It has been accepted that ball clay has been used since Roman times (and maybe back to early bronze age). There is  evidence that by the third century there was a Roman pottery at Norden. However it was the introduction of tobacco to England in 16th century by Sir Walter Raleigh and others and the need for a suitable clay with which to make tobacco pipes that led to the start of the modern ball clay trade. By 1749 there were complaints that the masters of vessels being loaded with tobacco and pipe clay from lighters in Poole harbour frequently threw ballast from their ships 'so that several Channels and Streams of the said Haven and Harbour are so Heaped and Quarred with stones and Rubble of Ballast that they will soon be blocked'.  
In 1771 Josiah Wedgwood signed a contract with Thomas Hyde at Arne for the supply of 1400 tons of ball clay to provide him with his "secret ingredient" to enable to fire thinner walled ceramics. Josiah Wedgwood had searched all over for other supplies of the clay including asking his friend, Joseph Banks, to bring some clay back from Botany Bay Australia. He came to the conclusion that "Purbeck Blue Clay" (as Ball Clay was known to him) was the best in the world. He used it to create his world famous Queen's Ware which made him a very wealthy man. This wealth was inherited by Charles Darwin who was able to use it to fund his theory of evolution.
In 1785 Josiah Wedgwood gave evidence to a privy council regarding the benefits of his trade and one section referred to the fact that the wealth of the harbour of Poole depended on the Newfoundland fishing fleet. This fishing fleet was able to be profitable due to the fact that it carried Ball clay to Liverpool at times when, without this employment, it would have been laid up idle in harbour.
In 1813 Tobacco pipe clay (as Ball clay was then known as) was exempt from all Poole harbour duties.
From the 1796 Corfe Census of the 96 men involved in local industries and living in the town, 55 were clay cutters. 
At  the Great Exhibition in 1851 Whiteway and Watts, Pike Brothers and B.Fayle and Co  had stands selling Purbeck clay. Herbert Byng Hall wrote" "What interest in a clay pit?" says a novel reader; "and what is clay?" Clay I reply, is the comfort of half the homes in the world and Purbeck Clay a jewel more valuable to the people than the great diamond 'Koh-i-noor'. I trust the clay of Purbeck may take its place among the raw products of this great nation, and prove not the least valuable article in the Exhibition, while Purbeck marble retains its place of yore - fitting for the erection of magnificent edifices dedicated to God." 
In 1865 Oliver Lodge, the son of a North Staffordshire Railway clerk became an agent for B.Fayle & Co. selling Purbeck Ball clay to the potteries. In 1894 Oliver lodge became the first person to send a message by wireless signal. Lodge was certainly ahead of the better-known Marconi. Indeed, he brought a successful law suit against the Italian for making use of his patents. As a result of the case, he was appointed scientific adviser to Marconi's company. Sir Oliver Lodge also invented the spark plug and contributed to physics, so much that both Einstein and Hertz gave him credit to some of their work.
Ball clay continued to provide a major employment for the local population right up to present times. Late 20th century production from Purbeck has been in the region of 125,000 to 150,000 tons a year with a workforce of around 200.
Ball clay provided a valuable cargo for the Swanage Branch trains for the first half of the 20th Century
Products containing ball clay are used everyday by all of us here and throughout the world. Ball clay is an important ingredient of tableware, washbasins, toilet bowls, wall and floor tiles and other ceramic products including insulators. It is used as a filler in some rubber and plastic products such as garden hoses, windscreen wipers and car window trims. In the past it has been used in the refining of sugar, and cleaning of piano felts!
Extraction continues today at several quarries in Purbeck and the ball clay is processed at Furzebrook. All transport is now initially by road. At present Ball clay is Britain's second most important mineral export after oil.

Map of Ball Clay Railways in Isle of Purbeck

and for more on the history of Ball Clay visit the Ball Clay Heritage Society

Timeline History of Ball Clay Extraction in Purbeck
1555	1558	Introduction of Tobacco
1575	1573	The Earliest description of a clay pipe
1645	1646	Oliver Cromwell destroys Corfe Castle
1660	1662	An Act of Parliament issued against exporting of Sheep, Wool, Wool-sells, Mortlings, Shorlings, Yarn made of Wool, Wool-flocks, Fuller earth, Fulling-clay, and Tobacco pipe clay.
1665		1665-1763 Tobacco pipe clay extraction at Povington Heath
1680	-	Hyde family became leading extractor of clay. Clay was dug from under cotton grass at Arne
1720	-	First Ball Clay from Dorset arrives in Staffordshire potteries
1760	-	Josiah Wedgwood starts his business 1763 Wedgwood produces Queen's Ware made from "the whitest clays of Devonshire and Dorsetshire (ball Clay), mixed with ground flints, and covered with a vitreous glaze."
1765	-	Captain Cook sails to Australia in the Endeavour 1768 - 1771 with Joseph Banks who brought back clay samples for Josiah Wedgwood
1770	-	Thomas Hyde paid £30 per year for mining rights at Arne. He had a contract to supply Wedgwood with 1400 tons of clay. Boats start using Trent & Mersey canal.
1775	1777	Trent & Mersey canal fully opened.
1780	-
1785	-
1790	1792	Hyde's business collapses in slump. William Morton Pitt of Encombe took over Wedgwood contract.
1795	1793	Dorset and Somerset Canal proposed to link Poole Harbour with Bristol Channel. Scheme collapsed in 1803. Clay works started at Norden by Barker Chifney(1795)
1800	1802	14500 tons clay dug
1805	-	1806(-1905) Fayles Tramway to Middlebere. 1807 1st tunnel under A351 built
1810	-	1808 22000 tons clay dug 1812 William Stevenson visits Norden and sees Collinge axle in action.
1815	-	Pikes Bros William and John start operation on land owned by Rev. Nathaniel Bond of Creech Grange.  Napoleon defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.
1820	-	2nd tunnel under A351 built before 1825 (Exactly when is not known)
1825	-	The opening of the first steam operated public railway in 1825
1830	-	An Act for more effectually repairing and improving several Roads leading from the Market Cross, in the Town of Wareham, and in Purbeck, in the County of Dorset received Royal Assent
1835	-	Watts, Hatherley and Co dug clay pits at Furzebrook. 1838-1840 constructed railway to Ridge.
1840	1837	Sirius became the first Steam vessel to carry clay cross channel (last Sail boat was Purbeck)
1845	-	Blue Pool started to be dug   1844 Steam tug Frome built at Ridge Wharf 1847 Public Meeting at Royal Victoria Hotel, Swanage - 4 clay owners and John Mowlem with others put forward proposal for Swanage Railway.
1850	1851	The Great Exhibition was held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October - Pike Bros, Benjamin Fayle & Co and Whiteway, Watts & Co were just 3 of the seventeen thousand exhibitors.
1855	1852	Capt. James Mussell of Wareham dies in the paddle wheel of the Pike Clay Steamer after it had run aground near Russell Quay.
	1853	The 1662 Act of Parliament banning export of Pipe Clay repealed
1860	-	Cuirassier Steel steam Coaster with a sliding keel for sea, then able to be raised for the River passage, built in 1860 capable of carrying up to 140 tons of cargo and used at one time to carry ball clay from Poole to Worcester
1865	1866	Locomotive Primus purchased for Pikes Tramway
1870	1868	Railway connected Newton Clay works with Goathorn Pier and Fayles' first steam loco - Tiny built in Poole by S.Lewin
1875	1874	Locomotive Secundus purchased for Pikes Tramway
1880	-
1885	-	Swanage Railway built
1890	-	1886 Tertius - Manning Wardle & 1889 Quartus Leeds company - Pikes
1895	-
1900	-
1905	1907	Fayles (Middlebere) Tramway abandoned, Thames engine joins Tiny from London County Council at Barking, and Norden to Goathorn railway opened
1910	-
1915	1914	Quintus - Manning Wardle - Pikes
1920	-
1925	-	Cotness mine open 1925 - Sextus - Peckett 1928 to 1934 Purbeck stone was carried from Corfe to Goathorn for building of the Training Bank
1930	-	1930 Goathorn pier no longer used for clay.  1930 - Septimus - Peckett, 1932 Semi-diesel Tug Allen launched,  1932 Clay worker injured by clay fall at Furzebrook mine. Sydney Harbour Bridge completed.
1935	-
1940	1943	William George Stockley killed in a fall of clay at Cotness Mine on Tuesday 28th December 1943. Line from Furzebrook to Ridge closed. Goathorn railway closed
1945	1948	Tiny scrapped. Remaining line in the Norden area re-gauged to 1foot 11 1/2 inches and Russell arrives
1950	1949	Pikes and Fayles merged to form one company. Orenstein & Koppel Engines introduced, and wooden wagons replaced by metal V skips.
1955	-
1960	-
1965	1964	English China Clays takes over Pikes & Fayles
1970	-	1970 - Railways abandoned and track lifted in 1971
1975	-
1980	-
1985	-
1990	-	No.7 mine built
1995	1999	No.7 mine abandoned and Imerys takes over English China Clays
2000	2002	Purbeck Mineral & Mining Museum Group Formed
2005	2006	No.7 Transhipment Shed dismantling completed by the group