The Elsecar Ironworks opened in 1795 in the village of

Elsecar Elsecar (, ) is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is near the villages of Jump and Wentworth and south of the town of Hoyland, south of Barnsley and north-east of Sheffield. Elsecar falls wi ...

near Barnsley,

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. I ...

. The company was bankrupted in 1827 and taken over by the Wentworth estate who owned the land it stood on. The buildings are now part of the

Elsecar Heritage Centre Elsecar Heritage Centre is a visitor attraction centre in Elsecar, Barnsley, England. Operated by Barnsley Museums, it has independent shops, studios, galleries, cafes and a large antiques centre in former Victorian engineering workshops. A vis ...

History

Elsecar has been a mainly agricultural village situated on the Wentworth estate of

Earl Fitzwilliam Earl Fitzwilliam (or FitzWilliam) was a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain held by the head of the Fitzwilliam family (later Wentworth-Fitzwilliam). History The Fitzwilliams acquired extensive holdings in th ...

. There had been localised coal and iron mining on the edges of the village since the 14th century. The Ironworks opened in 1795 on a site near the head of the Elsecar Branch of the

Dearne and Dove Canal The Dearne and Dove Canal ran for almost ten miles through South Yorkshire, England from Swinton to Barnsley through nineteen locks, rising . The canal also had two short branches, the Worsbrough branch and the Elsecar branch, both about two m ...

. The canal, opened to service the

coal mines Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

, was extended a short distance to a new basin nearer the ironworks. The works made

pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with sil ...

from locally mined ores as well as a range of cast iron products, mostly for the construction trades. A little further away, atop the hill to the west, was built the

Milton Ironworks The Milton Ironworks was an iron works established in the 19th century in the Elsecar area of Barnsley, West Yorkshire, England. History Elsecar, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England was, until the 18th century, a mainly agricultural ...

, working in the same market place as its rival. This was also connected to the canal basin, but this time by a tramway, believed to be at a gauge less than Standard Gauge, the rails being set on stone blocks. Elsecar Ironworks went into bankruptcy in 1827, and as it was situated on lands leased from the Wentworth estate it was these who took them over. From its opening in February 1850 the works and collieries were connected to the Elsecar Branch of the

South Yorkshire Railway The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company with lines in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Initially promoted as the South Yorkshire Coal Railway in 1845, the railway was enabled by an act of 1847 as the South Yorkshire Doncaster and ...

giving easy access to the wharves on the

River Trent The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

Keadby __NOTOC__ Keadby is a small village in North Lincolnshire, England. It is situated just off the A18, west of Scunthorpe, and on the west bank of the River Trent. Keadby is in the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire. The appropriate civil ...

. In due time this enabled the companies to obtain ironstone from the

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an Industrial city, industrial town and unparished area in the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an es ...

fields, which were rediscovered in 1859.

Today

The site of the ironworks is today part of the

. The

Elsecar Steam Railway The Elsecar Heritage Railway (EHR) is located on the southern part of the former South Yorkshire Railway freight-only branch which ran from Elsecar Junction on its Mexborough to Barnsley Line. The Elsecar Heritage Railway operated an out and b ...

operates from a station within the centre along part of the South Yorkshire Railway's Elsecar branch, towards Cortonwood. Some of the buildings, which were the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

workshops still stand and contain ironwork made in Elsecar.

References

{{coord , 53, 29, 40, N, 1, 25, 12, W, type:landmark_region:GB-BNS, display=title 1795 establishments in England Ironworks and steelworks in England Hoyland

History

Today

See also

References