EDO8073 - Merchants' Railway, Portland; evaluation 2014

The route crosses Verne Common and runs south of The Verne Prison; it is marked in places by the presence of stone sleeper blocks on the ground surface. The evaluation comprised six hand-excavated trenches of varying dimensions. These trial trenches were located to identify additional, buried, stone sleeper blocks associated with the historic railway, and to provide an insight into their layout as well as the extent of disturbance since the railway’s abandonment. None of the trenches south of the Verne identified buried, paired, sleeper blocks, but the two most northerly trenches contained more extensive preservation of the abandoned railway.