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Increase in visitor numbers at heritage site

Wendy MiddletonYorkshire
News imageBarnsley Council A woman with blonde hair sits at a table and holds a blonde haired toddler on her lap. The boy is stacking up orange building bricks in front of wooden models of buildings on the Elsecar Heritage Centre site.Barnsley Council
A new visitor centre tells the history of Elsecar through models, dressing-up, videos and sensory elements, such as smells

A tourist attraction has seen an upturn in visitors after completing the first phase of of a project to upgrade its facilities.

Elsecar Heritage Centre, in Barnsley, is partway through a £4m plan to turn the former iron works into an "internationally recognised visitor destination".

The site, which was built in the 1850s, is home to a number of Grade II listed buildings as well as the Newcomen Beam Engine.

According to figures from Barnsley Council, footfall at the site has increased by 29% on the previous year.

In July a new visitor centre was opened, funded by a £3.93m grant from the Arts Council's Cultural Development Fund.

Robin Franklin, cabinet spokesperson for regeneration and culture at Barnsley Council said there had been a positive reaction from visitors to the new centre.

"They love it, " he said. "We've opened it up so it's more user-friendly.

"So many people come that have never been."

News imageBarnsley Council A room with dark walls which display information boards. A ma with dark hair and a short greying beard wears a short sleeved white shirt with dark stripes. He stands next to a woman with short, blonde hair and glasses who is wearing grey patterned short sleeved blouse and red leggings. Both are looking down at an exhibition case containing old photos and documents.Barnsley Council
Exhibits at the Heritage Centre have been developed with the help of members of the community

According to the council visitor numbers for the six months to September 2025 stood at 353,268, compared to 272,816 for the same period in 2024.

Franklin added that he hoped to see an additional 50,000 visitors over the next year with the improvements that are planned, but added that no fixed target had been set.

The new visitor centre is one of a number of developments being worked on at the heritage site, with the event space - a former iron rolling mill - also earmarked for expansion and a series of creative workspaces set to be created in the station building.

News imageBarnsley Council Yellow warning barriers surround a hole in the ground. A heap of earth is piled in the foreground. An external wall of a stone building is to the right of the picture. A yellow excavator machine is in the background.Barnsley Council
Elsecar Heritage Centre will remain open to the public during the work

The next phase of the redevelopment, however, is on pause while work on the drainage system is carried out to cope with the anticipated increase in visitor numbers.

Franklin said: "It's Victorian drainage as you can imagine.

"It's not had a lot of attention over the years so in the interim the money that we've received is going to secure the fabric of the site."

The work, which began in October, is expected to be completed by spring or summer 2026.

If additional funding becomes available Franklin said there were other projects to work on, such as re-opening the heritage railway that used to run on the site.

There are also ambitions to put more of Elsecar's history on show by uncovering the kilns used in the ironworking.

"The vision is that we need to show people what their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents did as an everyday work place in Elsecar," Franklin said.

"Because some of the bridges throughout the world were actually produced at Elsecar and at Milton Ironworks."

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