A WOODEN wagon from 130 years ago has been returned to the Wareham area where it started its life transporting clay on to barges in Poole harbour.

It might not look much but the well-preserved narrow gauge wagon is a rare link back to a bygone age in Purbeck history.

Unused since before the outbreak of World War Two, the wagon was originally saved from being scrapped by enthusiasts and then transported to a museum in Wales for the past 45 years.

Now the wagon, which once trundled along the Furzebrook Tramway between Furzebrook and the riverside wharf at Ridge, is back where it started its life in the late 19th century.

Father and son Graham and Matthew Feldwick, of Ropers Lane, Wareham, have been collecting and restoring narrow gauge railway equipment for the past 20 years.

After moving to the town three years ago, they set about tracking down remnants of the old tramway system and came across the perfectly preserved wagon at a museum in Tywyn, North Wales.

Because the wagon was an anomaly in the collection, the museum allowed the Feldwicks to reclaim it so that it can eventually be put on display in the area.

"It's quite unique because it has an iron block sledge that would have been dropped on to the rails to slow it down," said Graham.

"It was built by the Pike Brothers for clay extraction and ran across what is now the RSPB reserve down to Ridge where the clay was loaded on to barges and boats."

Graham hopes a group of local enthusiasts will help preserve the wagon and other parts of the old clay quarry railway.