Buildings 13-14, former railway station, offices, housing and gate piers at Elsecar Central Workshops

Buildings 13-14, former railway station, offices, housing and gate piers at Elsecar Central Workshops

A row of cottages from the early 19th century, substantially altered and expanded for Earl Fitzwilliam between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries to form a house, private railway station and offices as part of the Elsecar Central Workshops complex. The buildings were renovated in 1990 as part of the Elsecar Heritage Centre.

Materials and Construction

The early walling is constructed in coursed rubble sandstone, with later sections using better-dressed sandstone in larger blocks. The roofs are covered in Welsh slate with brick chimney stacks throughout.

Plan and Development

The buildings originate as a row of single-depth cottages, possibly single-room dwellings, as represented by the southernmost bay. One larger cottage originally had an upper floor, comprising the next two bays. What now appears as a two-storey, double-fronted cottage at the centre of the range may have been formed from two cottages when heightened to two storeys, probably in the mid-19th century, then combined with the original two-storey cottage to create a unified house before 1887.

The later railway station and offices occupy the northern end. A railway carriage hall passes through the centre of the building in a north-east to south-west direction. On the south-eastern side is the formal entrance and stair hall, while the north-west side contains two secondary entrances to offices and a back staircase. On the first floor, accessed from the principal staircase, is a large reception room thought to have served as the station's waiting room.

Exterior

The cottage section comprises seven slightly irregular bays, grouped into three distinct sections, with later 19th-century outshots added to the north-east elevation.

The southern section is single-storey with a gable-end stack, featuring a door and window to the south-west elevation; the other elevations are blind.

The next section stands two storeys high over two bays, also with an end stack, constructed of poorer-quality stone than most of the range. Its front door is on the left, set within a projecting porch of better-quality stone. The centrally positioned ground-floor window to the rear (north-east) is likely the original front doorway. Windows have substantial stone lintels with thinner projecting sills, smaller and squarer than those elsewhere in the range.

The centre section steps forward slightly and appears as a double-fronted cottage with end stacks and a projecting triangular porch to the centre of the south-west elevation. The porch is of relatively poorer-quality stone, and the ground floor is rendered, possibly concealing similar poor-quality stone still exposed to the rear. The first-floor stonework employs better-dressed, larger blocks. Window openings are taller than those of the two-bay cottage but similarly detailed. The window in the triangular porch may have been converted from a second doorway, hinting at origins as a pair of single-room cottages. A ground-floor window to the north-east elevation is slightly wider, marking a former front door served by a path shown on some 19th-century plans. At the northern end of the south-west elevation, external steps ascend to a first-floor door.

The railway station and offices divide into three sections: a roughly square, three-bay building with a canted end facing the workshop complex, interpreted as the 1850s gatehouse; a larger, taller rectangular range extending three bays between the gatehouse and the surviving cottages, built as the railway station in 1870; and an early 20th-century office range extending seven bays north-eastwards from the gatehouse, matching the storey heights of the taller railway station to which it abuts, and ending with a canted bay facing north-eastwards.

The principal pedestrian entrance to the whole building is via the south-west elevation of the railway station, facing the workshop complex. It is set on the southern side of the railway carriage entrance, accessed by a flight of steps to a small raised forecourt enclosed with railings, then through a double door with a rectangular overlight flanked by narrow windows—joinery of 20th-century or later date.

Despite the different construction phases, the detailing of stonework and other features is consistent throughout. Roofs are hipped and project over the eaves, displaying the ends of the rafters. Brick ridge stacks crown each section, with two serving the office range. Windows are simply treated with stone lintels and projecting sills, fitted with timber multi-paned horned sashes. Two Venetian windows appear: one off-centre above the railway carriage entrance in the north-east elevation, the other more centrally placed to the first floor of the north-west elevation of the gatehouse. Variation in stonework suggests the first floor of the gatehouse is a later heightening.

Interior

The southernmost section retains a simple, small cottage-kitchen-style fireplace from the 18th or early 19th century, with stone jambs and lintel. The ground-floor northern room of the double-fronted cottage preserves dado panelling and two built-in cupboards flanking a fireplace with a later surround.

Within the northern end of the range, forming the railway station and offices, there is good survival of typical Victorian-style joinery and plasterwork, along with some fireplace surrounds. Most notably, the principal stair hall retains its staircase, which incorporates unusual fretwork panels to the balustrading. Doorways opening into this hallway feature deep, panelled door cases. The large reception room on the first floor functioned as the waiting room.

Subsidiary Items

To the north of the gatehouse stand two stone gate piers with moulded capstones, designed for a pair of iron railing entrance gates and flanking pedestrian gates.