Progress is being made on the two key areas incorporating the two portals bounding the Green Corridor path: the top Gatekeeper Stone with outdoor learning area, and the lower pathway for reconstruction of the archway from 81 Fleet Street and its connection to the accompanying outdoor learning spaces. Funding routes are being followed with planning permission and approved traffic management plan in place, enabling some work to start on clearing invasive species These Portals will give access to new partnerships and collaborations that offer innovative opportunities and ways forward for ‘Climate and Land, People and Nature’.
Dr Clair Chinnery has an artist’s residency with Portland Sculpture & Quarry Trust (PSQT) that will contribute to the Gatekeeper Stone / learning area, building on her recent research into sculptural forms that draw a parallel with stromatolites as the earliest life forms - a theme that was identified for the first area of the Green Corridor.
The Gatekeeper Stone is a uniquely-sited with its quarried face aligned east to west representing the formation/ geomorphology of the Isle of Portland. Geomorphology underlies the whole UNESCO World Heritage Coast Site (96 miles) with Portland at its centre both geologically and geographically.
The Gatekeeper Stone is the last evidence of a Gulley from Inmosthay Quarry and marks the entrance to the first outdoor learning/creative zone with the stromatolites. This has global and local significance as the earliest living thing that gave oxygen to the planet.
PSQT has a unique fossil record that forms part of a digital and physical Living Land Archive, informed by primary source materials from field study research by over twenty earth-scientists’; foremostly Paleoclimatologist, Prof. Dame Jane Francis with her research and commitment to Portland spanning 40 years. Examples from the Living Land archive will be reinstated along the path leading from the Gatekeeper Stone, with every footstep representing 1 million years descending through time. There is also an innovative concept to incorporate examples of the fossil record within the new design for the reconstruction of the back of the arch, with both portals reflecting Portland strata from past to present and present to past.
Hannah met up with Sam and Donna Dawkins in London to discuss the installation of the Fleet Street archway at the base of the Green Corridor pathway. Not only is this a continuation of the Dawkins family’s involvement in the Portland collaboration, but Sam and Donna are inspirational and talented architects who understand the importance of correct siting in the landscape, honouring the history of place. A visit to Portland is being planned in the Spring.
Sam and Donna have an existing connection with Portland stone having previously won a competition to carve a bench from a ton block of Portland Stone. Inscribed with quotes and directions, installed near Smithfield Market in London, the bench is the central focus of a public garden in West Smithfield. Some Gatekeepers visited it while on the Shakespeare South day in October 2025 with Peter and Sarah Dawkins, following a powerful London ley. The journey ended at Sir Christopher Wren’s house on the South Bank of the River Thames.
Angela Shaw
Gatekeeper Trustee