Dorset Museums 4 - Portland Museum

One of the attractions of local museums is that their very lack of sophistication gives them a unique charm that their urban brothers lack.
Portland museum is a great example of this. It occupies a modest quarry worker's cottage and is filled with objects tracing its relationship with both sea and stone. 

Thrown in for good measure is this intriguing exhibit of a rather withered moggy. 
Portland having been a virtual island until the 1820s meant that superstitions took a long time to disappear, as this unfortunate cat bears witness. Dating from the 1800s it was walled up alive in a new house to bring luck and to ward off evil spirits.

www.portlandmuseum.co.uk