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St Andrews Church is a ruined church on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. The church is situated on the east side of the island, above the Church Ope Cove beach, near Wakeham village. It is found close to the ruins of Rufus Castle and the private Gothic Revival mansion Pennsylvania Castle, including John Penn's Bath. St Andrew's Church was Portland's first parish church and one of the island's prime historical sites. It remained the parish church of the island until the mid-18th century. St. Andrews Church is Portland's oldest part-surviving building and has been a Grade II * Listed Building since January 1951. The southern retaining wall of the churchyard has been Grade II Listed since September 1978. The wall is partly medieval, and occasionally repaired and overgrown, stepping down the cliff-side. The three remaining churchyard monuments, approx 7 metres south of the church, have been Grade II Listed since May 1993. This comprises two chest tombs and a headstone, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. ==History== Through archaeology, it has been discovered that the site was occupied from Saxon period, dating 1500 years ago. The church structure reveals the foundations of an earlier Saxon church. Edward the Confessor, the son of the exiled Ethelred the Unready had bestowed Portland to the Benedictine Monks of St. Swithin of Winchester in 1042 who in turn built a new church over the old Saxon foundations in 1100. In January 1340 French raiders landed at Church Ope Cove and torched St. Andrews and again in 1404, where each time the tiny church was rebuilt. Around 1470–1475 a tower was added and the church was dedicated to St. Andrew. In 1625 a wall was built to shore up the land after a landslip had damaged the church, and threatened half of the cemetery to collapse. Another major landslip in 1675 caused considerable damage, whilst the church continued to suffer from an unstable site and various invasions of French pirates. The church was abandoned after it was in danger of falling over the cliff after a second massive landslip around 1734–1735, known as The Great Southwell Landslip which remains Britain's second largest recorded historical landslide. This event caused a large section of the graveyard to slip down the cliff.〔 Following the 1734 landslip, a decision was made, which led to the church being closed and partly demolished in July 1756. Much of the stone was taken for use in local domestic dwellings.〔 St George's Church was soon built at Reforne between 1754 and 1766, near Easton village, to replace the church. During the second world war, the graveyard and monuments were damaged by bombing. The site was excavated by J. Merrick Head in 1898.〔 The church ruins were cleared and consolidated by the Portland Field Research Group in 1968–1973, and again in 1978–1982 the site was tidied and excavated by archeologists.〔http://www.strollingguides.co.uk/workshop/darkroom/galleries/popup.php?refNo=1102281&pageCode=churchope1&subPageCode=standrews&z=m〕 Today, the barest ruins now remain of the church, whilst some of the original stones are in the garden of Portland Museum.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St Andrew's Church, Portland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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