Elsecar Heritage Centre

Had a brief trip to this Centre near Barnsley this morning. Being a wintery Monday morning there were many shops unopened but I was taking an old barometer for repair and had checked that was open. It is over 100 years old and belonged to my grandfather. But more of that when I get it back in better condition.

This blip focuses on a building originally built in 1850. The history states:

The Elsecar workshops were built in 1850 to facilitate a more effective management of the various industrial enterprises around the Fitzwilliam estate. The coal board took over the workshops in 1947 following the nationalisation of the pits. As the collieries began to close the demand for the workshop facilities began to decline, eventually leading to their closure. In 1986 the Department of the Environment listed most of the buildings to be of special architectural or historic interest. Barnsley Council purchased the workshops along with the Newcomen Beam Engine in 1988 and started a programme of conservation and restoration.

I then went on to Barnsley around small villages I haven't visited for a while. In the 198os I played cricket for the Probation evening league side and we played in Wombwell. This was more social than proper cricket which I played at the weekend. A time to relax with colleagues and have a beer afterwards. What struck me was many of the pubs we visited now either lie derelict or are Indian restaurants. Very few have survived, a sign of the very changed economic fortunes of these ex coal mining villages. Plenty of new housing too in recent years as at last some, though not a lot, of prosperity returns.