The Silkstone Waggonway was a

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

industrial

wagonway A wagonway (or waggonway; also known as a horse-drawn railway, or horse-drawn railroad) was a method of rail transport, railway transportation that preceded the steam locomotive and used horses to haul wagons. The terms plateway and tramway (indu ...

serving the

Barnsley Canal The Barnsley Canal is a canal that ran from Barnby Basin, through Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, to a junction with the Aire and Calder Navigation near Wakefield, West Yorkshire. It was built in the 1790s, to provide a transport link from ...

, in England, at

Silkstone Silkstone is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, between the towns of Barnsley and Penistone. The parish includes the village of Sil ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

History

The Barnsley Canal

The

was built in the 1790s to carry coal from the mines near

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

to the

Aire and Calder Navigation The Aire and Calder Navigation is the River engineering#Canalization of rivers, canalised section of the River Aire, Rivers Aire and River Calder, West Yorkshire, Calder in West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Kn ...

near

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

. In 1808, the canal company's Annual General Meeting approved a plan to build a waggonway, and they applied to

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

for an Act authorising the construction of a horse-drawn railway from Silkstone Cross to the canal's southern terminus at Barnby Basin. The Act was granted.

Construction

The canal company purchased the trackbed of the earlier Low Moor Waggonway. Construction of the new waggonway proceeded quickly and it opened in 1809. The success of the waggonway as a feeder to the canal prompted the construction of furnaces at Low Mill, and the opening of the Waterloo Colliery. In 1812, the Norcroft Colliery was connected to the waggonway.

Extension

In the 1830s, an extension of the waggonway to Silkstone Common was built. This used an

incline Incline, inclined, inclining, or inclination may refer to: *Grade (slope), the tilt, steepness, or angle from horizontal of a topographic feature (hillside, meadow, etc.) or constructed element (road, railway, field, etc.) *Slope, the tilt, steepn ...

Closure

In June 1847, the canal company entered into an agreement to sell the waggonway to the

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grims ...

. However, this transaction was never completed. Coal traffic along the waggonway peaked in 1851 at 33,621 tons. That year, however, was the first full year of operation of the Silkstone Coal Branch Railway, which quickly took traffic away from the waggonway. By 1856, only 22,726 tons of coal was carried. By 1864, ownership of the waggonway had transferred to the

and in 1866 the waggonway carried just 3,246 tons of coal and in 1870, no coal was carried at all. In August 1872, it was reported that "the rails have been pulled up and sold".

Route

The waggonway ran from Silkstone Cross to Barnby Basin. The lower section, between the Basin and Barnby Furnace, followed the route of the Low Moor Wagonway. From there it passed by Norcroft Bridge, at the north end of Silkstone. Silkstone Waggonway track

It was built with stone block sleepers, probably supplied from local quarries owned by Walter Spencer Stanhope. Cast iron, L-shaped rails were laid on the sleepers. Rough stones were packed around the sleepers to hold them in place, with a layer of ash covering them to make a suitable surface for the horses to walk on. Where the waggonway crossed public roads, unusual U-shaped rails were used.

References

{{reflist Rail transport in Yorkshire Early British railway companies Industrial railways in England Railway lines opened in 1809 Railway lines closed in 1870 1809 establishments in England Horse-drawn railways 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in England