Cross the main road (Barnsley Road) carefully and continue straight along the waggonway.

It sits on cast iron rails and then on stone sleeper blocks on the original route of the waggonway.”, “Coal waggons were a statute size - they carried 53 hundredweights of coal - and were pulled by horses down the waggonway.”, “It was a single track but there were a number of passing points – especially on curves in the track - and the length of these passing points indicates that generally twohorses would have pulled four waggons.”. We estimate thatit’s in the top 11 in the country in terms of the amount of original features still surviving. The site has been deemed a National Ancient Monument due to the unique glassworks and pottery history while the restoration of the old mill into the Potting Shed Café won the Gold Millennium Design Award for Barnsley. Go over the stile and follow the path between houses and gardens.

While the workers employed in the early Moorend Colliery would have been poor villagers probably living in very basic conditions some later industrial workers had a better quality of life. It was about 100 yards long and went under the turnpike road (and later the railway line). After about 150 metres stop outside a row of Victorian cottages on the right side which is known as South Yorkshire Buildings. At the memorial sculpture we found out the first part of the story of the Huskar mining disaster. However, if the acidity levels are diluted or reduced, another chemical reaction happens: the ferrous iron binds with oxygen dissolved in the water and turns into red ochre. Cross carefully when you see the pedestrian entrance to the railway station. Rooms are available to hire for parties and meetings etc. This bridge once carried the Sheffield to Manchester goods line but it was built in 1888.

: 208791. Now we can only see faint traces like these of the route of this part of the waggonway but its history is not forgotten.

There was just one set of rails but, obviously, waggons needed to go back-and forth so there were passing areas at various intervals along the track. Pyrite is a natural mineral composed of iron and sulphur that can lie unchanged in rock or soil for thousands of years if there is a lack of oxygen – for example in a waterlogged meadow.

The children who survived plus the pit managers gave evidence about the events on that fateful day.

Continue following the path through the woodland as it ascends steadily.

This was the largest mansion in the village and home of the Clarke family who owned most of the mines in this area. They are more visible in some places than others. Locals still call this ‘Sparrow Barracks’. From the lane, go over the stile and follow the path across the field in front of the row of houses. The first section was completed in 1799 and the Barnsley to Barnby section opened in 1802. Coal seams are rich in pyrite. The Potting Shed Cafe is highly recommended for refreshments, lunches and ice creams. In plaques and memorials, in a replica waggon an information boards, in saplings and a dramatised story, the proud and tragic mining history of this area is respected and celebrated.

In fact, more collieries opened as the waggonway was laid. They were very rich and would have wanted to keep their life away from the prying eyes of the ordinary villagers who toiled in their mines. The coal needed to be taken up to the top of Silkstone Common, over the ridge, down the other side to Silkstone, then along the valley bottom to Barnby canal basin. We have learned about methods of surface mining using day-holes, drifts and shafts.

And there was no machinery in those days – everything was done by hand.”, “I don’t remember the Huskar disaster because it was too long ago but I’ve read about it and I know the place where it happened.”, “Thinking about it now it must have been terrifying – and for the parents as well. The waggonway runs immediately parallel to Silkstone Beck which is the flattest route along the bottom of the valley. Wealthy landowners started a ‘black gold’ rush and poor workers migrated from across the country to toil in the mines.

There was also a mill here powered by water from Silkstone Beck. Discovering Britain is delivered by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Just six days earlier, the Clarkes closed their mines and hosted a celebration on their parklands for families o… What are they doing at 6 and 7 now?

Leave the woodland via another stile and go down the driveway with the football pitch on the right. In the days before large machinery, a method known as ‘day-hole mining’ or ‘drift mining’ was used to access coal that was near the surface. English Heritage would find it difficult to provide any protection as it is a linear feature without a clear boundary.”, “While the waggonway is accessible and open to the public it’s also vulnerable. Here at the top of the hill was a tunnel, known as Black Horse Tunnel.

For a full timetable please go to the website.

The exit is just beneath your feet on the other side of the wall from the plaque (it is a private garden so please do not enter).

Continue a short distance along High Street. We start the walk in the village of Silkstone Common which is on a ridge and descend to the neighbouring village of Silkstone in the valley below. At the end is the main road and on the opposite side is a manor house called Noblethorpe Hall within an area of parkland called Noblethorpe Park. Consider that this expansion was happening in all the villages around and you will realise that this was a time of great economic and social change. The landscape here is undulating and the gradients were too severe for the low-powered locomotives available in those days. But that was not the end of the story. Original watercolour © Granville Daniel Clarke 2014. From picks and shovels to clogs and candles, from whale oil for lamps to food for families. At the bottom cross the small bridge over the stream and follow the path up the other side with a field on the right and a garden on the left.

Clarke’s coal was now connected to the rest of the country through the growing canal network – there are records that it was exported to London. The evidence and illustrations were so shocking that they feared a public outcry. We will follow in the footsteps of coal, finding out how it was transported across the undulating landscape from the colliery to the nearest canal via a special waggonway. Also enjoy paintings, drawings and poems created especially for this walk by Silkstone artist, Granville Daniel Clarke FRSA.

The following year the miners held an 11-day strike which resulted in the mine owners agreeing to reduce the working day to no more than 8 hours. In 1792 the canal engineer William Jessop suggested a 14½ mile route from the Aire and Calder Navigation near Wakefield through Barnsley to Barnby. The properties were connected to mains water in the 1970s and have since all been modernised. These homes now provide cheaper housing in this now-desirable semi-rural area.