The rainclouds hung heavily overhead during the morning. Ever-optimistic, the Friends arrived on site, opened up the gates, and skipped over the puddles to get on with a list of tasks before the worst of the cold and miserable weather set in.
University of Sheffield
End of June 2018 – Celebrations
The End of June 2018 was marked by a series of fascinating and impressive events, part of the Experience Barnsley Festival, arranged to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the opening of Experience Barnsley, museum and discovery centre which has really transformed how local people access and experience the cultural heritage of Barnsley.
Elsecar Heritage Railway – Live Project 2016
Live Projects 2016
On Friday 4th November the University of Sheffield School of Architecture (SSoA) welcomed students, clients, partners and the public to the Vestry Hall (Israac Centre) on Cemetery Road Sheffield for the public presentations of the 2016 Live Projects www.liveprojects.org.
Live Projects are 6 week projects where Masters Architecture students from the SSoA work with local community, voluntary and arts-based groups on real-world client briefs producing high quality innovative design and build, feasibility, strategy, public engagement and other outputs to support and advance the work of their clients. The project groups work to agreed briefs on a tight schedule. The ideas, designs, documents, models and final presentations are always creative and engaging. The Friends of Hemingfield Colliery themselves benefited from a Live Project in 2014 and so are delighted to see the outcomes of the EHR Live work.
Open Day and Working Party Weekend, 15th October 2016
Getting Ready
Grey cloud and autumn mist lingered over the Knoll Beck in the valley to Elsecar as the Friends and volunteers arrived at Hemingfield Colliery for another open day.
Preparation was the name of the game this weekend for the last working party before the Friends hand their 1846 winding engine house over to the care of building contractors who will be re-roofing the whole building, ensuring it will be protected well into the twenty-first century.
Unveiling and activation of the restored Newcomen-type engine at Elsecar
On Friday evening, the Friends of Hemingfield Colliery were privileged to be present at the unveiling of the restored Newcomen beam engine at Elsecar. The engine – a Scheduled Ancient Monument, No. SY1146, since June 1972 – is the only atmospheric engine in the world still in situ; still working in its original building and over the original mine shaft. Built in 1795 as the Dearne and Dove canal drew nearer, and the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam’s Elsecar collieries and industrial enterprises were being expanded, the engine has pumped billions of gallons of mine water during its working life – a run which officially ended in 1923 when electric pumps were installed by the the South Yorkshire Pumping Association – the same body that maintained the pumping stations at Hemingfield and over at Westfield in Rawmarsh.
[Live Project] It’s not the end, but just the beginning!
[Live Project] Day 32, Illuminating the headgear!
The Future of Hemingfield Colliery – SSoA Live Project Community Engagement Event
On Saturday 25th a team of students from the Sheffield School of Architecture hosted a community engagement event at Elsecar Heritage Centre.
Presenting an impressive array of interactive mapping, scale models, colourful history boards and striking sketch proposals, the Live Project team were active throughout the day from 11am to 4pm to explain and discuss their work so far, and to invite feedback from members of the local community and visitors alike as to the future development of the Hemingfield Colliery site. Outdoors and, when the weather turned, inside the centre, the group guided visitors around a series of displays, including:-