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, Cheyne House and the Cheyne Weare (viewpoint) car park sits on top of the cliffs. The house was used along with other locations across Weymouth and Portland in the 1963 film The Damned, starring Oliver Reed and Shirley Anne Field.

Background

Freshwater Bay.
Freshwater Bay, and the pumping station.

Freshwater Bay, also known as Neddyfield by rock climbers, owes its name to a freshwater spring which emerged at the bottom of the square vertical face in the cliff, called Red Door. The grass covered building on top, between Cheyne house and the cliff top, was the pumping station for supplying fresh water to Portland via an intermediate pumping station adjacent to Folly Pier in the East Weares area. South of Red Door, large quantities of rock have been pushed over the cliff where previously there was a sandy beach. The cliffs of the bay have been much quarried in past centuries to produce a broad terrace or ledge along the cliff.[2] During the 20th century, the nearby Southwell village was largely a rural village, with a focus on farming, and the bay a prime location for fishing, with boats regularly being launched from the bay.[3] The Great Southwell Landslip, Britain's second largest recorded historical landslide, occurred in 1734, between Durdle Pier and Freshwater Bay, at a distance of one and a half miles.[4]

Freshwater Bay is reputed to be one of the best places on Portland to access the Portland Stone for fossil locating. Within the bay's area, mollusc's and ammonites can be found, although the latter is not common, along with trace fossils. These can be collected from the cliff-top quarry or from the foreshore. However, fossils other than ripple marks and bivalves at the bay are not common and those that can be found are poorly preserved. The majority of ammonites have been taken.[5][6] At the top of the cliffs at Freshwater Bay are the Purbeck Beds, from the Lulworth Formation. Of particular interest is the 'Top Cap' Bed, which contains fossil algae and tree trunks. Below this are the southern Portland Beds, from the Jurassic Cherty Member, with massive oolitic Portland Freestone in the upper part. A full succession of this, including the Basal Shell Bed, is located 200 metres to the north-west.[7]

In relation to fishing, the area of Cheyne, which stretches from Church Ope Cove to Sand Holes, including the bay, is number four on the British Conger Club list of Conger Eel hot spots in the UK. Additionally, the area is known to be popular when fishing for Wrasse, Conger, Corkwing Wrasse, Pollack and many mini-species by day. During night, heavyweight species appear and Conger eels to more than 40lb have been caught, along with big rockling, occasional bull huss and a few double-figure bass.[8] The cliffs of the bay are also popular with rock climbers.[9]

Cheyne Tunnel

During mid-Victorian times an old pumping station was built on the clifftop of Freshwater Bay, at Cheyne, to supply water to the Portland naval base. The station, holding the necessary machinery, had capped a shaft which was driven down to around sea-level. From this shaft, a man-made tunnel was created, known as Cheyne Tunnel. The vertical shaft was once an essential part of the island's water supply. Cheyne House was built by the Admiralty for the attendant of the adjacent pumping station. The house featured chimneys made out of a single piece of Portland Stone, some of which had been cracked by lightning.

In 2011 Cheyne Tunnel was blocked by a rockfall. Originally, the entrance to the tunnel was protected by a steel door set into a carved stone archway. Cheyne tunnel is 150 feet long and large enough to walk through. The spring that supplied the drinking water still runs along the tunnel floor today in winter. Following the 150 feet into the tunnel, a Victorian brick archway remains in place, and the tunnel's vertical shaft lies just beyond. Evidence of explorers, as well as stout timbers and old tramway rails girders remain, which have collapsed from above. The wooden planks laid over the rails were taken from quarries, while only the base of the shaft is bricked, and the rest carved out of the limestone. A plaque on the wall is also located in the tunnel. Over the decades, boulders and other debris such as lobster pots have been thrown into the tunnel by storms.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Pictures- Portland, Dorset". Weymouth-pictures.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  2. ↑ "Geology of the Isle of Portland, Dorset by Ian West". Southampton.ac.uk. 2012-10-13. 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. ↑ "Freshwater Bay - Geological Guide for the Geology and Stratification". Freshwaterbay.ukfossils.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  8. ↑ "Portlandbill.co.uk". Portlandbill.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  9. ↑ "Databases | Neddyfields > Neddyfields Bouldering". Rockfax. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  10. ↑ "Cheyne, Portland". Geoffkirby.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-10.

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