Portland Museum

Portland Museum stands on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, southern England. It occupies two 17th-century thatched cottages in the hamlet of Wakeham. Both cottages are Grade II listed, and one is named Avice’s Cottage after a character in Thomas Hardy’s 1897 novel *The Well-Beloved*. The museum opened in 1930 after Marie Stopes bought the derelict buildings in 1929 and donated them to the island. Stopes served as the first honorary curator until her death in 1958. The site now belongs to the Portland Museum Trust, a registered charity. The museum explores four main themes: the history of Portland stone, the Jurassic Coast, local shipwrecks and famous islanders. Exhibits include archaeology from the Stone Age onwards, fossils and artefacts like a World War II bomb casing found in 1995. Avice’s Cottage has a Hardy display and a small exhibition about Marie Stopes. A Victorian Corner shows a local wedding dress and parlour objects. The Maritime Room is on the top floor, and the garden holds more fossils and relics. Visitors walk through rooms that tell the island’s past. The cottages themselves date from the 1600s, with original thatched roofs. Displays change as new finds are added, keeping the story alive. The garden offers quiet spots to look at fossils and wartime relics. The museum’s small size makes it easy to explore in an hour or two.