 The channel at Middlebere was silting up, limiting the size of vessel that could approach the quay.The company already had a deeper-water quay at Goathorn on the southern shore of Poole Harbour, used for the export of clay from pits at nearby Newton.The Middlebere Plateway was abandoned in about 1907, when it was replaced by the Norden & Goathorn Railway, which connected Fayle's clay works at Norden with their works at Newton and thence to Poole Harbour at Goathorn.