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Elsecar Heritage Centre, Elsecar, England
53° 29′ 41.72″ N, 1° 25′ 5.20″ W
129 Years of Steam
From 1795 to 1923, one of the world’s first steam engines ran at the Elsecar New Colliery in Yorkshire, pumping water from the mine. Steam pumping allowed deeper mining of coal than had previously been possible. In 1923 the steam engine was replaced by electric pumps, although it briefly ran again in 1928 when the electric pumps became overwhelmed by flooding in the mine. Happily, the steam engine was not destroyed, and today is the only surviving example of a Newcomen Beam Engine still in its original location.
The steam-powered pump at Elsecar was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and until James Watt invented his steam engine in 1763, the Newcomen Beam Engine was the way to get mechanical power from steam. Newcomen’s engine was also the first steam engine to enter widespread use: over 100 were installed throughout the UK and across Europe.
Newcomen’s engine was inefficient—only about 1% of the energy in the steam was actually converted to mechanical work—and required a large amount of coal to operate. Since the engine was primarily used for extracting water from coal mines, its inefficiency was relatively unimportant—a large supply of coal was always on hand.
The Newcomen Beam Engine at Elsecar is open to the public by appointment, but it is not in working order. The main cylinder is cracked, and restoring the engine to working order would require replacing the cylinder. To see a working Newcomen engine, you’ll have to travel either to the Science Museum in London (see Chapter 77) or the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan (see Chapter 102).
Still, the Newcomen engine at Elsecar is well worth the visit: here, the engine’s importance to the Industrial Revolution is clear. The engine made coal mining safer and collieries more productive; the coal that was mined could power steam engines for all sorts of mechanical work, and coke made from coal was used to smelt iron ore (see Chapter 74).
The Heritage Centre itself is located in historic buildings in the preserved village of Elsecar. Elsecar was an industrial village centered on coal mining and a foundry. The buildings of the Heritage Centre were part of the ironworks and colliery workshop; they now contain shops selling antiques and crafts, and a tea room.
The Newcomen Beam Engine is outside the Heritage Centre, and just around the back of the buildings is a preserved steam railway. The Elsecar Railway operates steam and diesel trains along a small track on most Sundays and some Saturdays.
Practical Information
The Elsecar Heritage Centre’s website provides visiting information: go to http://www.elsecar-heritage-centre.co.uk/. To visit the Newcomen Beam Engine, call ahead to make an appointment.
