Portland Stone Quarries

Overview

A group of stone workings on the west side of the Isle of Portland, Dorset, extracting the pale oolitic limestone that has supplied building stone — most famously for St Paul's Cathedral and the United Nations Headquarters — since Roman times. Bowers Quarry, the best-documented of the group, has been worked continuously by the Pearce and then Albion Stone families of companies since the late 1700s.

History

Portland stone has been quarried since Roman occupation of the island, with large-scale commercial extraction from the 17th century after Inigo Jones and later Christopher Wren specified it for London buildings, including St Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire. Bowers Quarry began as a cluster of small family-run open workings in the late 18th century. Albion Stone plc secured the lease from the Crown Estate in 1979 and has worked the site since, latterly moving extraction underground. Planning permission for a first trial mine came in 1998; trials at Bowers ran from 2002 to 2005, high-wall extraction began in spring 2006, and the Jordans mine followed in 2008. Dorset County Council approved an extension under the playing fields to the south in 2013, with reserves put at twenty to thirty years and a phased restoration, and the Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory project of 2006 plans to return nearly half of the quarry to limestone grassland.

Geology

The pale oolitic limestone of the Isle of Portland, worked on the west side of the island.

Workings

Bowers began as an open quarry, but in 1998 Albion Stone won planning permission for a trial underground mine there — Portland's first — to reduce the surface scarring and environmental impact of traditional open quarrying. Mining trials ran from 2002 to 2005, with underground extraction from Bowers eventually linking up with the adjacent Jordans Mine workings in November 2019; all current extraction from the site is underground.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Bowers remains an active, working underground mine operated by Albion Stone, with public access restricted; the site is not open to casual visitors.

Related mines

• Coombefield Quarry — Coombefield is one of the Isle of Portland's freestone quarries covered by the Portland stone quarries record.
• Jordans Mine — Albion Stone's Bowers workings, covered there, were joined to Jordans Mine underground in 2019.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Underground mining trials at Bowers began in 2002, following 1998 planning permission, and ran until 2005. ^1,2
• Bowers Mine workings linked up with the adjacent Jordans Mine in November 2019. ²
• Portland stone was specified for St Paul's Cathedral by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London. ^1,3
• Planning permission for a first Portland stone trial mine came in 1998; trials at Bowers ran from 2002 to 2005, high-wall extraction began in spring 2006 and the Jordans mine followed in 2008; Dorset County Council approved an extension under the playing fields to the south in 2013, with reserves put at twenty to thirty years and a phased restoration. ³

Sources

1. (secondary) The History of Portland Stone: Albion Stone's Legacy — Albion Stone plc
2. (secondary) Our Mines: Jordans/Bowers & Stonehills — Albion Stone plc
3. (secondary) Bowers Quarry — Wikipedia
4. (observational) Portland Victorian tunnel, Portland Dorset, Oct 2016 — 28DaysLater.co.uk
5. (primary) Mine plan: BOWERS — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue

Record created: 25 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026