The Milton Ironworks was an iron works established in the 19th century in the

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 ...

area of Barnsley,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exis ...

, England.

History

, 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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

was, until the 18th century, a mainly agricultural village on the 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 ...

. Coal and Iron had been worked from small pits around the village since the late 14th century, particularly in Tankersley Park. The Milton Ironworks was situated atop a hill to the west 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 ...

and in order to make use of these facilities it was connected by a tramroad, believed to have been laid to a gauge less than Standard Gauge, the rails being laid on stone sleeper blocks. This tramroad dates from around 1840 The main part of the tramroad system was relaid to standard gauge in the late 1850s and this enabled wagons from the main line company to reach the Milton works and mines in Tankersley Park. The leaseholders of the land were W.H. and George Dawes, the celebrated Dawes Brothers, their name also being linked to the iron and steel industry in the Scunthorpe area, opening that areas first ironworks, the Trent Ironworks, in 1860. The iron trade went into a slump in the early 1880s and the Milton Ironworks closed in 1884.

Present day

The most obvious clue to the site of the works is the local pub, named "The Furnace". Looking out from the pub there is a large area of flat land, now a playing field, which was covered by the works. The tramways to the canal basin can easily be traced, both on the ground and from aerial photographs and maps. Most of these are, nowadays, footpaths and bridleways and the route to the canal basin lies between long establish hedgerows. It is more difficult to trace the tramways to Tankersley Park or the Thornecliffe works, which became the centre of the Newton, Chambers empire, but not impossible.

References

Literature

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External links

*{{citation, title = Milton Iron Works, url = http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Milton_Iron_Works, work = www.gracesguide.co.uk Ironworks and steelworks in England Companies based in Barnsley History of Barnsley

History

Present day

See also

References

Literature

External links