Summary
Range forming one side of Elsecar Central Workshops, the complex built in the 1850s to serve Earl Fitzwilliam’s collieries, including the main entrance to the complex as well as a small private railway station. In 2020 part is in use as a children’s nursery, part as a café.
Reasons for Designation
Former north-east range (gate piers, railway station, offices, and housing) at Elsecar Central Workshops, including an early C19 terrace of cottages converted into a house later in the C19, Buildings 13-14 at Elsecar Heritage Centre, are listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* includes the oldest buildings of the complex, a terrace of cottages subsequently altered to form a supervisor’s house;
* the range is of particular interest for its complex development and evolution through the C19 and early C20.
Historic interest
* association with Hartop, Nasmyth and the Earls Fitzwilliam;
* that the range included a private railway station used by aristocratic visitors to Wentworth Woodhouse, demonstrating the pride that the Earls Fitzwilliam had in their industrial concerns.
Group value:
* as an important part 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.
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.
When the New Yard was established in 1850, the north-eastern side of the complex was defined by a row of early C19 cottages fronting to the north-east. The 1859 plan of proposed railway sidings shows this row as being divided into four units, also depicting the two porches on the southern side suggesting that they were now being used to face into the yard. It also shows an additional new unit, a cross wing at the western end, forming one side of the entrance to the complex and having a canted bay facing into the yard. Stonework of the current building suggests that this addition was originally single-storey: it is interpreted that this was built as a gatehouse. Stonework on the northern side of the cottages also suggests that these were also mainly single-storey, the better quality of the stonework to the upper storey of the double fronted cottage being similar to that used for other buildings in the complex built in the 1850s. In 1870 the northernmost unit of the original row was rebuilt as a private railway station for the Earl that extended north-eastwards to accept a railway siding shown on a plan dated 1879. This end of the row may have become the main offices for the complex, the former offices to the centre of the Wath Road range being given over to warehousing. A railway plan dated 1887 identifies the remaining cottages (excepting the southernmost unit) as ‘HOUSE’ indicating that the cottages had been combined into a single domestic unit. The 1881 census listed a single household under ‘New Yard’, that of George Birkenshaw (a clerk) and his family including a domestic servant. The railway station end of the row is shown in a 1912 photograph of the King leaving by motor car. Subsequently, by the time of the 1929 Ordnance Survey map, this north-western end of the range was extended to its current footprint to provide additional office accommodation. The railway station was used as the private railway station for Earl Fitzwilliam and his guests visiting Wentworth Woodhouse, indicating the pride that the Earl had in his industrial enterprises. It was also used as the departure point for seaside excursion trains laid on for the Earl’s employees.
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.
Details
Row of cottages, early C19, altered and expanded for Earl Fitzwilliam between the mid-C19 and early C20 to form a house, private railway station and offices as part of Elsecar Central Workshops. Renovated 1990 as part of Elsecar Heritage Centre.
MATERIALS: early walling in coursed rubble sandstone, later walling of better-dressed sandstone in larger blocks. Welsh slate roofs, brick chimney stacks.
PLAN: originally a row of single-depth cottages, possibly single room cottages (as now represented by the southernmost bay), with one larger cottage having an upper floor (the next two bays). What now appears as a two storey, double fronted cottage (forming the centre of the range) may have been formed out of two cottages when heightened to two storeys, probably in the mid-C19, and then combined with the original two storey cottage to form a house before 1887.
The later railway station and offices (the northern end of the range) has a railway carriage hall that passes through the centre of the building north-east to south-west. On the south-eastern side of this is the formal entrance and stair hall. On the north-west side are two secondary entrances to offices and a back stairs. On the first floor, accessed from the principal staircase, is a large reception room which is thought to have been a waiting room for the station.
EXTERIOR: Cottages: this is of seven, slightly irregular bays which can be seen as three separate sections, with later C19 outshots added to the north-east elevation: the southern section is single-storey with a gable end stack, with a door and window to the south-west elevation, the other elevations being blind.
The next section is of two storeys (with no evidence of heightening) and two bays, also with an end stack. It is built of poorer quality stone than used for most of the rest of the range. Its front door is on the left, set in a projecting porch built of better quality stone. The centrally set ground floor window to the rear (north-east) is probably the original front doorway. Windows have substantial stone lintels with thinner projecting sills, being smaller and squarer than those of the rest of the range.
The next section steps forward slightly and appears as a double-fronted cottage with end stacks and a projecting triangular porch to the centre of the south-west elevation. This porch is of relatively poorer quality stone, and the ground floor is rendered, possibly concealing similar poor quality stone which is still exposed to the ground floor to the rear. The stonework to the first-floor is of better dressed, larger blocks. Window openings are taller than those of the two bay cottage, but otherwise detailed in a similar simple manner. The window in the triangular porch may have been converted from a second doorway (hinting at the building’s possible origins as a pair of single room cottages). A ground floor window to the north-east elevation is slightly wider, this being a former front door served by a path marked on some C19 plans. At the northern end of the south-west elevation there is an external flight of steps to a first-floor door.
Railway station and offices: this can be divided into three sections: a roughly square, 3-bay building with a canted end facing into the workshop complex, this interpreted as the 1850s gatehouse; a larger, taller, rectangular range extending for three bays between the gatehouse and the surviving cottages, this being the railway station built 1870; and an early C20 office range extending for seven bays north-eastwards from the gatehouse, but matching the storey heights of the taller railway station which it abuts along its side, ending with a canted bay facing north-eastwards. The principal pedestrian entrance into the whole building is via the south-west elevation of the railway station, facing into the workshop complex. This is set on the southern side of the railway carriage entrance and is via a flight of steps to a small, raised forecourt enclosed with railings, and then in through a double door with a rectangular overlight flanked by narrow windows, this joinery all being C20 or later. Despite the different stages of construction of the building as a whole, the detailing to the stonework and other features is consistent. Roofs are hipped and project over the eaves to displaying the ends of the rafters. There are brick ridge stacks to each section, with two to the office range. Windows are simply treated with stone lintels and projecting sills with timber, multi-paned horned sashes. There are two Venetian windows, one being off-centre above the railway carriage entrance in the north-east elevation, the other more centrally set to the first-floor of the north-west elevation of the gatehouse, variation in the stonework suggesting that the first-floor to the gatehouse is a later heightening.
INTERIOR: the southernmost section retains a simple, small C18 or early C19 cottage-kitchen style fireplace with stone jambs and lintel. The ground floor northern room to the double fronted cottage retains dado panelling and two built-in cupboards flanking the fireplace with its later surround. Within the northern end of the range, forming the railway station and offices, there is good survival of typical Victorian style joinery and plasterwork, along with some fireplace surrounds. Of most note is the principal stair hall retaining its staircase which incorporates unusual fretwork panels to the balustrading. The doorways opening into this hallway have deep, panelled door cases. A large reception room on the first floor was a waiting room.
SUBSIDIARY ITEMS: to the north of the gatehouse are two stone gate piers with moulded capstones for a pair of iron railing entrance gates and flanking pedestrian gates.
