[New post] St George’s Portland, where the ancestors turn to stone

By the 1760’s Portland was in need of a new and larger parish church, so the unsurprisingly-dedicated St George’s rose as what Pevsner calls, “The most impressive eighteenth century church in Dorset,” even if cattily goes on to comment, “partly owing to its singular - and by no means faultless architecture.”

The interior, now in the care of the CCCC as time has rendered St George’s once again inadequate, is indeed a party piece of its era, marked by the twin castellations of pulpit and reading desk; and to leave no doubt as to which activity was paramount, they are set amidships with the for’ard pews facing backwards towards them.

Even more memorable for me, though, is the vast and packed graveyard, a cross between a quarry and henge, where islanders and Kimberlins* alike lie slowly turning into stone like the ancestors at Avebury.

* The Portland term for incomers. Etymology unknown but ? just comers-in with a bit of a burr?