Portland Museum, Dorset

50°32′28″N 2°25′48″W / 50.541°N 2.430°W / 50.541; -2.430

Portland Museum.

Portland Museum is a museum on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, southern England.[1] It is located at the southern end of the hamlet of Wakeham. The museum is housed in two 17th-century thatched cottages, which have both been Grade II Listed since 1951.[2] One of the museum's cottages, Avice's Cottage, is featured in Thomas Hardy's 1897 novel The Well-Beloved, as the home of three generations of "Avices" - the novel's heroines.[3]

Avice's Cottage.

Portland Museum was founded by Marie Stopes, who purchased the museum's two cottages, then derelict, in 1929. She then donated them to Portland as a museum which opened in 1930.[4][2] Stopes was the first honorary curator and continued her association with the museum until her death in 1958.[5]

  1. ^ "Weymouth and Portland Borough Council". Weymouth.gov.uk. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  2. ^ a b Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1206423)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  3. ^ "Area around Church Ope Cove". Geoffkirby.co.uk. 25 July 1935. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  4. ^ "Marie Stopes Pictures". Isleofportlandpictures.org.uk. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  5. ^ "The Museum Trust". Portlandmuseum.co.uk. 1 April 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2013.