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Customs and Traditions of the Isle of Portland Dorset
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
Extract
The Isle of Portland reaches out into the waters of the English Channel. Almost a solid block of stone, it is the most southerly point on the Dorset coast. Its greatest length from north to south is four miles and its maximum width one and a half miles, while its entire circumference is less than nine miles. The north of the island is low-lying, but half a mile inland the ground rises steeply to a maximum height of 496 feet above sea-level at the Verne. From here it slopes away gradually to the southern tip or Bill, 20 feet above sea-level. There has never been a town of Portland and the chief centres of population were originally eight hamlets. Today, three of these, Castletown, Fortuneswell and Chesil have merged to form the main settlement in the north or Underhill, as the district is called, On Tophill three more of the hamlets, Reforne, Easton and Wakeham have similarly run together. Weston and Southwell remain hamlets, while another settlement has grown up around the prison at ‘The Grove’.
The ‘Island’ is, in fact, joined to the mainland by the Chesil Beach. But since this pebble bank extends westwards for ten miles before it meets the Dorset coast at Abbotsbury and could be used as a thoroughfare only with the greatest difficulty, the term ‘island’ is no real misnomer. Between Portland and the immediate mainland to the north runs the Fleet, a narrow arm of the sea, wide enough to make the approach across Smallmouth by ferry, before the building of the modern bridge, awkward and, at times, dangerous.
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References
1 See fig. 1 Portland, co. Dorset, lat. 50° 33’ N., long. 2° 26’ w. The Ordnance Survey maps covering the Island are :—
6-inch Sheets nos. 58 N.B., 58 S.E. and 60 N.E. (revised ed. of 1926 with additions of 1938). 25-inch Sheets, nos. 58—7, 11, 12, 15, 16 and 60-3, 7 (1929).
2 Kimberlin or kimling, cf. The English Dialect Dictionary, ed. J. Wright, s.v. ‘comeling’.
3 J. S. Udal, Dorsetshire Folk-Lore (Stephen Austin, Hertford, 1922), p. 199, suggests that this custom was not unknown in west Dorset and in Devonshire. It was perhaps connected with the old Danish marriage-contract known as ‘handfesting’ : see J. Brand and H. Ellis, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (H. G. Bonn, London 1854), vol. 11, p. 87. For a full description of the custom in Portland, see J. Hutchins, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset (J. B. Nichols and Sons, Westminster 1863, 3rd edition ed. W. Shipp and J. W. Hodson), vol. 11, p. 809.
4 For the fate of some Westminster masons who broke this custom, see Hutchins, op. cit., pp. 820-1. They were stoned out of the island. Cf. p. 809 : the birth of a deaf and dumb child to one of the unfortunate girls was held to signify God’s wrath at the disregard of the custom.
5 See Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, Box File ‘Dorset 5’, for a transcription of names and nicknames as registered in the official Tithe Map and Commutation.
6 C. J. Samways, Portlanders’ Titles : a Souvenir (Portland, 1937).
7 I would like to thank all those who helped me by supplying information, especially Mr John Pearce and Mr Richard Lano of Portland, Mr J. W. Warren of Weymouth and Lt.-Col. C.D. Drew of Dorchester.
8 See Charles D. Drew : Open Arable Fields at Portland and Elsewhere : ANTIQUITY, vol. XXII (1948), pp. 79-81.
9 R. Pearce, Methodism in Portland (Charles H. Kelly, London, 1898), p. 122.
10 W. Stevenson, General View of the Agriculture of Dorset (Board of Agriculture Report, 1812), p. 201, and R. Pearce op. cit., p. 125. But cf. Hutchins op. cit. 11, p. 809. ‘The arable land is mostly common field, which is divided into three parts or divisions, one of which is every year a fallow’.
11 Dorset County Museum, H. J. Moule’s Notebooks, vol. VIII, pp. 173-4.
12 See the judgment of Mr Justice Branson at the Dorchester Assizes, June 1935, in the case Radford v. Mitchell and Peavitt. The proceedings were fully reported in The Dorset Daily Echo, the decision being given in the issue dated 10 June 1935.
13 It previously met twice a year. For a full description of the Court, its officers and oaths, see : J. W. Warren, The Island and Royal Manor of Portland (Butler and Tanner Ltd., Frome and London, 1940), pp. 7-34.
14 In 1847 the tenants of the manor received £20,000 as compensation for the loss of their rights on the Great Common, when the Breakwater and Prison were built. Fines are also paid for the erection of telegraph poles on roadside waste.
15 See The Parish Book of Portland, 1779-1820, p. 89 et passim. Mr J. W. Warren kindly lent me this book.
16 See Public Record Office : Augmentation Office, Parliamentary Surveys E.317/12, which lists the tenants and their rents and states the customs of the manor in 1650, cf. P.R.O. : L.R. Misc. Books, no. 214, pp. 93-150 for a rent roll and less detailed statement of customs for 1608.
17 For its location and area see the Tithe Map and Apportionment Award, Portland, Dorset 10/173, parcel no. 306. These are held by the Tithe Redemption Commissioners, Finsbury Square, London.
18 ‘The tenants hold their lands ... by custom of a Staff, and not by Copy, the rents being set on the said Staff, and every year the Reeve for the time being is to increase or decrease every Tenant’s Rent, by making a new Staff . . .’, P.R.O., E. 317/12.
19 For a full description see F. W. Galpin, The Portland Reeve Staff. The Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist, April, 1903, pp. 73-80 and 216.
20 See The Historic Court of 1846, printed in Warren, op. cit., p. 19. The two 17th century surveys also describe the custom.
21 This example, a translation, is taken at random from the Court Rolls which are almost entirely composed of these Surrenders. The entries are in Latin until 25 October 1732, and there after in English. The rolls cover the years 1670-1773 : P.R.O., L.R. 3/17/1-4.
22 P.R.O,E. 317/12.
23 This sale was one of the largest the island has known. Mr J. W. Warren kindly lent me his copy of the original Bill of Sale.
24 See S. O. Addy, Church and Manor : a study in English economic history (Geo. Allen and Co. London, 1913). There is a small room on the south side of the parish church of Breamore, co. Hants, with an arch bearing an inscription in Anglo-Saxon : ‘Here the agreement is made’.
25 The last entry in the Register of Church Gifts in the Parish Chest of St. John’s, Portland, is dated 30 July 1925. Unfortunately the record does not begin until 1890.
26 For some account of this custom, ‘marrying the land’ as it was called, see Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, no. 4, p. 62.
27 See British Museum, Stowe MSS. 597, fol. 42b et seq.
28 See Notes and Queries, 9th series, vol. VIII, p. 81.
29 See e.g. Dorset County Museum, Church Gifts, dated 17- 1842 and 1861 : nos. 11,061, 11,060, and 11,058.
30 See Hutchins, op. cit., vol. 11, p. 809.
31 See e.g. Hutchins, op. cit., vol. 11, p. 811, quoting J. Smeaton, History of the Eddystone Lighthouse. (2nd edn., London, 1793).
32 T. Robinson : The Common Law of Kent or the Customs of Gavelkind (3rd edn., London 1822), Part 11.
33 P.R.O., E. 317/12.
34 See J. E. A. Jolliffe, Pre-Feudal England : the Jutes (Univ. Press, Oxford 1933), p. 20.
35 Bill of Sale, see n. 24.
36 Register of Church Gifts, no. 121.
37 Ex. inf. Mr J.Pearce.
38 See below.
39 See Victoria County History of Dorset (Constable, London, 1908), vol. 11, pp. 338-43. I hope to deal in detail with this subject later.
40 See D. Knoop and G. P. Jones, The English Medieval Quarry, Economic History Review, vol. IX (1938-9), pp. 22-4.
41 State Papers Domestic, 1663-4, p. 618.
42 See Answer to Article of Enquiry no. 10, 1 June 1678 : L.R. 3/17/1.
43 S.P.D., 1665-6, p. 41. This royal grant has to be renewed at the accession of each king. The extra threepence on every ton granted in 1665 is paid into ‘His Majesty’s Grant Fund ‘. This money, vested in trustees, is used to help finance schemes for the general welfare of the island. Two poor houses and.St. George’s Church received grants from this fund.
44 See The Historic Court of 1846, printed in Warren, op. cit., p. 20.
45 Weir, wear, weare, ware : Hutchins, op. cit., p. 822, note a, suggests that the word is of Celtic derivation and means ‘rough, wild ground ‘.
46 The late Mr J. Waight of Portland kindly supplied these figures. I have not been able to discover how such minute sub-divisions came into being.
47 It is not known when this custom originated. Mr J. Pearce has for many years now allocated the road dues and holds the records of the payments made since the middle of the 19th century.
48 The Historic Court of 1846 : see J. W. Warren, op. cit., p. 26.
49 See R. Damon, The Geology of Weymouth, Portland and the Coast of Dorset (New and enlarged edition. Weymouth and London, 1884), p. 94.
50 An important exception to this was The Merchants’ Railway. Opened in 1826, it was the first railway in Dorset. It was used to convey stone from Top-hill to Castletown Quay. It worked, with drums and cables, by gravitation, the loaded trucks going down causing empty ones to ascend on another set of rails.
51 Dorset County Museum, H. J. Moule’s Notebook, vol. IX, pp. 146-9, shows that the quarterly settlement was still the custom in 1896. In the 18th century it was a half-yearly settlement : see E. L. Blanchard, The Watering Places of England : Weymouth (W. J. Adams, London, 1850), pp. 46-7.
52 I am indebted to Mr B. R. C. Smith of Southwell, Portland, who kindly gave me a description of the ceremony as he witnessed it when a boy.
53 C. King Warry, Old Portland Traditions (Warren & Co., Portland e. 1914), p. 29. Docu mentary evidence suggests that this tradition is incorrect : Pearce is the most ancient island name which survives today.
54 Mrs King Warry, The Status of Peasantry in Portland : Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, vol. xxx, 1908-9 (Dorchester 1909), p. 73.
55 C. King Warry, op. cit., p. 52.
56 W. Sherren, The Wessex of Romance (Chapman and Hall, 1902), p. 90.
57 Mrs King Warry, The High Place (typescript copy in Dorset County Museum Library), pp. 18-19.
58 Fido Lunettes, An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Peninsula of Portland (S. McDowell, London, 1825).
59 Mrs King Warry in T. Perkins and H. Pentin, Memorials of Old Dorset (Bemrose, London, 1907), p. 186.
60 See J. Brand and H. Ellis, op. cit., vol. 11, p. 279.
61 See A. M. Wallis, The Portland Stone Quarries : Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Field Club., vol. XII, 1890-1 (Dorchester 1891), p. 194. The origin and significance of this custom, like those of many which follow, are obscure.
62 An old man who died c. 1830 was the last to adhere rigidly to this custom : see Mrs King Warry in Perkins and Pentin, op. cit., p. 186.
63 Mrs King Warry : The High Place, p. 44.
64 Census figures : 1801,1,619. 1901,15,199.
65 In 1839 a bridge replaced the old ferry-boat on ropes.
66 See Drew op. cit., pp. 80-1.
67 See Drew op. cit., p. 80, n. 7. The entire question of the origins of the peculiar Portland customs I am unqualified to discuss. The hamlet settlements and the custom of partible inheritance perhaps suggest Celtic influence.
68 N. M. Richardson, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Dorset, 1635, Proc. the Dorset Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Field Club, vol. XLII, 1920-1 (Dorchester 1922), pp. 48-9.