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WEST SOMERSET MINERAL RAILWAY

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The Railway was designed primarily to carry iron ore from the Brendon Hill mines to an outlet port at Watchet, but also carried passengers. It received Royal assent in 1855, and work started on it in 1856 and was completed in 1861. It ran successfully until 1898, when failure of the mines caused its closure. It was briefly reopened in 1907, and was finally closed in 1916; its rails being commandeered by the Ministry of Munitions in 1917.

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The West Somerset Mineral Railway was designed primarily to carry iron ore from the Brendon Hill mines to an outlet port at Watchet, but also carried passengers. It received Royal assent in 1855, and work started on it in 1856 and was completed in 1861. It ran successfully until 1898, when failure of the mines caused its closure. It was briefly reopened in 1907, and was finally closed in 1916; its rails being commandeered by the Ministry of Munitions in 1917 (1).

This feature was recorded as part of the Brendon Hills Mapping Project carried out by the Aerial Survey section of RCHME. No additional data was added (2).

The WSMR ran from Watchet on the West Somerset coast to Gupworthy high on the Brendon Hills. Construction started in 1856 and the line was opened as far as Brendon Hill, at the head of an impressive incline, in 1861. The line was completed as far as Gupworthy in 1864. The WSMR was closed in 1898, then re-opened as far as Brendon Hill by the Somerset Mineral Syndicate in 1907. Rails were comandeered in WWI, and the company was wound up in 1925.

The history of the railway has been described at great length (1), and the remains of the incline have been recorded in considerable detail by Mike Jones for the Exmoor National Park Authority . The incline runs for over 1km from ST 0292 3528 to ST 02333 3446 with a gradient of 1 in 4. The principal building was the winding house (ST 0233 3446), which had a cottage - Drum Cottage - inserted into one side (3).

The whole of the course of the incline and the winding house have been recently purchased by ENPA, who hold copies of the detailed surveys mentioned above (4).

A 62m length of the trackbed centred on ST02033426 is scheduled. (5)

Recorded by NRIM. (6)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) by Roger Sellick with contributions by J R Hamilton and M H Jones 1970 The West Somerset mineral railway and the story of the Brendon Hills iron mines

The West Somerset Mineral Railway and the story of the Brendon Hills Iron Mines 2nd Ed RJ Selliic

(I)

(2) Vertical aerial photograph reference number

CPE/UK/1944/3142-8/23-JAN-1947

(3) General reference

Jones M 1998 Notes on some of the Brendon Hills iron mines and the WSMR

(4) Field Investigators Comments

Riley H 1999 RCHME Field Investigation

(5) Scheduled Monument Notification

Schedule notification o7-Feb-2005

(6) National Record of Industrial Monuments

Recorded by AH Parsons, Dec-1964, Record No.SO79

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