It has been accepted that ball clay has been used since Roman times (and maybe back to early bronze age). There is  evidence that by the third century there was a Roman pottery at Norden. However it was the introduction of tobacco to England in 16th century by Sir Walter Raleigh and others and the need for a suitable clay with which to make tobacco pipes that led to the start of the modern ball clay trade. By 1749 there were complaints that the masters of vessels being loaded with tobacco and pipe clay from lighters in Poole harbour frequently threw ballast from their ships 'so that several Channels and Streams of the said Haven and Harbour are so Heaped and Quarred with stones and Rubble of Ballast that they will soon be blocked'.  
    In 1771 Josiah Wedgwood signed a contract with Thomas Hyde at Arne for the supply of 1400 tons of ball clay to provide him with his "secret ingredient" to enable to fire thinner walled ceramics. Josiah Wedgwood had searched all over for other supplies of the clay. His friend, Joseph Banks, brought clay back from Botany Bay Australia. In a letter to Joseph Banks (later to become Sir) in March, 1790, Josiah Wedgwood was able to proclaim that the clay was an "Excellent Material for Pottery." However in 1792 Wedgwood admitted in a letter to William Morton Pitt that he had come to the conclusion that "Purbeck Blue Clay" (as Ball Clay was known to him) was the best in the world. He used it to create his world famous Queen's Ware which made him a very wealthy man. Tea drinking had taken off in the eighteen century adding to Wedgwood's market. Wedgwood's wealth was inherited by Charles Darwin who was able to use it to fund  his theory of evolution. 
    In 1785 Josiah Wedgwood gave evidence to a privy council regarding the benefits of his trade and one section referred to the fact that the wealth of the harbour of Poole depended on the Newfoundland fishing fleet. This fishing fleet was able to be profitable due to the fact that it carried Ball clay to Liverpool at times when, without this employment, it would have been laid up idle in harbour. In 1813 Tobacco pipe clay (as Ball clay was then known as) was exempt from all Poole harbour duties.
    From the 1796 Corfe Census of the 96 men involved in local industries and living in the town, 55 were clay cutters. 
    At  the Great Exhibition in 1851 Whiteway and Watts, Pike Brothers and B.Fayle and Co  had stands selling Purbeck clay. Herbert Byng Hall wrote" "What interest in a clay pit?" says a novel reader; "and what is clay?" Clay I reply, is the comfort of half the homes in the world and Purbeck Clay a jewel more valuable to the people than the great diamond 'Koh-i-noor'. I trust the clay of Purbeck may take its place among the raw products of this great nation, and prove not the least valuable article in the Exhibition, while Purbeck marble retains its place of yore - fitting for the erection of magnificent edifices dedicated to God." 
    In 1865 Sir Oliver Lodge, at the age of 14, entered his father business (Oliver Lodge & Son) as an agent for B.Fayle & Co. selling Purbeck Blue Clay to the potteries. He met the then directors of B.Fayle and Co - Charlotte Fayle and Benjamin Babington. Oliver continued to assist his father (Oliver Lodge) until he reached the age of 22. He traveled as far as Scotland selling Purbeck Blue Clay. His father's wealth obtained from selling Purbeck ball clay enabled Oliver to attend physics lectures in London and then to study for his B.Sc. He became the Professor of Physics at the new Liverpool University and then much later on, the first Principal of Birmingham University.  In 1894 Oliver lodge became the first person to send a message by wireless signal. Lodge was certainly ahead of the better-known Marconi. Indeed, he brought a successful law suit against the Italian for making use of his patents. As a result of the case, he was appointed scientific adviser to Marconi's company. Sir Oliver Lodge also invented the spark plug and contributed to physics, so much that both Einstein and Hertz gave him credit for some of their work.
    Ball clay continued to provide a major employment for the local population right up to present times. Late 20th century production from Purbeck has been in the region of 125,000 to 150,000 tons a year with a workforce of around 200.
    In 1847 the Clay Merchants and John Mowlem proposed the first Swanage railway scheme, which failed due to the recession that took place then. However when the Swanage Railway was built in 1885, Clay sidings at Furzebrook and Eldons and Stone sidings at Swanage were constructed to satisfy that original scheme. Ball clay provided a valuable cargo for the Swanage Branch trains for the first half of the 20th Century
    Products containing ball clay are used everyday by all of us here and throughout the world. Ball clay is an important ingredient of tableware, washbasins, toilet bowls, wall and floor tiles and other ceramic products including insulators. It is used as a filler in some rubber and plastic products such as garden hoses, windscreen wipers and car window trims. In the past it has been used in the refining of sugar, and cleaning of piano felts!
Extraction continues today at several quarries in Purbeck and the ball clay is processed at Furzebrook. All transport is now initially by road. At present Ball clay is Britain's second most important mineral export after oil.

Map of Ball Clay Railways in Isle of Purbeck

and for more on the history of Ball Clay visit the Ball Clay Heritage Society