St Andrew's Church, Portland

St Andrew's Church is a ruined church located above Church Ope Cove on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. St Andrew's was Portland's first parish church and remained as such until the mid-18th century. It is now one of the island's prime historical sites,^[1][2] and is a Grade II* Listed Building and a Scheduled Monument.^[3] The southern retaining wall of the churchyard is also Grade II Listed,^[4] as are three remaining churchyard monuments, approximately 7 metres south of the church.^[5]

History

It is believed that the site was once occupied by a Saxon church. Later,

Around 1470–1475 a tower was added and the church was dedicated to St. Andrew. In 1625 a wall was built to shore up the land after a landslip had damaged the church, and threatened the collapse of half the cemetery. Another major landslip in 1665 caused further damage.[7] The church was replaced by St George's Church, built at Reforne between 1754 and 1766, following the Great Southwell Landslip of 1734–35.^[2]

The church site, which was first excavated by J. Merrick Head in 1898,^[3] suffered some bomb damage during World War II.^[8] The church ruins were tidied and consolidated by the Portland Field Research Group in 1968–1973, with further conservation and excavation works in 1978–1982.^[9] Today, the barest ruins now remain of the church, while some stones are preserved in the garden of Portland Museum;^[1] they were moved there by volunteers in 1979 and 1980.

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