Freshwater Bay, Portland

Freshwater Bay, Cheyne House and the pumping station.

Freshwater Bay is a bay, located on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England; part of the Jurassic Coast. It is found on the east side of Portland, further south from Church Ope Cove, between the villages of Wakeham and Southwell, and situated below the Southwell Road.[1]

Above Freshwater Bay, is Cheyne House and its grounds which were used, along with other locations across Portland and Weymouth, in the 1963 film The Damned.

Freshwater Bay.
Freshwater Bay, and the pumping station.

Freshwater Bay owes its name to a freshwater spring which emerged at the bottom of the cliff, called Red Door. An Admiralty pumping station was built on the clifftop in the 19th century for supplying fresh water to the naval base and to the harbour's breakwaters during their construction. Cheyne House was built for the attendant of the station. The man-made tunnel for the pumped water was known as Cheyne Tunnel, and in 2011 this was blocked by a rockfall.[2]

For many decades, and through to the second half of the 20th century, the bay was in regular use by commercial fishermen, who would launch their boats from there.[3]

The Great Southwell Landslip, Britain's second largest recorded historical landslide, occurred in 1734, between Durdle Pier and Freshwater Bay, along a length of 1.5 miles (2.4 km).[4]

Freshwater Bay is reputed to be one of the best places on Portland for fossil locating.[5][6] The area is known to be popular for fishing,[7] and the cliffs of the bay are also popular with rock climbers.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Pictures- Portland, Dorset". Weymouth-pictures.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  2. ↑ "Cheyne, Portland". Geoffkirby.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  3. ↑ Morris, Stuart (1990). Portland Camera. Dovecote Press. pp. Photo 78. ISBN 978-0946159796.
  4. ↑ "Quick facts about the Jurassic Coast". Jurassiccoastline.com. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  5. ↑ "Freshwater Bay fossils and fossil collecting". Freshwaterbay.ukfossils.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  6. ↑ http://www.freshwaterbay.ukfossils.co.uk/Freshwater%20Bay.pdf
  7. ↑ "Portlandbill.co.uk". Portlandbill.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  8. ↑ "Databases | Neddyfields > Neddyfields Bouldering". Rockfax. Retrieved 2013-07-10.

Coordinates: 50°31′48″N 2°26′14″W / 50.5301°N 2.4373°W / 50.5301; -2.4373

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