THE story of Portland’s historic fishing industry is being brought to life on the island with a week of exciting Spirit of the Sea events.

Portland Museum has teamed up with the borough’s maritime festival to host an evocative audio and visual exhibition and gather islanders’ memories every day this week until Saturday, July 9.

‘The Story of the Lerret’ is being held the museum gardens to celebrate the history of Portland and Chesil Bank’s traditional wooden fishing boat, which can trace its documented ancestry back to 1618.

At the heart of the exhibition will be two Lerrets – the motherboat Vera, a 1923 vessel replica, and daughter-boat Littlesea, built by Lyme Regis’s Gail McGarva last year.

A story-telling tent, a visual display of extracts, an oral history collection and photographs of the Lerret fisher folk who have shared their memories will all evoke a history that was ‘in danger of extinction.’ Gail McGarva, co-ordinator of the Lerret project, said: “This project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

“It started with a replica I built to a boat from 1923.

“The Lerret was in danger of extinction, I was very committed to preserving the lineage of the Lerret and then the preserving of people’s memories came about through the boat building.

“When I was building the boats, many people came forward with stories, articles and photos of their Lerret fishing days, with that I approached Lyme Regis museum and they were very good and helped me to set up a touring exhibition.”

She added: “This is basically the third event of the tour.

“The Lerret was popular all the way along the Chesil Beach coastline and Portland Musuem seemed the perfect spot to take the exhibit.

“We will have our audio equipment with us so if anyone wants to come down and share their Lerret memories, we’ll be able to record it and add it to the collection.”

Portland Museum co-ordinator Lisa Gravett said: “On entering you will hear the recorded voices of the fisher folk and you will be surrounded by the nets, floats, pots and stones of the Lerret fishing days.

“If you have a memory of Lerret fishing that you would like to share, there will be audio equipment available to preserve your memory on the day and add it to the oral history collection.”

In addition to the museum exhibition, the Lerret will also be the star attraction of a Portland Revive community event on Chesil Beach, close to the Cove House Inn.

The Revive the Lerret event on Sunday, July 10 will begin at 10.30am, with a procession at 11am, the boat Littlesea will be launched into the sea, plus music from the Island Voices community choir.

Find out more at spiritofthesea.org.uk