St Andrew's Church, Portland

The ruins of St. Andrew's Church in 1995.

St Andrews Church is a ruined church on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. The church is situated on the east side of the island, above the Church Ope Cove beach, near Wakeham. St Andrew's Church was Portland's first parish church and one of the island's prime historical sites.^[1] It remained the parish church of the island until the mid-18th century.^[2]

St. Andrews Church is Portland's oldest part-surviving building and is a Grade II* Listed Building.^[3] The southern retaining wall of the churchyard is also Grade II Listed.^[4] The three remaining churchyard monuments, approx 7 metres south of the church, are Grade II Listed too.^[5]

History

Through archaeology, it has been discovered that the site was occupied from Saxon period, dating 1500 years ago. The church structure reveals the foundations of an earlier Saxon church. Edward the Confessor, the son of the exiled Ethelred the Unready had bestowed Portland to the Benedictine Monks of St. Swithin of Winchester in 1042 who in turn built a new church over the old Saxon foundations in 1100. In January 1340 French raiders landed at Church Ope Cove and torched St. Andrews and again in 1404, where each time the tiny church was rebuilt.^[6]

Around 1470–1475 a tower was added and the church was dedicated to St. Andrew. In 1625 a wall was built to shore up the land after a landslip had damaged the church, and threatened half of the cemetery to collapse. Another major landslip in 1675 caused considerable damage, whilst the church continued to suffer from an unstable site and various invasions of French pirates.^[7] The church was abandoned after it was in danger of falling over the cliff after a second massive landslip around 1734–1735, known as The Great Southwell Landslip. This caused a large section of the graveyard to slip down the cliff.^[6] Following the 1734 landslip, a decision was made, which led to the church being closed and partly demolished in July 1756. Much of the stone was taken for use in local domestic dwellings.^[2] St George's Church was soon built at Reforne between 1754 and 1766, near Easton village, to replace the church.

The archway of the detached bell tower.

During the second world war, the graveyard and monuments were damaged by bombing.^[8] The site was excavated by J. Merrick Head in 1898.^[3] The church ruins were cleared and consolidated by the Portland Field Research Group in 1968–1973, and again in 1978–1982 the site was tidied and excavated by archeologists.^[9] Today, the barest ruins now remain of the church, whilst some of the original stones are in the garden of Portland Museum.^[1]

References

1. "History and Heritage of Portland in Dorset". Visitweymouth.co.uk. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
2. Anthony Houghton. "Church Ope Cove and Penn's Weare - Information & Photographs". Strolling Guides. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
3. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1205384)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
4. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1205401)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
5. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1281853)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
6. Free Portland News. December 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help);
7. "Pennsylvania Castle and Church Ope, Portland". Geoffkirby.co.uk. 3 April 2003. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
8. Morris, Stuart (1990). Portland Camera. Dovecote Press. pp. Photo 14. ISBN 978-0946159796.
9. http://www.strollingguides.co.uk/workshop/darkroom/galleries/popup.php?refNo=1102281&pageCode=churchope1&subPageCode=standrews&z=m

Coordinates: 50°32′20″N 2°25′45″W / 50.5390°N 2.4292°W