entry also in low link adjoining tower. Single-storey wing full width north end. All set to plinth, and with heavy moulded cornice; four large stacks with heavy cappings set in on flat roof. Subsidiary Features: enclosed by rubble wall, painted externally, half-cylindrical coping, c 1.5m high, with pairs of square gate piers to heavy pyramidal cappings and wooden gates on east and west facing link block. Similar walls centrally back to house from each of four sides. Service building in south east corner has cast-iron ventilator grilles. This new lighthouse replaced the former Old Higher and Old Lower Lighthouses (qqv). It is a complete group, and an important complement historically to the two earlier buildings. (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments: Dorset: London: 1970-: 253).

Listing NGR: SY6773768376

From the car park, you can visit the small museum inside - Lighthouse Centre (we didn't pay to go up the lighthouse).

Exhibitions inside the lighthouse museum.

Lighthouse models.

Model made of matchsticks by Herbert John Askew.