West Somerset Mineral Railway

The West Somerset Mineral Railway was a standard gauge line which existed in the UK county of Somerset. It ran from the ironstone mines in the Brendon Hills to the port of Watchet on the Bristol Channel. From there the ore was carried across by ship to Newport and thence to Ebbw Vale for smelting to remove the iron. The line's biggest feature was the eight hundred feet gravity worked incline used to descend the north side of the Brendon Hills.

The line was built in stages between 1856 and 1861, the construction of the incline taking the last two years of this period. It was operated by the West Somerset Mineral Company which also constructed a harbour wall at Watchet. At the top of the incline the line ran along the Brendon ridge in both directions, eastward to Raleigh Cross and the Colton mines and westward to a heathland terminus named after the nearby village of Gupworthy.

The line operated successfully and settlements of people attracted to the area by the prospect of employment in the mines grew around the Brendon ridge. However changes in the availability of imported ore made the mines a less attractive proposition and by 1880 the mines were closed and the railway dormant. A residual passenger service carried on until 1898 when the line closed for a while.

In 1907 another venture, the Somerset Mineral Syndicate,leased the railway and worked the mines again. Both the lower section of the line and the incline were brought back into use. However, the venture was under-capitalized and closed in March of 1910.

In 1911 an Australian inventor used a section of the line to test and demonstrate an automatic signal warning device, but that was the last time the line was used. The UK Ministry for War requisitioned the rails during the First World War and they were lifted for scrap towards the end of the conflict.

The Line Today

Today the line can still be seen in places, although some of it is private property. It runs parallel to the West Somerset Railway from Watchet to Washford, then curves south west, partly in the form of a road, past Cleeve Abbey and Roadwater village to Combe Row. From here the course of the incline swoops up through the trees. The remains of the summit winding house and the summit are accessible from the B3224 road just west of its junction with the B3190. A chapel built to attend to the spiritual needs of the miners and their families still stands at the junction.

Further information

The Old Mineral Line R. J. Sellick 1976 The Exmoor Press ISBN 0-900131-21-7

The West Somerset Mineral Railway Roger Sellick 1962 David and Charles No ISBN

Somerset's Lost Railways Peter Dale Stenlake Publishing ISBN 1-84033-171-2

Ordnance Survey Map: Explorer OL9 Exmoor (The top of the incline is at Grid Reference ST023344)