98 
TEW : EXTENSION OF MINING OPERATIONS. 
Navvy's, and Steam Grabbers, at the Dock, and elsewhere, which 
have enabled the contractors to construct this railway with a 
rapidity of growth, " like Jonah's g-oiird." This railway extension 
runs across the upper portion, so to speak, of the South Yorkshire 
coalfield, as the district is sometimes described, and for the present 
will stop at Halifax. 
These two railways, North and South, and East and West 
mean a complete metamorphosis of Osgoldcross, not less remarkable 
than that which took place when the famous Roman Sixth Legion, 
about A.D. 117 marched from Danum to Legeohum — from Don- 
caster to Castleford, and nearly parallel with the Railway route 
by Ackworth to Doncaster. These two railways open out the 
new Yorkshire and Pontefract coal field of the future, of which 
deep shafts at South Kirkby, so energetically worked by Mr. John 
Shaw are the newest indications. What Merefield, Prince of 
Wales, Wheldale and Frystone, and the Manor Collieries of Ma. 
Bradley, at Featherstone, are to the Northern and AYestern sides 
of Pontefract, divided as it is by the sandstone ridge, on which 
the Town and Castle stand, so are these South Kirkby shafts, 
evidences of an extensive, valuable, and inexhaustible coal field to 
the south of the Borough. 
The South Kirkby Colliery has two shafts, both 15 feet 
diameter — one as the upcast shaft, and the other as the downcast, 
and both are sunk to a depth of 640 yards. 
The first bed of coal worthy of mention is the Shafton, found 
at a depth of 1 84 yards below the surface of the ground. 
Section. Feet. Inches. 
Coal ... .. ... ... 0 4 
Dirt .., ... ... ... 0 1 
Coal ... ... ... ... 1 0 
Dirt ... ... ... ... 0 ?, 
Coal ?> 3 
or a total thickness of 4 feet 7 inches of coal. 
The bottom coal of this bed is of moderate quality for engine 
and brick making purposes ; but as it burns to a white ash, it is 
