The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-09 00:00:00

way of Normanton, thirty-one miles ; and by way of Oakenshaw,
twenty-eight miles, between two and three of which are by omni-
bus. Besides this saving of actual distance, the tedious stoppages
at Masborough and Normanton, the delays of which are often equal
to twenty miles of travelling, will be avoided,
A careful survey has been made, by an experienced surveyor,
who reports that the line from Wakefield to Silkston will
run with easy gradients nearly on the surface of the ground for
the greater part of the way; and that the only work of any mag-
nitude will be a tunnel, about six hundred yards long, at Woolley-
common, which will occasion in the approach to it from Wake-
field an ascending gradient of 1 in 108. The works between
Silkston and Wortley are of a heavier character, but in no
part will the gradient be more than lin 112. The ruling
gradient will be about 1 in ISO.
This undertaking, in connexion with other railways, is in-
tended to accomplish the following very important objects :—First,
a direct line of communication between London and Leeds, the
Northern Counties and Scotland. Secondly, the opening of the
extensive and valuable coal. fields of Silksten, Dodworth, Burns.
ley, and the adjacent districts, to the manufacturing and other
towns of Yorkshire, the ports of Hull, Selby, Goole, Great
Grimsby, and Boston, and also to the Metropolis, and the Mid-
land, and Western counties. Thirdly, the accommodation of the
inhabitants of the places through which this railway will pass,
with those facilities of conveyance for passengers, of
which, from the almost entire absence of good roads,
as well as railways, they have hitherto been destitute.

, -
An examination of the Map will show how well these objects
will be attained by means cf this railway. At its northern termi-
nus, Wakefield, it will be connected with the Leeds and Manches-
ter Railway, continued to the Midland and the lines extending
from it to the north and cast, with the projected Wakefield and
Harrogate and 'Wakefield and Leeds lines (the latter a branch of
the Leeds and Dewsbury from Churwell), and through it with
the Leeds and Thirsk, the Leeds and Bradford, and other railways,
to the north-west and Scotland. And at Wortley, its southern
terminus, it wAlbe connected with the Sheffield and Manchester
Railway, the projected Manchester, Midland, and Great Grimsby,
and the Sheffield and Lincolnshire linos, the Sheffield and Great
Grimsby Railway, the projected Sheffield and Chesterield Railway,
and the various new projects from Sheffield to the northern parts of
Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and the west.
The quantity of coal which this railway will make directly
accessible to all parts of the kingdom may be estimated from the
following statements givch in evidence before a Committees of the
House of Commons :—The township of Barnsley contains 2,010
acres of coal bed, Barughs 4.080 acres, Dodworth, 6,219 acres,
Silkston, 4,040 acres. The quantity of coal in the Silkston main
alone is thirty.seven millions three hundred and fourteen thou-
sand tons, and the quantity likely to be raised from the entire dis-
trict through which the railway will pass, is not less than seventy.
eight millions of tens.
Pits may be sunk close by the railway, and will require only
an engine to lift the coals perpendicularly, and pour them into the
trucks. _

In addition to this, an opportunity will be afforded of turning
to better account a bed of iron.stone underlying a space of 5,080
acres.

The construction of this railway would so cheapen the transit
of coal to York, Hull, and all intermediate towns to the north
and east, and westward to Glossop, Ashton, Manchester, Stock-
port, and other towns in Cheshire, that the owners of this valu-
able mineral would be able successfully to compete with those of
Durham and Lancashire.

The inexhaustible mineral traffic which will thus be developed

—the means which this railway will afford of improved transit be.

tween Leeds and Sheffield, so long a desideratum t. the inhabitants
of these, the two largest towns in Yorkshire—the opening of direct
railway communication with Barnsley, from which that important
manufacturing town has hitherto been excluded—its con.
nexion with the line projected to Harrogate, whither
so many thousands of visitors annually resort in pur-
suit of health and pleasure, constitute a summary of
advantages which cannot fail to recommend this project to
public favour and support. It is calculated that the traffic in
minerals alone will yield a lucrative return to the Shareholders;
while the extraordinary increase .f travelling which every ad-
ditional facility creates, and the surprising influx of trade which
every new railway brings to the district through which it passes,
adding largely to the profits of the undertaking, render it pro-
bable that the advantages which will actually be realised by this
project will exceed the most sanguine expectations of its pro.
rooters. . . _

Applications for Shares may be made, in the subjoinea form,
to the Solicitors ; and also to ➢iessrs, Ridsdale, Myers, and Bailey,
Messrs. Smith and Perfect, Messrs. John Everard Upton, Share-
brokers, Leeds; Messrs. Ridsclale and Rogers, Sharebrokers,
Wakefield; Messrs. Garton and Wright, Mr. George Eadon, jun.,
and ➢lr. John May, Sharebrokers, Sheffield; Messrs. C. Wilkin-
son and Earle, Sharebrokers, Hull; and Messrs. Peet and Son,
Sharebrokers, Nottingham.
FORM OF APPLICATION FOR SHARES.

To the Provisional Committee of the Sheffield, Wortley, Silkston,

and Wakefield Railway Company.