Mineral tramway at Shoreham Beach?

[pomme homme]

Over at http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2146.0 I made mention of a tramway that, apparently until the early part of the last century, crossed the shingle spit that is now Shoreham Beach. More specifically, that post said:

"Looking at the 1912 maps of Shoreham Beach I note that there was a tramway, running from the southern shore of the Adur in a SSE direction across the shingle to just above the high water mark on the beach. I would hazard a guess that this was hand propelled and used to transport shingle back to Shoreham, perhaps for use as ships' ballast. Does anyone know anything about this, its purpose and the dates between which it operated?"

Can anyone shed a little light in my darkness?

[Pete]

Nothing of much use other than it looks that Shingle Rd now follows it's line, so maybe just shingle for building use? Similar at Newhaven post WW1 under the fort cliffs using WW1 military locos & track and quite a bit of track still there

[helcion]

Pete     -

That sounds interesting, is the track accessible ?

I haven't been to Newhaven for several years & had heard that the west pier & a lot of ground nearby, below the cliffs, had been closed off by the the port owners & that the locals were less than amused.

Is this still the case ?

Thanks.

Helcion

[Pete]

Yes  still accessible, if you park near the Hope and walk up to the breakwater you can go onto the beach west of it, only the sand beach is closed (B*******S). You need low tide, and be careful as the edges on it are razor sharp. You may also find a few Lee Enfield & Lee Metford bullets (spent heads) there and fuze mechanisms for WW1 rifle grenades

[Pete]

Going back to the original posting, was there a "Blue Boulder" trade or any Silica works at Shoreham? Nehaven had a thriving industry collecting wagon loads of blue pebbles which were ground locally or sent to the North west for the glass & pottery industries

[helcion]

Pete    -

Thanks for info.

Cheers

Helcion

[pomme homme]

.....so maybe just shingle for building use?

Could be. Looking at the map again, at its northern end the tramway appears to conclude with a short jetty (?) on the south bank of the Adur, which might suggest that the shingle was either shipped out by sea or taken upriver by barge. However against that argument is the fact that the jetty - if that is what it is - appears to be very short and not to reach much beyond the high water mark (and certainly well short of the low water mark), which might make transhipment less than the most practical proposition. Other than waterborne transport, the roads at Shoreham Beach at that time do not look conducive to motor transport. And in any event, if a motor lorry (or even a horse and cart) could get to the northern terminus of the tramway, why bother with transhipment when the shingle could have been loaded direct at source (and presumably free of charge)?

[helcion]

I have a 1958 booklet of 'Industrial Locomotives of the Southern England' produced by the Industrial Locomotive Information section of the Birmingham Locomotive Club, the predecessor of the Industrial Railway Society.

There is no mention of any line at Shoreham, the only loco-worked line, of a similar nature, on the Sussex coast being the better known one at Cuckmere Haven, operated by the East Sussex Transport & Trading Co. & which is listed as being at Exceat Beach.

However at that time 'Industrial' lines, particularly narrow gauge ones, were still being 'discovered' & BLC was only recording loco-worked lines, unlike today when all industrial lines, loco-worked or otherwise are recorded.

The Shoreham beach line, of course, was probably long-gone & forgotten when the booklet was being compiled, although closed lines are recorded.

I've not heard of a line at Shoreham before   -   I'll put up a query on the IRS & NGRS internet forums & see what turns up.

Cheers

Helcion

  

[pomme homme]

Thank you, helcion. Are you a NGRS member too?

[helcion]

pomme homme    -

Certainly am.     I find that the NGRS & IRS nicely cover my railway interests.

Plus the 'net of course.

Cheers

Helcion

[helcion]

pomme homme   -


Apologies for the delay in posting this, I've been away from the computer for a few days.

The only response to my my query on the NGRS & IRS groups was from Nigel Attwood   -

. . . . I will need to spend time in my various books but it sounds very similar to a setup at Stokes Bay (Gosport) where the Army had a mining operation.

Basically the Army was and still is responsible for inshore and inland waterways and the Navy have the seas, so laying mines to protect the mouth of a harbour for instance was a Royal Engineer task.

Stokes Bay had a NG line running down to the water’s edge to deliver and collect mines to/from inshore boats.

Stokes bay had loco’s and wagons but these were for the line to Fort Gilkicker the line to the water was manually operated there are articles on Wikipedia on this setup.
 
I may be completely wrong for Shoreham but it is an avenue worth pursuing as it was an important port in WW1 . . . . . .


A possibility certainly, does anyone know whether the approaches to Shoreham were guarded by a shore-controlled minefield which could be detonated from ashore ?
Such minefields certainly existed during WW1.

Cheers

Helcion

[John]

does anyone know whether the approaches to Shoreham were guarded by a shore-controlled minefield which could be detonated from ashore ?
Such minefields certainly existed during WW1.

There was certainly one during WWII- more details can be seen here. Don't know about WWI though 

[Perseus]

There are bits of metal near the Old Fort at Shoreham which I thought were parts of the gun system for the  fort but on reflection they would be more consistent with a shingle carrying tramway

[Perseus]

Addenda:  shingle was moved from Shoreham Beach at the far eastern end by the Old Fort and used to replenish Southwick Beach. This is is all from memory and I do not have any references.

[pomme homme]

The fort is quite a distance from what appears, on the old OS maps, as the route of the tramway crossing Shoreham Beach, so your first thoughts may have been correct, Perseus. But if you have, or can take, photographs of the metalwork that you've seen, and post them on the forum, it may be possible to offer an opinion.