| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Corfe Castle |
| Locale | England |
| Dates of operation | c.1806–c.1907 |
| Successor | Fayle's Tramway |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 3 ft 9 in (1,143 mm) |
| Length | 3.5 miles (5.6 km) |
The Middlebere Plateway, or Middlebere Tramway, was a horse-drawn plateway on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. 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).