Middlebere Plateway

One of the first railways in southern England and the first in Dorset, the plateway was built by Benjamin Fayle, who was a wealthy Irish Merchant based in London and a friend of Thomas Byerley - Josiah Wedgwood's nephew.

It was intended to take Purbeck Ball Clay from his pits near Corfe Castle to a wharf on Middlebere Creek in Poole Harbour, a distance of some 3.5 miles (5.6 km).

At the time the manager of the clay pits was Joseph Willis and tenant at Norden Farm, so this points to a possible "self build" by Fayle's men to John Hodgkinson's instructions.

New track was laid from near the workshop area to these pits, on a route planned to run alongside and to the west of the proposed Wareham to Swanage railway.

This line was extended across the Wareham to Corfe Castle road by a level crossing to serve further clay pits to the north east.

The company already had a deeper-water quay at Goathorn on the southern shore of Poole Harbour, used for the export of clay from pits at nearby Newton.

The plates were three feet (0.91 m) long, L-shaped and made of cast iron, weighing 40 lb (18 kg).

[3] The plateway was one of the first users of the patent axle that was designed by John Collinge of Bridge Road, Lambeth.

The iron bridge over the main line railway, first built for the plateway and then used by Fayle's Tramway, still stands.