1-9, Cobcar Lane

A planned terrace of five houses at 1-9 Cobcar Lane was built in the mid-19th century for the Fitzwilliam estate, with 20th-century additions to the rear. The houses are constructed of coursed, dressed sandstone with a Welsh slate roof.

The front elevation is nearly symmetrical, with the central house breaking slightly forward and topped by a pediment. The central house has a boarded front door to the right of a ground-floor window, and two windows above. The flanking houses have their doors to the far side of their ground-floor window, with a single window above each. All doors have overlights with glazing bars forming a saltire cross. The windows are 16-pane, vertical sliding sash windows, with segmental-arched lintels, tooled to resemble voussoirs. Ground-floor windows have sunken aprons, and there is a band immediately below the first-floor cills. Stone gutter brackets extend beneath the coping to the central pediment, which has a glazed oculus. The gables have ashlar copings supported by heavy kneelers, and there are four stone-built stacks along the ridge.

From the late 18th century, Elsecar was an industrial village developed by the Earls Fitzwilliam, who also owned Wentworth Woodhouse. They invested in coal mining and iron working, creating industrial buildings and good quality workers’ housing, along with other urban facilities. The survival of many buildings makes Elsecar historically significant, reflecting three centuries of coal mining, Christian paternalism, and industrial development. The terrace of houses at 1-9 Cobcar Lane, along with the adjacent Cobcar Terrace, was built after the 1849-1850 Ordnance Survey map and likely commissioned by the fifth Earl Fitzwilliam. Workers’ housing provided by the Fitzwilliam Estate included walled yards to the front and rear, and a separate allotment garden for each cottage.