Tributes to Corfe Castle campaigner Monavyn Moss

Monavyn Moss formed the Corfe Castle Eastern Preservation Group

Tributes have been paid to a campaigner who prevented a by-pass being built on a disused Dorset railway line.

Monavyn Moss, known as Monni, who formed a local group to fight plans for a road through Corfe Castle in the 1970s, has died aged 94.

Her success allowed the Swanage Railway heritage line to extend to Wareham and connect to the national rail network.

Volunteer Peter Frost said Mrs Moss was "a special lady who was prepared to raise her head above the parapet".

Dorset County Council had originally planned to build a by-pass through the centre of the village along the disused railway trackbed in the early 1970s. It would have meant a wider cutting through of the Purbeck Hills and the demolition of Corfe Castle station.

Mrs Moss, who had grown up on a farm beside the Swanage branch line, formed the Corfe Castle Eastern Preservation Group.

The plans were eventually shelved allowing the Swanage Railway to develop a three-mile extension from Harman's Cross through Corfe Castle and a park and ride station at Norden.

Swanage Railway Trust chairman Liz Sellen said: "Without Monni's determined campaigning work, there would not be the Swanage Railway that so many people enjoy today."