Elsecar village

This surprisingly tranquil scene was just a few hundred yards from Elsecar Heritage Centre. It is the beginning of the Elsecar Canal, a branch of the Dearne and Dove Canal. The canal network was created to carry coal and other cargo (including pig iron) from the mines and ironworks. The coming of the railways and subsidence from the mining meant that their viability was short-lived. It is only in recent years that they have been restored. 

Across the canal, the spire of Holy Trinity Church stands tall over the village. Built in the early 1840s, it was part of Earl Fitzwilliam's investment in the area. Like Sir Titus Salt in Saltaire, his Christian paternalism meant that he wanted his workforce to have good housing and facilities like schools and a church. 

I wondered if it might be the church that my ancestors attended but I've since researched some of their children's baptisms and it seems they were non-Conformist chapel-goers. The church itself was locked up but there was a pretty angel on a grave in the churchyard. (I love to see Victorian angel statues.) 

From the churchyard you could see an old corn mill, now a craft centre, at the side of the canal. Through a gap in some houses, there was a good view over the lower part of Elsecar village. 

Old Row (below) appears to be one the few remaining terraces of houses that Earl Fitzwilliam had built for his coal miners in the late 1700s. Plain but substantial, stone-built with slate roofs, they must have been rather superior dwellings in those days, each with a private walled yard at the front and back, and an allotment. They are now Grade II listed, reflecting their importance to the history of this area.  I bet they're still quite nice houses to live in. 

Newcomen engine

Elsecar is proud to have the oldest steam engine in the world that is still in its original location - the Newcomen Beam Engine. Built in 1795, it was designed to extract water from Elsecar New Colliery, to allow exploration of the deeper coal seams. Apparently Henry Ford, the car maker, twice tried to persuade Earl Fitzwilliam to let him buy it and ship it to America, but was refused. It ran until 1923, when it was replaced by electric pumps. It was restored back to working order in 2014 by Barnsley Museums, who offer tours and the opportunity to see it in action on selected dates. 

On the lane leading to the beam engine, a metal sculpture of a horse reminds how important 'horse power' was in Victorian times: for transport, for pulling carts, for hauling loads down the coal mines. (One of my great grandfathers, who married Annie, daughter of my great great grandfather Benjamin James (see Wednesday's post), made a good business for himself in Sheffield, supplying hay and straw for working horses.)

Elsecar ironworks

I'm pretty sure my great great grandfather was employed at the Milton Ironworks, which were at Hoyland, not far from Elsecar. Little trace of them now remains, but many of the ironworks buildings at Elsecar are still standing, now used for other purposes. The huge rolling mill (below) can be hired for corporate events and weddings, with a capacity of 900 people! (See HERE) 

 

A few signs and artefacts hint at the past, and I understand that renovation is still ongoing. They are hoping to secure funding to reopen the heritage railway that runs alongside.

Elsecar Heritage Centre

Elsecar Heritage Centre, near Barnsley, has been on my list of places to visit for a while and I finally made it, just before Christmas. Similar in concept to Saltaire (though completely different in style), Elsecar is an industrial estate village that grew up around ironworks and collieries built for the Earls Fitzwilliam from nearby Wentworth Woodhouse. It's now a collection of independent shops, studios, galleries and cafés in the New Yard, the former Victorian workshops that housed the blacksmiths, engineers, carpenters and joiners that supported the ironworks and coalmines. Its heyday was the 1850s to 1880s. 

I am particularly interested in it because I've discovered that my great great grandfather, Benjamin James, brought his new wife Hannah up to Elsecar/Hoyland from Staffordshire in 1851. He was a iron moulder, a skilled job making sand moulds for metal castings. He moved up to Yorkshire as these ironworks were undergoing a rapid expansion and there must have been good jobs on offer. In fact, there were two foundries in close proximity and I think he probably worked in the other one, the Milton works - of which there is now little trace. The family had eleven children while they lived in Hoyland, though four died as infants. One daughter was my great grandmother, Annie, born in 1864. By the 1880s, these works were in trouble and they all moved to Sheffield, to the foundries around Kelham Island. 

There is still some conservation going on around the site and, whilst the buildings are being preserved, little remains of the actual machinery of the works. There's a useful AV introduction in the Visitors Centre and various sign boards around the site, though it didn't tell you specifically what each building was. It was all quite interesting and I'm really glad such places are being preserved and their history told.