BUTLER-WARKE, A. and WARKE, M.R. [2021]. Foundation stone of empire: the role of Portland stone in 'heritage', commemoration, and identity. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers [online], Early View. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12462 Foundation stone of empire: the role of Portland stone in 'heritage', commemoration, and identity. BUTLER-WARKE, A. and WARKE, M.R. 2021 This document was downloaded from https://openair.rgu.ac.uk Accepted: 25 April 2021 DOI: 10.1111/tran.12462 REGULAR PAPER Foundation stone of empire: The role of Portland stone in ‘heritage’, commemoration, and identity Alice Butler- Warke1 | Matthew R. Warke1,2 1School of Applied Social Studies, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK Abstract 2School of Earth and Environmental In 2013, Portland Stone, a creamy white limestone from the Isle of Portland in Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Dorset, was named the world’s first ‘Global Heritage Stone Resource’ (GSHR) by Andrews, UK the Heritage Stone Task Group, a sub-commission of the International Union of Correspondence Geological Sciences. The criteria for GSHR designation are ambiguous, with the Task Alice Butler- Warke, School of Applied Group championing Portland Stone’s ‘cultural value’ and ‘heritage’, neither of which Social Studies, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK. are critically interrogated. In this paper we undertake a detailed critical discourse Email:
[email protected] analysis of Hansard entries mentioning Portland Stone between 1803 and 2020. We reveal that the use of Portland Stone is intertwined with colonial oppression, class Funding information There are no funders to report for this subjugation, empire politics, structural racism, and a mythologised, England-centric submission.