The former
lighthouse keepers’ cottages at Portland Bill Lighthouse in Dorset are to be turned into a new visitor centre.

Trinity House has agreed a lease with The Crown Estate for the premises, which will be rejuvenated and used to create a visitor experience, themed
around Trinity House’s maritime history and its responsibilities
providing aids to navigation, charitable support and educational
services to the mariner since 1514.

Portland Bill Lighthouse has
been popular with visitors for many years but their experience to date
has been limited to ascending the lighthouse.

The new centre will engage
visitors in the history, workings and importance of aids to navigation
such as lighthouses and fog signals and the people who made it all
work. 

Displays will demonstrate the nature of modern aids to
navigation and demonstrate why as an island nation, dependent on the sea
for trade, they remain of critical importance to the safety of the
mariner and to a growing maritime leisure community.

The new
centre will open by Easter
2015. 

Through its
lighthouse-themed Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Education Packs, Trinity
House will encourage school groups to Portland Bill to engage in
science, numeracy and literacy-based curricular activities.

The
Crown Estate, which took over ownership of the lighthouse keepers’
cottages in the mid-1990s when the lighthouse was automated, wanted a
tenant who would use the ground floor of the premises in a manner
sympathetic to the history of the lighthouse and the local community.

The
reinvigorated attraction will complement the nine other lighthouses
that Trinity House opens to the public across England, Wales and the
Channel Islands, including the flagship Lizard Lighthouse Heritage
Centre in Cornwall, reopened by HRH The Princess Royal in 2009.

As well
as creating the new centre Trinity House is looking for a partner
organisation to operate the business on a day-to-day basis. This will be
of particular interest to those who have a background in managing
tourism-based activities with experience in generating footfall,
liaising with educational establishments and developing a locally-based
team to man and support the centre.

Neil Jacobson, portfolio manager for the South of England at The Crown Estate, said: ‘We are
delighted that we have been able to agree a lease with Trinity House,
building upon the progress made since 1997 when the centre first opened.

‘This is a great example of how we can work with our tenants to both
fulfil our commercial mandate and benefit local communities.’

Picture credit: Kevin Borg