PMSA National Recording Project - South Yorkshire

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough

We are carrying out research on the pieces on these pages.
If you have further information or revisions to the material above please contact me, Dave Ball, by e-mail or telephone: 0114 225 6213 with the details.
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ArtistMaker: Designed by Jim Ritchie with stone mason: Keith Seddon and ceramic plaque: Ailsa Magnus
TitleOfWork: Silkstone Waggonway Memorial
DescriptionOfPhoto: View of stone column and wagon
DateOfCreation: 2000
Dimensions: Column - 90 x 30 x 30 cm. Base - 40 x 90 x 90 cm. Rails - width: 132 cm.
Medium: sandstone (carved and painted), ceramic plaque, railway lines, wagon
Location: At the corner of High Street and Noblethorpe Lane (the A628)
AtoZReference: (SE290054)
Postcode:
Street: High Street
TownOrVillage: Silkstone
AreaInTown:
MetropolitanBorough: Barnsley
Photographer: Dave Ball
ImageCopyright: Sheffield Hallam University
AccessionNumber: b043a
Location: On a small grassed area at the corner of High Street and Noblethorpe Lane (A628), Silkstone, Barnsley MBC

Description: A square stone column. On each side is carved a cross in a circle. Beneath these are one of two brass plaques, a painted carved Yorkshire rose or a plaque for Silkstone Parish Council. The column is sited on top of two stone steps, one step at 45° to the other. The points of the compass are carved on the horizontal surface of the corners of the lower step.
A large railway waggon filled with coal is sited on a short section of plateway track to one side of the column.
Dimensions. Column - 90cm high; Base: 30 x 30cm.
Base of 2 steps - 40cm high; 90 x 90cm at ground level.
Waggon rails gauge: 132 cm.

Inscriptions: on coal tub: "SILKSTONE / 1809 / WAGGONWAY"
on column: Brass plaque 1: "SILKSTONE/ (picture of a man leading a horse pulling a coal-laden waggon on rails) / 1809 / WAGGONWAY / THE WAGGONWAY OR RAILWAY WAS BUILT IN 1809 / BY THE BARNSLEY CANAL NAVIGATION CO / TO TRANSPORT COAL FROM THE COLLIERIES IN / THE VALLEY 2½ MILES FROM SILKSTONE CROSS / TO THE TERMINUS OF THE CANAL AT BARNBY BASIN."
Brass plaque 2: "SILKSTONE PARISH COUNCIL HERITAGE STONES" and "CENTRE STONE"
Painted plaque: The words "SILKSTONE PARISH COUNCIL" interspersed with images of a horshoe and a miner's lamp superimposed on a cross. This is the Parish Council logo referring to three major elements in the history of Silkstone.

Commission: Built to commemorate the Millennium; this piece also forms the centre stone of the Silkstone Heritage Stones Project. Jim Ritchie was the chair of the Roggins Local History Group at the time.
The waggon is a replica built by volunteers from the parish, led by David Butler and Jim Ritchie, who also carried out research for this memorial.
This part of the village is called Silkstone Cross, it was believed to be the site of an earlier market cross. An important 19th century coal mine just south of here was called Cross Pit

The Silkstone Waggonway of 1809 has more extant features than any other waggonway in the country.

Cost of the project was £1,000.

It was officially opened in August 2000 by the Chair of the Parish Council, Maureen Berry.

In January 2001 a time capsule was installed here prepared by children in Silkstone Primary School.

Sources: Letter from Colin Bower Vice-chair of Silkstone Parish Council [30/6/2003]





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Last updated July 18, 2005