From Denis Ashurst’s Worsbrough -Change and continuity in the Society, Economy and buildings of a South Yorkshire township 1600-1851. “On completion of the Worsbrough canal, (beginning of the nineteenth century) mines in the Stainborough, Rockley and Worsbrough Dale Valleys, which for centuries had supplied only local needs, were enabled to expand and rail tracks were built to bring coal to the canal basin. These railways carried horse drawn trucks or, in the case of the Stainborough-Rockley track, were inclined so that full trucks moving toward Worsbrough hauled the empty trucks back to the mine. This railway from the Strafford mines in the north-west had to cross the eighteenth-century coach road (Rockley Lane) by which the Earl’s mansion was approached from Birdwell. The road was carried over a tunnel which survives in a ruinous condition in Broom Royd’s Wood. The trucks could pass through it and its associated cutting, unseen from the house.”
Well, it's certainly in the right area but to satisfy my curiosity I'll have to go there again (after about 25 years !!) to try to pinpoint it. This time I'll take my camera. In them days we didn't have these fancy fangled digital cameras, you took pictures and had to wait for them coming back to the chemists, but hopefully this time I'll get it right, unless of course the landscape has changed and the woods are not accessible. I do remember finding an old circular "temple" with columns in the woods nearby. It was derelict in pieces on the ground. I'd had to trespass into these woods and it was a stunning surprise to find such an old building. I see on modern maps this is now a feature. There is also the memorial obelisk in the fields near the castle, with a statue, I think, recalling a battle long ago. You may know more about this.
Thanks for this info... I've subsequently found the following which I think may explain my original query. (but I'd still like to pay it another visit) https://www.aditnow.co.uk/Mines/Silkstone-Main-Stainborough-Colliery-Coal-Colliery_20642/
