Listed Building record MDO22127 - Middlebere Plateway tunnel, Corfe Castle

Plateway tunnel of about 1807, a plaque of 1848 gives the date of a partial rebuilding. Coursed stone rubble with dressed stone arch rings. The tunnel was built for Benjamin Fayle, a London based shipping agent and insurance broker, who leased the Norden clay pits from William Morton Pitt in 1804. By 1806 he had constructed a plateway from the clay pits to Middlebere Quay, on Poole Harbour. Clay was taken from the pits to the quay by horse drawn train. The tunnel became disused in 1845, and was rebuilt in 1848. The plateway remained in use as a horse drawn railway until about 1905, when a new line was built. Middlebere Plateway was one of the earliest railways in southern England.

Record last edited

Mar 7 2013 4:34PM