Elsecar's 'outstanding' relic for restoration

The engine is the last to remain in its original location

An "outstanding" relic of the industrial revolution in South Yorkshire is to be restored.

The £500,000 project on the Newcomen Beam Engine at Elsecar Heritage Centre in Barnsley will take two years.

Thomas Newcomen's engines made removing water from mines faster and easier than existing methods.

The engine pumped water from Elsecar New Colliery between 1795 and 1923 and is on English Heritage's risk register.

The beam engine, shaft and engine house will be restored within the Elsecar village conservation area and is the last to remain in its original location according to the heritage centre.

The industrial site is of "outstanding importance to England's industrial past" according to English Heritage.

Elsecar was the industrial centre of the Fitzwilliam family from nearby Wentworth Woodhouse.

Ironworks, workshops, a canal, a colliery and the Fitzwilliam's family railway station remain around the engine making a tourist attraction that attracts 300,000 visitors annually.

Dr Fiona Spiers, of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said "The importance of its unique industrial heritage is not as widely understood or as accessible to the public as it could be."