Elsecar Heritage Centre - Visitor Centre
Discover 250 years of Elsecar and the stories of those who lived and worked here.
Explore how Elsecar became an important industrial heritage site with global connections. Learn about the groundbreaking scientific innovations developed throughout the site’s history. Continue your journey through the site’s wider surroundings, including the village, park, reservoir, canal and Trans Pennine Trail. Look out for the historic buildings and landmarks as featured in these displays.
Discover a shopping experience like no other. Various independent shops, artisan studios, cafés and an antique
centre can be found at the Heritage Centre, where they occupy former colliery and ironworks workshops.
Elsecar and its surrounding landscape are popular destinations for visitors of all ages. We hope you will enjoy exploring this fascinating industrial story shaped by centuries of ironmaking and coal mining history.
How did Elsecar's industrial story begin?
It is thought that the name “Elsecar” came from the Old English name of “Aelfsige” and the Old Norse word “kjarr” which meant a marshy or wet place.
The birth of industrial Elsecar
Elsecar’s journey to becoming an international centre for ironmaking and coal mining began in the 1780s. Two huge ironworks were established, Elsecar Ironworks and Milton Ironworks, along with a rolling mill and several collieries.
The village and people of Elsecar from the 1900s
Elsecar’s landscape has been transformed through industrial development over the last 200 years. By the late 1800s, the two ironworks had closed, and the Fitzwilliam family shifted their focus to coal mining.
Nationalisation, 1947
After the Second World War, the British government made major changes to how the country was run. One of these changes was nationalisation, where the government took control of major industries,
Elsecar Heritage Centre
Elsecar New Yard Workshops closed in 1985, and the site was left vacant. Barnsley Council and local volunteers undertook conservation, and repair works, and the site reopened in the 1990s as Elsecar Heritage Centre.