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| Concentrations of ironstone in the sandstone masonry at Milton Hall |
In June 2021, I set off on a circular walk from Wentworth village to Elsecar, when I had to plan the timing of my walk to coincide with the restricted bus service that was operating on the route from Rotherham to Wentworth.
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| Public footpaths between Wentworth and Elsecar |
I didn’t spend that much time in Elsecar, where I had a quick look around the Elsecar Heritage Centre and photographed a few of the historic buildings, some of which were included on the British Listed Buildings website.
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| Listed buildings in Elsecar requiring photographs |
A year later, following on from the June 2022 field trip to Otley Chevin with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, I decided to take another trip to Elsecar, this time arriving on the train from Sheffield and then walking down from the railway station to Elsecar Heritage Centre – with the aim of photographing more of its listed buildings.
Elsecar railway station is set on the edge of a localised ridge of an unnamed Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation (PMCMF) sandstone and, when walking down Fitzwilliam Street, there are two further ridges of other unnamed PMCMF sandstones, with the intervening mudstones producing slight vales.
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| Nos. 56-64 Fitzwilliam Street |
The first building on my list was Nos. 56-64 Fitzwilliam Street, a Mid C19 terrace of houses that was built by the Fitzwilliam Estate in a light brown to orange sandstone, which has well developed banding, Liesegang rings and occasional dense concentrations of ironstone.
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| Fitzwilliam Lodge |
The very grand looking Fitzwilliam Lodge (1853) – formerly the Miners' lodging house but now 14 dwellings - is also built in similar sandstone with a wild colour brown/orange colour variation. The Historic England listing description states that ”from the late C18, Elsecar was the industrial village of the Earls Fitzwilliam, whose seat of Wentworth Woodhouse lies nearby. At Elsecar they invested in coal mining and iron working, erecting industrial buildings along with good quality workers’ housing and a range of other urban facilities including a church and school.”
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| Views of Milton Hall |
Milton Hall (1870) was originally built as the market hall, but was renovated to form assembly rooms in 1931. The two principal elevations each have a central entrance bay which is pedimented and are flanked by simple round arched windows.
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| Details of the sandstone masonry at Milton Hall |
Looking closely at the east elevation, very high concentrations of iron can be seen in the sandstone, in the form of well developed Liesegang rings, irregular seams of dense ironstone and vugh like hollows with rims of dense ironstone.
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| Nos. 9-10 Market Place |
The Mid C18 Nos. 9-10 Market Place comprises a pair of two-storey, double–fronted cottages with central entrances, where the same sandstone is seen in the walling and the roof is covered in Welsh slate, which contrasts with the original stone slate roof on the adjoining building.
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| Welsh slate and stone slate roofs on Market Street |
The sandstone for these listed buildings and various other lesser buildings seen along Fitzwilliam Street will no doubt have been quarried on the Fitzwilliam Estate. The major sandstone formation in the area is the Kent’s Rock, which is sufficiently thick to possess massive beds that would produce a good general purpose building stone, but I have not seen any exposures of this.
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| Various buildings on Fitzwilliam Street |
The only quarries marked on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map are on the edge of the Abdy Rock. I have only seen this formation in the road cutting on Warren Vale between Rawmarsh and Swinton, where the best exposed strata are predominantly thin sandstone, mudstone, dark shale and coal.
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| Quarries shown on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map |
My next stop was Elsecar Footrill - possibly c1723 according to a date on the iron plaque on the entrance - which is an early form of a mine entrance and is believed to connect the underground workings of the Lowwood, Old Elsecar and Elsecar New collieries.
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| Elsecar Footrill |
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