Old Higher Lighthouse

[4][5] After years of local petitions to Trinity House, the organisation agreed for a lighthouse to be built at Portland Bill.

[5] Designed as leading lights to guide ships between Portland Race and the Shambles sandbank, they shone out for the first time on 29 September 1716.

[9] In 1788 Trinity House had Argand lamps installed within the higher lighthouse, which was the first in England to be fitted with them.

[14] Both Portland lighthouses were rebuilt in 1869,[8][10] and provided with large (first-order) fixed optics designed and built by James Chance.

[5][17] In 1923 the lighthouse was purchased by the palaeobotanist, campaigner for eugenics, pioneer of birth control and Portland Museum founder Marie Stopes as a summer residence.