Description

SY 98 SW
1071/2/10005

CORFE CASTLE
NORDEN
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SOURCE: Wilmott, M. Unpublished research based on documentary records in Dorset Records Office and Wedgwood Archive, Keele.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: SY9475083240

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26657290

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]