Listed Building: NORDEN TUNNEL 1 (469051)

SY 98 SW CORFE CASTLE NORDEN 1071/2/10005 Norden Tunnel (1) GV II Plateway tunnel. Dated 1807. Coursed stone rubble with dressed stone arch rings. Round arch tunnel, about 23 metres long, the keystone of the west portal inscribed: B.F. 1807. 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 plateway remained in use as a horse drawn tramway until about 1905, when a new line was built. Middlebere Plateway was one of the earliest railways in southern England. The tunnel now carries a watercourse. SOURCE: Wilmott, M. Unpublished research based on documentary records in Dorset Records Office and Wedgwood Archive, Keele. Listing NGR: SY9476783255

Record last edited

Jun 26 2009 4:02AM