The Walk.

Visitors can start their walk from the Station Inn, Silkstone Common, following the route marked red on the map. Cross the road and walk down Moor End Lane passing a school on the right. On the left are the South Yorkshire Buildings built by South Yorkshire Coal and Iron Company to house their workers and families. Continue under the railway
bridge and you'll see a sign on the right for Nab's Wood, owned by the Woodland Trust. A flight of steps takes you down to the Huskar Memorial to the 26 children drowned in 1838 in a colliery disaster. Return to road, and retrace your steps back under the railway bridge. Turn right and walk up the path and onto the railway embankment.
Turning right and over the bridge, you are now on the Trans Pennine Trail. In 1880 the L.N.E.R company built a new route up a steep gradient to west Silkstone to connect with the railway from Penistone. Powerful steam locomotives had to be used to move the heavy coal trains and the line was one of the first in the country to be electrified.
The line closed in the early 1980's. Leave the trail before reaching the Silkstone Tunnels sign, turning right up the tarmac footpath onto Black Horse Drive. Cross here and continue along the footpath to Orchard Meadow. Turn left and walk up until you come to a gate at Woodland View. In this area was an inclined plane on which waggons of coal were pulled up from Moorend by Black Horse Engine (a stationary steam engine) and then taken by horse through Black Horse Tunnel. Cross Knabbs Lane, turn right and walk along past a corner garden with a waggonway wall plaque. Take the footpath on your left and cross the railway using the level crossing. You will now come to the station car park.
Opposite you is a metal plaque on a garden wall, marking the site of an entrance to Black Horse Tunnel. Turn right down Cone Lane for 500 metres, beyond the houses, turn left at the footpath sign and walk down the field and across the stile at
the bottom. Turn right onto the embankment of the inclined plane. This was used to lower waggons of coal from the top of the hill to the level ground, where horses took them down the valley to the canal. Continue your walk through a kissing gate and along the footpath until you come to the back of the Co-op Service Station. Walk to the front and onto the A628 main road at Silkstone Cross.

Silkstone Village:

Cross the A628. On the grass island at the end of the High Street you'll see a stone cross and a replica coal waggon on a short reconstructed length of waggonway. Cross the road and follow the route along the path to the right of High Street - you will start to see the stone sleeper blocks. The trail runs at the back of the Ring “O” Bells, the Village Stocks and along the back of cottages close to Silkstone Beck, until you come to Pot House Bridge at the bottom of Church Hill. In the churchyard up to the left is a memorial to the 26 children drowned in the Huskar Colliery in 1838. The trail continues across the road and comes to a reconstructed Waggon Pass-Bye and a colliery Spoil Heap on your left.
Next, the trail bridges a stream. Beyond the water works on your right, a branch line ran off over a stone bridge to the site of Pall Mall Colliery.
Further along the trail, on the right, is Low Mill Iron Furnace, an ancient monument, which in the early 19th century smelted locally mined ironstone with coke. Opposite, in a small wood to the left, was the site of Waterloo Colliery. Walking on, the trail takes you to the group of cottages called Barnby Furnace, which smelted iron stone using charcoal. A path to the right crosses Furnace Bridge and leads to Higham. In the past this area was served by a railway branch line built in the 1850's to collieries in the area. Proceed straight on down the tarmac lane to the car park and onto the A635. Across the road is the site of Barnby Canal Basin, opened in 1800.
Hope you have enjoyed the walk!