Prison Type Convict Prison
Date opened 1848
Date closed post 1900 (still open)
Location Grove Road Portland
Map location exact or closely approximate
County Dorset
Opened November 1848 as the first male convict public works prison, receiving prisoners who had already undergone periods of separate confinement at Millbank, Pentonville and specially contracted local prisons. In the late 1860s and 1870s, selected to receive the small number of male juveniles who continued to receive sentences of penal servitude.
Prison Type Convict Prison
Date opened 1848
Date closed post 1900 (still open)
Location Grove Road Portland
Map location exact or closely approximate
Lat. 50.5502 Long. -2.4226
County Dorset
Opened November 1848 as the first male convict public works prison, receiving prisoners who had already undergone periods of separate confinement at Millbank, Pentonville and specially contracted local prisons. In the late 1860s and 1870s, selected to receive the small number of male juveniles who continued to receive sentences of penal servitude.
Year 1853
Annual Confined - 1620
Daily Census - 1312
Year 1858
Annual Confined - 2681
Daily Census - 1496
Year 1863
Annual Confined - 2198
Daily Census - 904
Year 1868
Annual Confined - 1994
Daily Census - 1558
Year 1873
Annual Confined - 1949
Daily Census - 1584
Year 1878
Annual Confined - 1976
Daily Census - 1587
Year 1883
Annual Confined - 1903
Daily Census - 1438
Year 1888
Annual Confined - 1183
Daily Census - 879
Year 1893
Annual Confined - 1404
Daily Census - 1065
Year 1898
Annual -
Daily Daily average - 749
Archive name: Norfolk Record Office
Catalogue ref: NEV 10/69, 591 x 2
Collection: Neville family of Sloley, Henderson correspondence, official
Description: Official correspondence, including to George from Yeamans re his inspection of Prison and public works at Portland with his colleague DuCane
Dates: 1863-1866
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 21/11
Collection: Home Office
Description: Prisons entry books, series I, Portland
Dates: 1847-1849
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 7/223
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Warrants constituting and appointing Convict Prisons etc. Portland Convict Prison.
Dates: 1853
Archive name: Dorset History Centre
Catalogue ref: NG/PR2
Collection: Portland Prison
Description: HM Prison, Portland, Visiting Justices' minutes
Dates: 1866-1878
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/354-366
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Portland, Governor's journals
Dates: 1848-1878
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/368
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Portland Prison, Dorset, register of prison staff
Dates: 1853-1880
Archive name: Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
Catalogue ref: 594/1
Collection: None
Description: David Alner of Portland Prison, Dorset. Letter of appointment to Portland Prison (1857), and admission as Out-Pensioner of Chelsea Hospital (1869).
Dates: 1857, 1869
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/383-391
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Portland Prison, Dorset, Prison registers
Dates: 1848-1865
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: HO 8/98-207
Collection: Home Office
Description: Quarterly returns of prisoners in Hulks and Convict Prisons, Portland, Dorset
Dates: 1848-1876
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/369-382
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Portland Prison, Dorset, general record of prisoners
Dates: 1859-1865
Archive name: Dorset History Centre
Catalogue ref: NG/PR/2
Collection: Portland Prison
Description: Deeds re Prison site and buildings
Dates: 1856-1936
Archive name: The National Archives
Catalogue ref: PCOM 7/3
Collection: Prison Commission
Description: Accommodation, cells, construction of, replacement of sleeping berths (corrugated iron cells) by larger cells at Dartmoor and Portland
Dates: 1894
Archive name: Dorset History Centre
Catalogue ref: D-1267/3/1
Collection: None
Description: Photograph of the interior of Portland Prison showing the new hall
Dates: c.1900
Archive name: Dorset History Centre
Catalogue ref: D-DPA/1/PTD/41-2
Collection: None
Description: Portland Prison entrance and view across a field to Portland Prison. Photographs.
Dates: 1898