Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum
| Purbeck Mining Museum | |
|---|---|
Purbeck Mining Museum under construction | |
| Terminus | Norden |
| Commercial operations | |
| Built by | Purbeck Mining Museum -Swanage Railway Trust |
| Original gauge | 3 ft 9 in (1,143 mm) |
| Preserved operations | |
| Stations | 0 |
| Preserved gauge | 2 ft (610 mm) |
| Commercial history | |
| Opened | 1806 |
| Closed | 1972 |
| Preservation history | |
| 2004 | Planning permission is granted to develop a mining museum adjacent to Norden Station |
| 2013 | Steam returns to the Line, officially |
| Headquarters | Swanage |
| Website | |
| www | |
The Purbeck Mining Museum was formed to preserve, record and interpret the historic extractive industries in ball clay mining in the Isle of Purbeck. The museum is located adjacent to Norden station on the Swanage Railway and is open on selected days from the end of March to early November on weekends, some weekdays and Bank Holidays from 11:00 to 16:00 (last admission 15:30) - it is normally open every day during the school holidays.
The redundant Norden No7 mine structure has been rebuilt on the site of the old Norden Clay Works with a narrow gauge railway laid around the site together with a new engine shed. The museum has three resident locomotives and a selection of restored wagons that worked on the lines around Norden.
One of the future aims of the museum is to construct a new building at Norden to house Secundus, a 2 ft 8 in (813 mm) gauge steam locomotive, wagons and other artefacts not on display at present. It will also contain a library and education centre.
It is planned to extend the narrow gauge railway to the other side of the Swanage Branch line to land owned by the group via Bridge 15. In 2010 a structural engineer surveyed Bridge 15, a skew bridge over the Swanage Railway. The condition of the bridge was good for a "temporary" bridge built in 1885. Since then the bridge has been involved in a serious incident in which it has been severely damaged.