Heritage Open Day: Visit this surviving Victorian colliery site. Sunk for Earl Fitzwilliam in the 1840s as Elsecar Low pit, working the Barnsley seam until 1920 when it was converted into a pumping station and survived the closure of the industry. Run by volunteers. Come to explore the site, a rare survival amongst the closures and demolition of the 1980s after the Miners Strike, and privatisation of the coal industry in 1994.
Originally built with canal and railway connections, Hemingfield Colliery's story is closely connected to the development of Elsecar as an industrial village, and directly connected to the work of the Earls Fitzwilliam at Wentworth Woodhouse.
Volunteers provide tours of the colliery and introduce you to the history of the pit, the canal and railway. As well as an exhibition and stalls on site, this year we will also have a presence at RSPB Old Moor throughout