The Offham Chalkpit Tramway: its History and Archaeology

Abstract

Chalk was in considerable demand for agricultural use in the early years of the nineteenth century, and an inclined plane, including a tunnelled section, was built in 1809 to connect the chalkpits at Offham with the newly canalised River Ouse. Tom Evans has examined the Shiffner correspondence to investigate the sources of the iron plateway supplied to the Offham scheme, and Ron Martin, together with other members of the Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society, has surveyed the field evidence for this interesting industrial survival in rural Sussex.