This site was purchased by Hemingfield Colliery Group (FOHC) in June 2014 with the aim of restoring one of the buildings within this historic complex to bring it back into community use and act as a catalyst for future generations.  This is site is of particular interest due to its significance in coal mining heritage with links to Elsecar Village.

The Project

This project will see the restoration of one of the buildings within this historic complex to bring it back into community use, acting a as catalyst for its further regeneration. A Friends of Hemingfield Colliery Group (FOHC) was formed in 2013 with the aim of acquiring, protecting and preserving the site. It finally purchased the site in June 2014.

Initial costs have been developed for the site and feasibility work is being pursued to look at options for community and heritage use. The aim is to get the part of the site back into active use, using this as the stepping stone to regenerate the rest of the site.A detailed conservation management plan was commissioned by the DVLP in partnership with the FOHC.

The colliery buildings are not listed at present, though the adjacent canal basin is. The potential for listing or scheduling the site is being investigate by the DVLP and the conservation management plan will assist with this. This site is of great significance in terms of the coal mining heritage of the area in particular the links to Elsecar Village.

The DVLP appointed architects during the development phase to carry out initial feasibility work on Hemingfield Colliery, looking at building conditions and identifying future uses and outline costs. The site has been masterplanned by students from Sheffield University School of Architecture as part of their Live Projects work in 2014.

Background

Hemingfield Colliery was sunk in the 1840s for Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, the 5th Earl Fitzwilliam, of Wentworth Woodhouse. While surviving miners’ pit checks indicate that the colliery was known formally as ‘Elsecar Low Pit’. The shaft from which the coal was wound became known locally as the ‘Bicycle Wheel Pit’ as it featured two pulley wheels mounted one above the other.

It contained a pump house, a winder house and an engine house, while a series of buildings along the canal bank formed Hemingfield Basin, where coal was loaded onto barges for transportation from the site. Several buildings, the majority of the mine’s railway lines and the features that extended to the canal bank had been removed by the time of the 1930 Ordnance Survey map, when the site was marked ‘Hemingfield Pumping Station (Mine Drainage)’. Standing buildings at the site include two stone-built engine houses, one of which is currently in use as a private house. The proposal for this site is to repair and restore the structures and buildings on the site and bring them into use and create a purpose and use for the buildings that will encourage visitors.