Swanage Railway

In 1847 there were already two railways (horse drawn) in Purbeck and a steam vessel "Sirus" was carrying ball clay across the channel. A steam tug "Frome" had been built at Ridge to tow the ball clay barges. 

The Purbeck ball clay pit owners could see the advantages of having a steam railway to "export" both ball clay and Purbeck stone via the newly built main line through Wareham.  William Joseph Pike had met George Stevenson in 1846 in Birmingham and had heard of the massive savings that railways brought over other forms of transport. 

Joseph Willis jr. (Benjamin Fayle's manager at Norden Farm), Henry Hatherley (who was digging ball clay at Furzebrook), William Joseph Pike (who was digging ball clay at Creech) and John Brown (who at some stage dug clay from Blue Pool) joined forces with John Mowlem to propose a railway that followed a route similar to the modern day Wareham bypass and then ran past the ball clay pits and on to Swanage.

Cutting from the Poole and Dorsetshire Herald

The attempt was thwarted by the residents of Wareham who objected to the line going too close to the town. 

The ball clay pit owners then when on to purchase their own steam locomotives and export their ball clay via narrow gauge railways running to the harbour.

Another thwarted attempt was made by others 30 years later in 1877 and it wasn't until 1880 that George Burt managed to succeed in getting a parliamentary bill passed for the construction of the Railway.

It was completed in 1885 with Ball Clay export sidings at Eldon's Siding. Stone export yards were installed in Swanage. (The Furzebrook ball clay sidings were added sometime after 1901.)  With the coming of the railway, a few clay workers left the clay industry to become railway workers. The Railway also provided employment for several sons of clayworkers.

William Joseph Pike died just a few months before the Wareham to Swanage Branch Line opened and is buried in Church Knowle Cemetery