In 2018 the history and stories of the dramatic Portland Stadium Bowl, situated in a former quarry next to the Young Offenders' Institution (formerly the Borstal) in the village of Grove, were reanimated. Using focussed speakers, visitors were given the sensation of being on a football pitch cheered on by the roar of 5000 ghostly supporters, where now there only stand terraces of trees. That Portland has such a grandiose amphitheatre, now rarely used, seems a metaphor for the quietened industries of the island, and the quarrymen whose hands now lie idle, mirrored by the forced inactivity of the young men residing at the Institute in Grove.
Using stories of the residents of the Young Offenders Institute past and present, their dreams and realities are represented both by the space and the beautiful game. Surely every young footballing child dreams of scoring in front of a home crowd, with the attendant visceral and deafening aural wall of sound surrounding them?
Fascinated by the grandeur and epic scale of its construction, I was drawn to the stories of those who created and played in the Stadium; the dreams it represented. From the ambitions of Burt Bridges, the 1931 Borstal officer and physical training instructor who first mooted its ambitious transformation, the Stadium offered a space for to the thwarted childhood dreams of the young offenders. For these young men, who levelled the quarry into a pitch and built the terraces, scoring goals offered a possible transcendence of physical incarceration through the realisation of sporting excellence.
Supported by HLF, there is a legacy publication and film made from archive material of the Stadium and the stories of those inside the YOI.
Using stories of the residents of the Young Offenders Institute past and present, their dreams and realities are represented both by the space and the beautiful game. Surely every young footballing child dreams of scoring in front of a home crowd, with the attendant visceral and deafening aural wall of sound surrounding them?
Fascinated by the grandeur and epic scale of its construction, I was drawn to the stories of those who created and played in the Stadium; the dreams it represented. From the ambitions of Burt Bridges, the 1931 Borstal officer and physical training instructor who first mooted its ambitious transformation, the Stadium offered a space for to the thwarted childhood dreams of the young offenders. For these young men, who levelled the quarry into a pitch and built the terraces, scoring goals offered a possible transcendence of physical incarceration through the realisation of sporting excellence.
Supported by HLF, there is a legacy publication and film made from archive material of the Stadium and the stories of those inside the YOI.
| atcgw_small_booklet.pdf |
