Publications
George Shiffner and the Offham Chalkpit Tramway, by Tom Evans, published 1985 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 15, article, pp.15-18) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/15] & The Keep [LIB/506525] Download PDF
Abstract:A recent re-examination of the Shiffner manuscripts at the East Sussex Record Office, Lewes has been undertaken with special attention to those that throw light on the sources of supply of materials for plateways in the South of England in the early years of the nineteenth century.
George Shiffner was an industrialist with Russian origins, a military background and was later M.P. for Lewes, (1812-1826). He lived at Coombe Place, Offham just north of Lewes and operated a business at the Offham chalk pits. During the "canal mania", when the River Ouse above Lewes was being canalised under the direction of William Jessop Jnr., George Shiffner had the intention of supplying chalk by means of a "cut" from the Ouse and an inclined plane with a plateway to transport the chalk to barges moored at a wharf and possibly with limekilns near the foot of the incline. In 1807 this must have been quite a revolutionary project for rural Sussex.
George Shiffner was an industrialist with Russian origins, a military background and was later M.P. for Lewes, (1812-1826). He lived at Coombe Place, Offham just north of Lewes and operated a business at the Offham chalk pits. During the "canal mania", when the River Ouse above Lewes was being canalised under the direction of William Jessop Jnr., George Shiffner had the intention of supplying chalk by means of a "cut" from the Ouse and an inclined plane with a plateway to transport the chalk to barges moored at a wharf and possibly with limekilns near the foot of the incline. In 1807 this must have been quite a revolutionary project for rural Sussex.