The West Somerset Mineral Line Heritage project

摘要

In May, funds were raised by the Exmoor Society to engage a team of consultants to prepare a full and reasoned proposal for a long distance path across the northeast corner of Exmoor in SW England. Supported by the staff of the Exmoor National Park, the Town Council of Watchet, and the Town Museum, the route corresponds closely with the track of the late 19th century West Somerset Mineral Line, built between 1855 and 1861 to serve the iron mines of the Brendon Hills and the mining community close to the working sites. Starting in Watchet Harbour, the route reached the mines around Gupworthy some 13 miles to the southwest and more than 1250 feet above sea level. Much of that elevation was reached by means of a 1 in 4 incline rising 600 feet from Combe Row to the road beyond Ralegh's Cross. Two large winding drums counterbalanced the loaded against the empty wagons and controlled the traffic to and from Watchet. Development of the mines and the completion of the connecting mineral line folloxved the arrival of the Ebbw Vale Iron Company seeking high grade ore for their furnaces at the head of the Welsh Coalfield valleys, especially when they experimented with the Bessemer process of iron making, for which the low phosphorus ore of the Brendon Mines was well suited. Ore production was taken down the Washford Valley to the West Quay at Watchet, where it was loaded into a fleet of sailing boats which came back from Newport with Welsh coal for Somerset and North Devon.