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Furzebrook
Furzebrook is a small village on the Isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset in the south of England. It is about south of Wareham, Dorset, Wareham and northwest of Corfe Castle (village), Corfe Castle, and is in the Civil parishes in England, civil parish of Church Knowle. The name Furzebrook derives from the furze/gorse and a brook. The first use of the name was probably by Furzebrook Farm. Furzebrook became the centre of the clay industry as all the local Purbeck Ball Clay was taken there to ripen by exposing. The clay was repeatedly turned for six months. As the ball clay ripened it acquired plasticity and became suitable to mix with various other clays which made them more plastic. At Furzebrook there are several narrow-gauge railway tracks; these converged from outlying local mines and claypits, the Furzebrook Railway. A further narrow-gauge line ran to Ridge, Dorset, Ridge Wharf. As the Wareham to Swanage branch line of the London and South Western Railway was built it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Furzebrook Railway
The Furzebrook Railway, also known as the Pike Brothers' Tramway, was a narrow gauge industrial railway on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. It was built by the Pike Brothers, to take Purbeck Ball Clay from their clay pits near Furzebrook and West Creech to a wharf at Ridge on the River Frome. History Clay Merchant Joseph Pike created his firm around 1760 in Chudleigh in Devon, but it was his son William Pike (born 1762) who started a branch of the firm in Purbeck. He signed a contract with Wedgwood in 1791. Originally the output was taken by horse to Wareham, from where it was taken by barge on the River Frome to Poole Harbour. William's sons (William Joseph and John William) took over the business and formed the company as Pike Bros. Wedgwood's success increased demand so much that the horses struggled to keep pace. The nearest competitor, Benjamin Fayle at nearby Norden, had built Dorset's first railway - the Middlebere Plateway to take his clay to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Pool, Dorset
Blue Pool is a flooded, disused clay pit where Purbeck ball clay The Purbeck Mineral & Mining Museum was once extracted. It is now a lake within the Furzebrook Estate, a park of heath woodland and gorse near Furzebrook on the Isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset, southern England.http://www.bluepooltearooms.co.uk/ www.BluePoolTeaRooms.co.uk Furzebrook Estate is about south of Wareham and west of Corfe Castle. The pool started life early in the 17th century as a chalk pit. Purbeck ball clay was dug from the pit from the mid-17th century to the early 20th century. The ball clay was used to make fine ceramic products, such as smoking pipes, plates, cups and tea pots. The pit became disused before the First World War, but ball clay is still extracted from other pits in the area. The title 'blue' arose because there are minute particles of clay in colloidal suspension within the water. These suspensions variously diffract the light depending on the particles' size (with diffe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Purbeck Ball Clay
Purbeck Ball Clay is a concentration of ball clay found on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. Geology The main concentration of ball clay in Dorset is to the north of the Purbeck Hills centred on Norden. Ball clays are sedimentary in origin. Approximately 45 million years ago (in the Lutetian stage of the Eocene epoch) the climate was tropical and an ancient River Solent washed kaolinite (formed from decomposed granite) from its parent rock on Dartmoor. As the streams flowed from upland areas they mixed with other clay minerals, sands, gravels, and vegetation before settling in low-lying basins to form overlaying seams of ball clay. Ball clays usually contain three dominant minerals: from 20–80% kaolinite, 10–25% mica, and 6–65% quartz. In addition, there are other 'accessory' minerals and some carbonaceous material (derived from ancient plants) present. Exploitation Purbeck Ball Clay has been used for thousands of years, but large scale commercial extra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wytch Farm
Wytch Farm is an oil field and processing facility in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England. It is the largest onshore oil field in western Europe. The facility, taken over by Perenco in 2011, was previously operated by BP. It is located in a coniferous forest on Wytch Heath on the southern shore of Poole Harbour, two miles (3.2 km) north of Corfe Castle. Oil and natural gas (methane) are both exported by pipeline; liquefied petroleum gas is exported by road tanker. History Name The oil field takes its name from the neighbouring Wytch Farm which had existed on the site for many centuries on the fringes of Wytch Heath. Pre-1973 The earliest industry in the Wytch Farm area dated to the early medieval period and featured multiple salt production workshops. The workshops, adjacent to the modern oilfield, were part of a medieval salt industry owned by Milton Abbey. The site was excavated by Bournemouth University under the directorship of Dr Derek Pitman. The Isle of Purbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ridge, Dorset
Ridge is a village in the English county of Dorset. It is situated on the south bank of the River Frome, about half a mile due south east of the town of Wareham. Ridge forms part of the civil parish of Arne, within the Purbeck local government district. A wharf on the River Frome at Ridge was once a major transhipment point for Purbeck Ball Clay. The clay was brought to the wharf by the Furzebrook Railway, and transferred to barges for the voyage to Poole Harbour. The railway is now abandoned, and the wharf has become a marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o .... External links Isle of Purbeck Villages in Dorset {{Dorset-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church Knowle
Church Knowle is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck in the county of Dorset in the south of England. Church Knowle village is situated about west of Corfe Castle, south of Wareham and west of Swanage. In the 2011 census the parish—which includes the settlements of East Creech and Furzebrook to the north—had 114 households and a population of 261. The church is named Saint Peter's Church. Church Knowle Fete is held in the grounds of the Old Rectory every August. Pike family Buried in the Churchyard at Church Knowle are the two brothers who brought the first steam locomotive (Primus) to Purbeck in 1866 - The Pike Brothers - John William and William Joseph Pike (Purbeck Ball Clay Merchants). They are buried together with their relatives. John is buried with his mother-in-law Charlotte Bridges Mayer, who was the daughter of William Adams of London and wife of the potter Thomas Mayer. John lived at Westport House in Wareham, now the site of the home of Purbec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wareham, Dorset
Wareham ( ) is a historic market town and, under the name Wareham Town, a civil parish, in the English county of Dorset. The town is situated on the River Frome eight miles (13 km) southwest of Poole. Situation and geography The town is built on a strategic dry point between the River Frome and the River Piddle at the head of the Wareham Channel of Poole Harbour. The Frome Valley runs through an area of unresistant sand, clay and gravel rocks, and much of its valley has wide flood plains and marsh land. At its estuary the river has formed the wide shallow ria of Poole Harbour. Wareham is built on a low dry island between the marshy river plains. The town is situated on the A351 Lytchett Minster-Swanage road, linking Wareham with the A35 and A31 roads and the M27 motorway. Wareham is also the eastern terminus of the A352 road to Dorchester and Sherborne, both roads now bypassing the town centre. The town has a station on the South West Main Line railway, and was form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Purbeck (district)
Purbeck was a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Dorset, England. The district was named after the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula that forms a large proportion of the district's area. However, it extended significantly further north and west than the traditional boundary of the Isle of Purbeck which is the River Frome, Dorset, River Frome. The district council was based in the town of Wareham, Dorset, Wareham, which is itself north of the Frome. The district was formed under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, from the former municipal borough of Wareham, Swanage Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district and Wareham and Purbeck Rural District. The district and its council were abolished on 1 April 2019, together with the other four districts outside the greater Bournemouth area, to form a new Dorset (unitary authority), Dorset unitary authority. Its name is recorded in 948 AD as Old English, Anglo-Saxon ''Purbicinga'', meaning "of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil Parishes In England
In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts of England, districts and metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England, counties, or their combined form, the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of Parish (Church of England), ecclesiastical parishes, which historically played a role in both secular and religious administration. Civil and religious parishes were formally differentiated in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894, which established elected Parish councils in England, parish councils to take on the secular functions of the vestry, parish vestry. A civil parish can range in size from a sparsely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorse
''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are native to parts of western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia. Gorse is closely related to the brooms and like them has green stems and very small leaves and is adapted to dry growing conditions. However it differs in its extreme thorniness, the shoots being modified into branched thorns long, which almost wholly replace the leaves as the plant's functioning photosynthetic organs. The leaves of young plants are trifoliate, but in mature plants they are reduced to scales or small spines. All the species have yellow flowers, generally showy, some with a very long flowering season. Species The greatest diversity of ''Ulex'' species is found in the Iberian Peninsula, and most species have narrow distributio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isle Of Purbeck
The Isle of Purbeck is a peninsula in Dorset, England. It is bordered by water on three sides: the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the north. Its western boundary is less well defined, with some medieval sources placing it at Flower's Barrow above Worbarrow Bay. John Hutchins, author of ''The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset'', defined Purbeck's western boundary as the Luckford Lake steam, which runs south from the Frome. According to writer and broadcaster Ralph Wightman, Purbeck "is only an island if you accept the barren heaths between Arish Mell and Wareham as cutting off this corner of Dorset as effectively as the sea." The most southerly point is St Alban's Head (archaically St. Aldhelm's Head). From 1974 to 2019, the whole of the Isle of Purbeck lay within the local government district of Purbeck, which was named after it. The district extended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
