 |
| A plaque on Building 17 at Elsecar Heritage Centre |
Over the years I have visited Elsecar a few times, to look around the retail units in the Elsecar Heritage Centre, without appreciating its importance as an industrial centre and, when visiting again in 2021 during my circular walk from Wentworth, I was genuinely surprised to discover that it had once had two ironworks.
 |
| Buildings 2 & 3 |
For my day out to Elsecar in June 2022, I had prepared a walk around the village to take photographs for the British Listed Buildings website and, when arriving at the Elsecar Heritage Centre, I had the benefit of having undertaken some previous research into its history. My first stop was the Grade II* Listed Buildings 2 & 3 (c1860), with its blocked basket arch, which formed the entrance to Dawes’ Elsecar Ironworks – established in 1795 and subsequently leased from the Fitzwilliam Estate.
 |
| Elsecar on the 1855 and 1905 Ordnance Survey maps |
Looking at the 1855 and 1905 editions of the Ordnance Survey map, it can be seen that the great changes took place during the second half of the C19 and, although there are still a few buildings at Elsecar Heritage Centre that relate to the declining ironworks, most of the buildings seen today are part of the Elsecar Central Workshops that served the various collieries.
 |
| Nos. 2 & 4 Forge Lane |
Nos. 2-4 Forge Lane are a pair of semi-detached houses that have been added to the entrance of the ironworks, which like the latter are built with sandstone on their outer face but use red brick – presumably a biproduct from one of the collieries – for their inner elevations.
 |
| Details of the sandstone masonry at Nos. 2-4 Forge Lane |
Looking at the stone used to build it, which is quarried from either the Abdy Rock or Kent’s Rock – and could possibly be verified from documentation held by the Fitzwilliam Estate – there is a high proportion of grey siltstone with a honeycomb texture, which I did not see in any of the buildings on Fitzwilliam Street.
 |
| Building 19 |
Entering Elsecar Heritage Centre by the C20 entrance at the north end of Forge Lane, I went down to look at Building 19, which is an old workshop (c1835) built when the ironworks was under the direct management of the Fitzwilliam Estate. It is built manly with iron rich sandstone, but it again contains a high proportion of grey siltstone, which is highly weathered in places and has been repaired with sand and cement.
 |
| Buildings 4-7 |
Buildings 4-7 are a range of storage buildings forming one side of Elsecar Central Workshops, the complex built in the 1850s to serve Earl Fitzwilliam’s collieries. As with most of these industrial buildings, they are Grade II* Listed for their historic importance, rather than their architectural merit and they provide a further example of the local iron rich sandstone.
 |
| Buildings 17, 20 & 20a |
Building 17 was the fitting workshop for the Central Workshops and Buildings 20a and 21 are the former rolling mill built for the Dawes’ Elsecar Workshop in 1850 and its extension of 1860, which produced rails, bars and plates.
 |
| The Kendray memorial drinking fountain |
When wandering around the complex, I came across the ornate Kendray memorial drinking fountain (1887), which is made in grey granite that looks like it comes from the Cornubian Batholith in south-west England, with a bowl made of pink Peterhead granite. Finally leaving Elsecar Heritage Centre, I took a few photos of Buildings 13-14, which comprise the old railway station (c1850), with associated offices and houses – all of which are built in the same sandstone as seen in the buildings above.
 |
| Buildings 13 & 14 |
No comments:
Post a Comment