The Elsecar ironworks was opened in 1795 by Darwin and Co. on land leased from the Wentworth estate and produced pig iron and castings. The Darwin's went bankrupt in 1827 and Earl Fitzwilliam took direct control of the works. It was leased to the Dawes brothers in 1849 and closed in 1884 (Bayliss 1995, 21). The furnaces were supplied from ironstone from the Wentworth estate including from Tankersley Park (Jones 1995, 80). The ironworks was the major customer for Elsecar New Colliery and in 1810 took 58% of its coal (Medlicott 1998, 166). When the ironworks closed some of the building became part of the engineering workshops associated with Elsecar New Colliery. These became an area where the maintenance of Earl Fitzwilliam's industrial enterprises were centralised. There is partial legibility of the earlier works in the surviving buildings (see Bayliss 1995, 21).