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Northern Easton And The Grove
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© OpenStreetMap contributors - see http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
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This area covers the northern end of Easton Village and the western end of Grove Road.
The football stadium [3] is seen in the top right-hand of the map at its new location - it was moved to allow the Portland Stone to be quarried at the old site of the ground [2].
Inmosthay Quarry is to the west of the main A354 road.
The quarry to the north on the map is Independent Quarry and is a working quarry [5].
Originally the Fire Station was situated in Easton. However a modern replacement station was built in Grove Road [6].
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CROWN FARM [1]
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FOOTBALL GROUND ‘BLUES CLUB’ [2] [3]
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THE DRILL HALL [4]
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INDEPENDENT QUARRY [5]
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UNEXPLODED BOMB [2]
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THE NEW FIRE STATION [6]
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CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND [7]
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FOOTBALL PLAY AREA [8]
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VICTORIA PLACE [9]
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ANOTHER OF MY HOBBIES
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CROWN FARM [1]
A modern view of the buildings at the corner of Easton Street and The Grove. Crown Farm occupied this site until World War 2 when the buildings were greatly damaged by bombing.
Crown Farm in the 1920s.
Bomb damage to Crown Farm on 2nd July 1942. The Dairy was destroyed and the Farm House was extensively damaged.
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FOOTBALL GROUND ‘BLUES CLUB’ [2] [3]
The entrance to the Portland Football Stadium when it was in its original position closer to Easton and almost opposite Crown Farm.
The land beyond this archway has been quarried away but the arch remains as seen below.
The ‘Blues Club’ which is a popular centre for social events as well as the Portland Town Football Club - please see here.
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THE OLD DRILL HALL [4]
The Old Drill Hall just north of Easton. The Portland Volunteer Artillery Brigade was founded in 1859 and drilled in the ‘Old Maister's School’ but, in 1868, it moved into these new premises.
It was later used as offices by a stone company before being used by the local scouts and most recently being a centre for the arts specifically stone carving and sculpture courses - please see here.
There is an interesting account of the history of the Drill Hall by Ashley Smith here.
The Weymouth to Portland railway line ended in a quarry close to the main road and directly opposite the Drill Hall.
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INDEPENDENT QUARRIES [5]
This vast sprawling quarry dominates the area north of The Grove. In this panoramic picture the main workshops are central in the distance and the Old Drill Hall can just been made out on the skyline near the left edge of the picture.
Here we see a large redundant building being demolished in Independent Quarries in 1989.
Nearby was a stone crushing plant and this rusting piece of machinery was used to crush the stone. It has now been scrapped and the area where it stood has been quarried away.
This panoramic view shows the activity in the eastern end of Independent Quarry.
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UNEXPLODED BOMB [2]
In 1995 the quarry owners decided to quarry away the stone where the football club ground stood a new pitch and stands were built to the east. When the football pitch was ripped up an unexploded Luftwaffe bomb was found buried just under the middle of the playing area and this sparked the evacuation of 4000 people from their homes for the 31-hour operation by the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Team. The 1,000 lb device was thought to have been dropped in 1942 by a Heinkel bomber.
It was successfully removed to Portland Museum where it now sits.
The local Portlanders took this disruption in good heart and several 1940s style street parties were held with the locals dressed in appropriate fashions.
The full story of Portland’s Unexploded Bomb can be read here.
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FIRE STATION [6]
When the old fire station in Foundry Close was demolished (click here to see the old station) this new station was built in The Grove almost opposite the football club.
A view of the new fire station training tower with St George’s Church on the skyline.
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CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND [7]
This is an amazingly well equipped children’s playground.
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FOOTBALL PLAY AREA [8]
The area around the playground is a field used for football games. It is no competition for the Portland Blues Club stadium!
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VICTORIA PLACE [9]
Victoria Place is a small cul-de-sac west of the main road running north out of Easton. Perhaps the most interesting feature here was that the railway line from Weymouth to Easton continued for a short way beyond Easton Station and passed under Victoria Close. There is no sign of this track now. Please click here to see an old large-scale map of the route of the track.
It’s difficult now to imagine but the track extension from Easton Station (the terminus for passengers) once ran through this area and into Inmosthay Quarry.
At Victoria Place the Inmosthay Quarry goods extension track passed under a bridge and into the quarry where the remains of a crane were visible in the above picture from 1990. About ten years later the crane pivot base was covered in stone blocks and no longer visible. The scene was pictured below in March 2015.
At about this point there was once a large pile of coal. I bought my children here in the mid-1980s so that they could see and feel this strange and ancient fuel.
Eventually the Weymouth (Melcombe Regis) to Portland track ended at this point opposite the Drill Hall although no sign exists of this part of the line. The distant mobile phone is where the track eventually finished.
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ANOTHER OF MY HOBBIES
At the age of 75 I started a new hobby - writing and publishing books. These are available as paperbacks from Amazon - please click here for details. All have been very well received; their overall star rating from readers is 
Keywords North Easton Independent Quarry Fire Station Portland Town Football Club Blues Club Portland Dorset
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