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Merchant's Railway

1826 establishments in EnglandClosed railway lines in South West EnglandHistory of DorsetHorse-drawn railwaysIsle of Portland
Rail transport in DorsetRailway lines closed in 1939Railway lines opened in 1826Railways on English IslandsUse British English from July 2015
Verne Hill Portland Dorset
Verne Hill Portland Dorset

Merchant's Railway was a horse drawn and cable operated incline railway on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England, built for the stone trade on the island. It was the earliest railway in Dorset, opening in 1826. The railway ran two miles from many working quarries at the north of Tophill, along the edge of Verne Hill, to a pier at Castletown, from where the Portland stone was shipped. It was in operation from 1826 to 1939. Since becoming disused the original path of the railway has become a popular public footpath.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Merchant's Railway (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Merchant's Railway
East Weare Road,

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Wikipedia: Merchant's RailwayContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.565153 ° E -2.442786 °
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Address

East Weare Road

East Weare Road
DT5 1ES , Portland
England, United Kingdom
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Verne Hill Portland Dorset
Verne Hill Portland Dorset
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Portland Castle
Portland Castle

Portland Castle is an artillery fort constructed by Henry VIII on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, between 1539 and 1541. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the Portland Roads anchorage. The fan-shaped castle was built from Portland stone, with a curved central tower and a gun battery, flanked by two angular wings. Shortly after its construction it was armed with eleven artillery pieces, intended for use against enemy shipping, operating in partnership with its sister castle of Sandsfoot on the other side of the anchorage. During the English Civil War, Portland was taken by the Royalist supporters of King Charles I, and then survived two sieges before finally surrendering to Parliament in 1646. Portland continued in use as a fort until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, when it was converted into a private house. Fresh concerns over invasion led to the War Office taking it over once again in 1869, but the castle was not rearmed and was instead formed accommodation for more modern neighbouring fortifications. During the First and Second World Wars it was used as offices, accommodation and as an ordnance store. In 1949, the War Office relinquished control, and in 1955 it was opened to the public by the state. In the 21st century it is managed by English Heritage and operated as a tourist attraction, receiving 22,207 visitors in 2010. Historic England consider the castle to form "one of the best preserved and best known examples" of King Henry's forts.

Phoenix breakwaters
Phoenix breakwaters

The Phoenix breakwaters were a set of reinforced concrete caissons built as part of the artificial Mulberry harbours that were assembled as part of the preparations for the Normandy landings during World War II. They were constructed by civil engineering contractors around the coast of Britain. They were collected at Dungeness and Selsey, and then towed by tugboats across the English Channel and sunk to form the Mulberry harbour breakwaters replacing the initial "Gooseberry" block ships. Caissons were added in the autumn of 1944 to reinforce the existing structure to cope with the harbour continuing in use longer than planned. Several Phoenix breakwaters still exist in Britain: two are part of the harbour off Castletown at Portland Harbour in Dorset, and two can be dived in less than 10 metres of water off Pagham in West Sussex. There is also a smaller Phoenix Caisson (type C) in Langstone Harbour in Hampshire.A wrecked Phoenix breakwater is also to be seen, broken in two, in the Thames estuary off Shoeburyness in Essex. It broke while being towed from Harwich in June 1944. To avoid it causing a hazard to shipping in the Thames estuary, it was beached on the mud on the northern edge of the Thames dredged shipping channel. It is about a mile from the beach. It is not quite covered at high tide, but it is topped by a beacon to warn shipping of its presence. Several Phoenix breakwaters were used in the Netherlands to plug gaps in the dykes, four of them for a dyke at Ouwerkerk after the North Sea Flood of 1 February 1953. These four have now been converted into a museum for the floods called the Watersnoodmuseum. One can walk through the four caissons. Two of the Phoenix breakwaters were sold to Sweden in 1949, initially towed to Frihamnen port in Stockholm and moved on 20 September 1956 to the newly-built heat and power plant in Hässelby where they remain as of 2021.