Silkstone Waggonway

Most old pit villages have an interesting story to tell, even when, as is often the case, the accounts themselves are disturbing. Andy showed us round his home turf in South Yorkshire, yesterday. In the church yard is a monument to the 26 children who drowned underground in the Huskar mining disaster of 1838.

A plaque on the wall of the Red Lion pub further along the main street has the details of the incident that must have caused unimaginable anguish in the community. The resulting enquiry led to the Mines Act of 1842, which prevented children below the age of ten from working underground thereafter.

Andy took us onto the former track bed of the Silkstone Waggonway, a two-and-a-half-mile, horse-drawn tramway, built by the Barnsley Canal Navigation Company in 1809. It linked Silkstone Cross with the Cawthorne Canal at Barnby Basin, serving the collieries of the Silkstone Valley.

The original stone sleepers are clearly visible along much of the course of the tramway, which is now used as a footpath. Cut into the surface of each slab are the holes where the rails were formerly pinned into place. There are information boards to inform walkers about the former tramway, together with a small section of track.