On my adventures this week, I headed out to a place called Elsecar, they have a fantastic heritage centre there, and it really does feel like you have gone through a time warp into the past, more on this later.
My main goal was to photograph the Newcomen Beam Engine, this is the oldest steam engine in the world, that is still in it's original place.
I'd been up a week or two before, but the weather and light was rubbish, I did take the drone up then, but wasn't happy with any of the shots, as it was a little bit windy, so I thought I'd try again.
As I walked over to the engine, which is just outside Elsecar Heritage Centre, I could see the metal gate that's usual padlocked on the entrance to the engine was open, and just the normal door shut, I thought to myself "am I allowed in?", I thought bugger it, I'll give it a try, I then heard voices inside as I tried the door, although it did seem locked, then about 30 seconds afterwards, a guide and a few people came outside.
I asked the guide if I could go in, but she said "this was a private tour, however they do general tours on Saturdays, which is £5.00 per person". Sadly tomorrow, I can't make it, but the next saturday I'm off work, I'll be heading up there.
The engine it's self was built way back in 1795 and was to run right up until 1923 pumping around 600 gallons of water per minute, the mine then replaced the steam engine in 1923 with electric pumps, but the mine owner (Earl Fitzwilliam) kept this engine in place as a backup if the electric pumps failed.
The engine is now part of history and an early example of the areas contribution to the UK's industrial revolution.
As well as the mine, the old train station and railway line still runs down the side.
Sadly, the train station became a victim of Covid and had to close, the council have now taken over, I'm not sure what's happened to all the trains though, they had a fair few and one called the Mardy Monster, I was speaking to a worker on the station and he did say there are plans in place to re-open the station, but not sure when this will happen.
Above is a shot of the entire Elsecar Centre, there's some great cafe's there and they do some lovely food.
I used to love getting a take out and the going to sit on the station to eat and drink it, was so relaxing and you could easily forget about all your woes.
There's some fantastic architecture around, and the view of the church is lovely (from the overflow carpark).
Also situated across the road from the heritage centre is a lovely park, and a dam, which was used initially to supply water to the canal that also runs in to Elsecar. A great little place to visit, especially that it's about 5 mins by car from Wentworth, another beautiful little village on the outskirts of Rotherham.
Thanks for reading my blog, I really hope you've found it an interesting read, and also enjoyed the pictures.
Shots done using:
Sony A7iii with a Canon 24-105mm F/4.0 L lens (adapted), and a Samyang 14mm F/2.8 wide angle lens.
Aerial shots using a DJI Mini 2 drone.
If you would like to learn more about the heritage centre:
https://www.elsecar-heritage.com/
Thanks for reading.
All the best :-)
