"I don't know what it is that makes it unique but it's a one off": the weird and wonderful Portland Museum

Visiting Portland Museum, its own history almost overshadows the history of the thousands of pieces it holds.

Founded by Marie Stopes, a fascinating woman with a colourful career, the museum houses everything from mummified cats and a Roman sarcophagus to 200 million year old fossils and cherries pickled in brandy found in a shipwreck.

Volunteer Keith Searson, from Portland, has agreed to take me around the museum to learn more about the fascinating history of the island.

Stopes purchased the cottages in 1926 hoping that the 'doubly interesting relics of Portland's past may not only be saved from further ruin, but may be restored'.

In a letter about the museum, she wrote: 'The island has so many features of unique historical value... I often ask - where is the Museum of Portland Island? - the place where Portland's children's children may find old treasures preserved?'.

Of the collections today, Keith said: "99.9 per cent of the stuff that we have from the museum is from the island."

Walking around the museum, the first collection, of reeve sticks, is of the Victorian period.

Keith said: "This was the rent book before it was made into the book."

The 'book' is a long wooden stick with engraved marks.

Keith said: "The marks denote how much the rent collector would collect from the properties. Each mark was how much to charge for that property.

"The more substantial the reeve sticks was, the richer the person was collecting. 1742 is the oldest one we have.

"The George Inn was the headquarters where they would run all the meetings."

Keith said it was unusual for females to collect rent.

He said: "The women could collect rent as well but only if they owned a property."

One woman of course who did own property on the island was Stopes.

The champion for birth control and author of 'Married Love' – a book on how she thought marriage should work which made her a national figure, was a dominant figure on the island.

In the museum a permanent exhibition is dedicated to her impressive and elusive life and work.

Stopes moved to Portland to escape from 'the difficult climate of London' and a court case against a H G Sutherland who had attacked her birth control campaign.

Though she had left 'society', she set up a workshop on the island and continued to build on her lasting legacy.

The island, rich with archaeological and geological history hugely attracted Stopes.

Keith said: "She was a very good friend of Thomas Hardy and this was her workshop.

"She was a fiery lady. She was into eugenics – she sent a book of poems to Hitler."

Keith said Stopes devoted her life to women's rights, poetry and birth control – and unbeknown to some, collecting cycads.

Keith said: "We have the largest collections of fossilised cycads in the world."

Part of the interest with Portland for Stopes was its uniqueness.

One exhibition in the museum is titled 'Keep Portland Weird'. It displays what it describes 'the wonderful, curious and darn right odd things collected by Portland people'.

Among the items discovered were mummified cats from the 1800s.

Taking centre stage in the first room in the museum – Keith said it's one of the most talked about items in the museum.

He said: "The story is they had them in between the walls to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck to people who lived in the household. It creates a talking point!"

Alongside cats in the walls were children's shoes in the chimney which are now on display in the museum.

Keith said: "It was common to place a children's shoe in the chimney for good luck."

Elaborate inscriptions and certificates line the other side of the walls of the room. They are gifts that were given in the 18th and 19th centuries to churches on the island.

Keith said: "You would buy yourself a pew if you wanted to go to church and would leave money to the church."

He said people hoped it would then mean they were looked after. Records from 1871 list a quarry worker on the island who donated £425 to the church.

Keith said: "It comes out to £26,000 in today's money."

Walking outside in the pretty garden of the museum, our attention alarmingly turns to a 500 kilogram Luftwaffe bomb from the Second World War.

Keith said: "In 1995 they were changing the turf on Portland Football Club's grounds and the JCB unearthed the bomb.

"They cleared the island at the top for three miles and everyone had to be evacuated from Saturday to Monday. It was the biggest peace time evacuation."

Alongside the bomb in the garden is 160 million year old fossilised bones and a 2000 year old Roman sarcophagus.

Keith's attention is firmly on the sarcophagus.

He said: "It amazes me every time how they made them without all the tools and electricity."

Roach stones and fossilised wood from the Jurassic period and around 145 to 200 million years ago fills the rest of the garden, grabbing your attention at every nook and cranny.

As we walk into the second part of the museum, its wooden beamed ceilings and stone flag floors instantly take you back in time, and to the days that date back to 1649.

Fictionally, this is where Thomas Hardy's heroine in The Well-Beloved –Avice Caro, lived.

Today, the room is the 'stone exhibition' for the museum, housing incredible finds from quarries on the island, and documenting quarrying history – one of Portland's most prominent trades.

Keith said: "We have all the different types of stone and we have all the different implements that they still use today."

Fossilised fish in limestone and 150 million year old fossilised ammonites line the cabinets.

Although the giant fossils are impressive, there's a topaz-coloured stone glistening in the corner of room which is hard to ignore.

It's the Rosette Gem which was bequeathed to the museum after Robert Peters discovered the stone in 1929 in a gap between layers of stone at Broadcroft Quarries.

In 1930 it gained a huge amount of interest when it went on display.

Keith said: "That's our pride and joy as the National Museum confirmed that the Rosette gem is 'exceptional and that they have nothing similar'."

One of the last exhibitions you come across is also one of the most interesting. It tells the story of Portland's convict prison, the Grove.

The prison opened in 1848 when a first band of 64 convicts landed at Castletown.

By 1851 over 825 convicts were working in the quarries.

They were housed in four timber halls which had 700 cells. It's said the conditions were harsh and cruel.

One interesting piece on display in the prison is a straight-jacket.

Keith said: "All they had in their cells was a horse hair mattress and a chair. There were 500 prisoners all confined in their cells for 23 hours a day."

The exhibition interests Keith greatly. Before volunteering at the museum, he worked as an OSG at theYoung Offenders Institute on Portland.

He said: "When I came out of the prison service I was in for 20 odd years, I was at a loss of what to do. I came here and it's been brilliant."

Keith has lived on Portland for about 45 years. These days, he describes himself as a 'frustrated genealogist' who loves history.

He said: "I like this as it's opened my eyes to things that I didn't realise was there. At my age you can't vegetate, you must do something. It's the best thing I have done.

"I like meeting people and promoting the island and supporting it, I always talk about it.

"Hopefully my little bit promotes the island – at times it's left to its own devices.

"I don't know what it is that makes it unique but it's a one off."

* The museum trust is currently trying to raise funds for the desperate need to repair the museum's roof to protect everything it holds.

So far, around half of the total funds, £15,000, has been raised. To help support the museum, visit portlandmuseum.co.uk to find out more.

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