A tramway, first show on the 1st Ed OS map leading from the J. B. White cement works to Whites's Wharf and Bell Wharf (TQ 57 NE 1001 & TQ 67 NW 1012), which over time expanded to link all the surrounding extraction pits with the main complex, and the nearby mainline railway. The total length of track laid is not known, but it reached over 2km inland. Most of the system has now gone, but several of the tram tunnels remain, as well as derelict section of trackway (TQ5946674411). In places to route of the tramway can be traced and a section of it leading to Bell Wharf has recently been reused and resurfaced as an access road and used by the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

During the 1920s two tramlines were built along the western edge of the Barnfield Pit (TQ 57 SE 150) quarry These trams eventually linked the Barnfield pit to further chalk quarries to the south west via a pair of tunnels extending below first, the southerly footpath crossing the pit and the Alkerden Road. The bed of the tramway can be recognised for most of its length along what is now known as Craylands Gorge. The three tunnels which interconnect the quarries all survive. The northern tunnel linking Barnsfield Pit to Craylands Pit was bored through the chalk bedrock (not cut and fill) below the railway line and is brick-built using yellow bricks laid in Flemish bond. The brickwork shows few signs of failure although areas are starting to spall. The two southern tunnels between the two pits and below Alkerden Road, are both contemporary structures constructed using shuttered concrete for the tunnel, with the entrances faced using a concrete render. The northern tunnel has been gated, although it remained unlocked, while the southern end of the southernmost tunnel has been completely blocked. Both tunnels align with the bed of the tramway, and in common with the earlier northern tunnel were bored through the chalk bedrock. They measured c. 4m wide and 5m internal height.

The rails of the tramline were presumably removed when the gorge fell into redundancy, and now only its route can be recognised. However, evidence of the former tramway does remain, in a scattering of timber railway sleepers lying in the undergrowth and a single section of track. The track no longer remains ‘in situ’ and has been moved to the western side of the tram bed (now pathway). The rails were fixed to concrete sleepers and therefore must belong to a later, ultimate phase of use or repair. Parallel to and on either side of the tramway and at ground level are a pair of cast-iron pipes which run for the most part the length of the gorge. These are apparently used as dewatering pipes serving the Eastern quarry (to the south). (1,2)

Location accurate to 2m based on available information

<1> Eve, David., 1999, The Cement Industry in Kent: Results of a Sites and Monuments Record Enhancement Project 1996 - 98 (Unpublished document). SKE12011.

<2> Essex County Council, 2003, Aggregates Levy Survey Industrial Sites (Unpublished document). SKE12009.