Summary

Architectural and functional centre-piece building of Elsecar Central Workshops, the complex built in the 1850s to serve Earl Fitzwilliam’s collieries. In 2020 in use as a children’s soft-play centre.

Description

Workshop, 1850s for Earl Fitzwilliam. Renovated 1990 as part of Elsecar Heritage Centre.

MATERIALS: well-dressed, coursed sandstone with deep horizontal tooling, inner-wall facing mainly brick. Welsh slate roofs.

PLAN: tall central nave, with large central locomotive accesses at either end, with lean-to side aisles, the eastern aisle cut short to accommodate the adjoining boiler house, chimney and engine house (listed separately).

EXTERIOR: the side aisles (of ten bays on the western side, seven bays on the eastern) have regularly spaced, recessed, round-arched windows linked by a string course at impost level. The western aisle has a near central double door in place of one of the windows. The walling to the nave above the aisle roofs is blind, but divided up with simple pilasters. Rising from the southern end of the western aisle is a short stone-built chimney. The rebuilt gable ends are quoined, raised and coped. They each have a central, large, round-arched entrance with a circular ventilation opening high in the gable above. Above this there is an 1850 date stone, with an inscribed plaque below. The northern plaque reads ‘A stitch in time saves nine’, the southern ‘A place for everything and everything in its place’ these plaques being 1990 reproductions.

INTERIOR: the nave and side aisles are separated by arcades of cast iron columns supporting round, brickwork arches. The timber roof structure of queen post trusses is exposed. There is a small, low arched opening through to the former boiler house.

History

The fifth Earl Fitzwilliam (1786-1857) continued the work of his father (1748-1833) in developing and supporting industrial concerns across his Wentworth-Woodhouse estate. In 1849, Henry Hartop (1785-1865), who had managed Elsecar Ironworks for the Earl from 1843 until it was leased to the Dawes brothers in 1849, suggested the establishment of a centralised workshop complex to service the needs of the estate, especially its collieries. Originally known as the New Yard, this complex was built immediately to the north-west of Elsecar Ironworks, close to Elsecar New Colliery. It was sited adjacent to the interchange between the local waggonway network (which served Milton Ironworks and the Tankersley iron ore pits to the west) and the Elsecar branch of the Dearne and Dove Canal and the recently opened branch line to the South Yorkshire Railway. The canal and railway linked the Central Workshops to Hemingfield Colliery to the north east, allowing Hemingfield’s workshops to be converted into workers’ housing. The Central Workshops were regarded as a showcase by the Fitzwilliams where public events and tours were often held, the fitting shop occasionally used for functions. In 1870 the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam (1815-1902) opened a private railway station for his estate as part of the complex and in 1912 the seventh Earl (1872-1943) hosted a visit by King George V and Queen Mary. Nationalisation in 1947 saw the complex taken over by the National Coal Board. It was acquired by Barnsley Council in the late 1980s and was subsequently restored as Elsecar Heritage Centre.

The Fitting Shop is the most visually striking building of the Central Workshops, occupying a central position close to the main entrance. A fitting shop is where machine parts are fitted together and this building is thought to have been originally designed as the main workshop for constructing and maintaining colliery equipment. It is shown on the earliest plan of the complex, dated 1859, and is described in an 1857 newspaper article which noted that the building contained some fixed pieces of machinery, but had been largely cleared for a public event at which teas were served. It is unclear if the building drew power from the steam engine sited in the adjacent Joiner’s Shop, however a small, arched opening suggests that steam may have been drawn from the adjacent boiler house to operate machinery. By around 1900 the building was described as an engine and boiler repair shop, with the line serving the Earl’s railway station being extended through the northern gable, a contemporary photograph showing a steam locomotive standing over an inspection pit within the building. The building was altered and extended in the C20, these alterations being reversed during the restoration around 1990 which saw the two gable ends largely rebuilt. The inscribed plaques were added at this time, based on smaller original plaques associated with the building. The internal ironwork is considered to be original and was probably produced at the adjacent Elsecar Ironworks.

Elsecar Central Workshops was an early and pioneering industrial complex, prefiguring similar complexes built as the coal mining and other industries became more highly capitalised towards the end of the C19 and into the C20. Hartop employed by the fifth Earl Fitzwilliam, effectively adapted the concept of the model farm to service the industrial needs of the estate. The complex included a Nasmyth steam hammer, invented by Hartop’s son-in-law, the notable Scottish engineer James Nasmyth (1808-1890) who invented and developed a number of workshop machine tools in the mid-C19. Successive Earl Fitzwilliams, who were influential members within the first rank of society and the British Establishment, took pride in showing off their industrial concerns to visitors. Elsecar is thus thought to have been nationally, perhaps even internationally, influential.

Reasons for Listing

Former fitting shop at Elsecar Central Workshops, 1850s, Building 17 at Elsecar Heritage Centre, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for an industrial building, the well-dressed external stonework and other detailing demonstrates particular attention to its architecture;
* with its aisled construction, prominent position and scale, the fitting shop was clearly intended as the architectural centre-piece of the complex, being used for public social gatherings demonstrating the pride that the Earls Fitzwilliam had in their industrial concerns.

Historic interest
* association with Hartop, Nasmyth and the Earls Fitzwilliam.

Group value:
* the centre-piece of the complex of buildings which formed Elsecar Central Workshops, an early and influential centralised workshop facility, the complex as a whole being a remarkable survival nationally which is of more than special interest.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26575614

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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