Silkstone Waggonway 2024

The route of a horse drawn railway, built in 1809 by the Barnsley Canal Navigation Company, which was granted in 1808 an Act of Parliament for the building of a waggonway. Transported the coal from collieries in the Silkstone Valley 2.5 miles from Silkstone Cross to Barnby Basin Cawthorne, the terminus of the canal. In 1830 Robert C Clarke of Noblethorpe Hall built an extension up to Silkstone Common and down to his new colliery developments at Moorend. Coal had been mined in the Silkstone area for hundreds of years but this land-locked coalfield had to wait until the coming of the canal and railways to be fully exploited.