A PROJECT to make an extinct species memorial on Portland got a boost as it was promoted at events around the country.

Blackadder star Miranda Richardson is the latest high profile figure to give the scheme her backing – she attended an exhibition at St Paul’s Cathedral where stone carving works created on the island have been put on display.

St Paul’s was constructed by Sir Christopher Wren using Portland stone.

Ms Richardson was also invited to ring a bell to mark the Inter-national Day for Biological Diversity. At the same time, a bell cast at a stone carving festival on Portland last year was rung at the Royal Manor Arts College on the island.

As well as the bell ringing there were readings by the students about extinct species.

They were among the events raising the profile of the Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory project, known as Memo. It is an idea to build a roofless circular stone enclosure on the island recognising the species that have gone extinct since the dodo.

Moves are being made to raise £5 million to build it and an adjoining education centre.

More details about the scheme were unveiled at a two-day stone carving festival on Portland.

The event, which also included the casting of a bell in a piece of stone for the first time, offered people the opportunity to make their own contributions in stone towards Memo.

That opportunity was also offered at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival and the Hay Festival at Hay-on-Wye.

Memo is the idea of sculptor Sebastian Brooke who used to work on Portland.

He said: “The carvings exhibited at St Paul’s were ones we made last year on Portland.

“The exhibition on the site of the old chapter house is being run in conjunction with the St Paul’s Institute.

“Miranda Richardson is passionate about conservation issues and is interested in what we are doing with Memo. It was great to have her along.

“The bell she rang is a working model for the one we want to incorporate in the finished Memo memorial.”

Mr Brooke added: “It’s an incredibly popular project. It’s easy to grasp and everyone has been saying to me that it’s a good project and that it should happen.”

Planning consultant Mike Kelly from Weymouth is among the people locally who are supporting MEMO.

He said: “It’s very exciting but the council has to decide the best place to put it.

“I favour the east coast because visitors don’t tend to see that side plus it’s also the area where stone was quarried in the seventeenth century to rebuild London after the Great Fire.”