Town in South Yorkshire, England
Barnsley
A Barnsley lad once starred in a film about a kestrel, a Barnsley pit disaster changed the law, and Barnsley FC beat Chelsea and Liverpool in one FA Cup run.
Key information
- County
- South Yorkshire
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Coal mining heritage, the film Kes, the Barnsley chop, Tykes football
- What locals are called
- Tykes, a Yorkshire word that fans of the football club also wear with pride
- Famous people
- Michael Parkinson, Dickie Bird, Arthur Scargill, Joseph Bramah
- Football clubs
- Barnsley FC (the Tykes), who play at Oakwell
About Barnsley
The town that gave Kes its kestrel
Barnsley's best-known story is about a boy and a bird. Barry Hines grew up in the area and set his 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave among its pits and council estates. Ken Loach filmed Kes locally in the summer of 1968, and it was released in 1969. The film stars a teenage David Bradley as Billy Casper, with the local school and streets doing the rest of the casting. It is regularly named among the finest British films ever made. Its football scene, with a PE teacher playing Bobby Charlton, is one that people still quote. Barnsley's other literary claim is Ian McMillan, the poet and broadcaster known as the Bard of Barnsley, who has spent a career celebrating the town's voice.
Coal, children and a change in the law
Barnsley grew rich on the Barnsley seam, a thick band of coal that fed Victorian industry. The cost was terrible. In December 1866 explosions at the Oaks Colliery killed 361 men and boys, including rescuers who went down to help. It remains one of the worst mining disasters in England. Earlier, in 1838, a flood at Huskar Pit in nearby Silkstone drowned 26 children, the youngest aged seven. The public outrage helped push through the Mines and Collieries Act 1842, which banned women and boys under ten from working underground. The pits have gone, but the legacy has not. At Elsecar, a Newcomen beam engine from 1795 stands in the place where it first worked, and the old ironworks buildings now house workshops and exhibits.
The Tykes who beat the giants
Barnsley FC were founded in 1887 by the Rev. Tiverton Preedy, and the club has always loved an upset. In 1912 it won the FA Cup, beating West Bromwich Albion 1-0 in extra time in a replay at Bramall Lane after a goalless final at Crystal Palace. Harry Tufnell scored the winner. Two years earlier the Tykes had lost a final to Newcastle. They reached the top flight in 1997 and spent one season in the Premier League, 1997-98. A decade later, in 2008, they beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield and Chelsea 1-0 at Oakwell on the way to the FA Cup semi-finals. The word Tyke is an old Yorkshire term for a tough, blunt, no-nonsense local. In Barnsley, it is worn as a compliment.
A glass-making town with a neo-classical town hall
Before the pits dominated, Barnsley was known for linen weaving. Later, glass-making took over. The town's bottle factories were serious business, and the name of the new market and library complex, the Glass Works, is a nod to that trade. Barnsley Town Hall, opened in 1933, is a prominent neo-classical civic building designed by Sir Arnold Thornely, with a tower that was built to be seen. On the hillside above sits Locke Park, given to the town by Phoebe Locke in memory of her husband, the railway engineer Joseph Locke. Its tower, built in 1877, is a local landmark. A short drive out, Cannon Hall's parkland and Wentworth Castle's gardens at Stainborough show a gentler Barnsley.
The chop, the pie and the market
Barnsley's signature dish is the Barnsley chop, a double-sided cut from the loin of lamb that is roughly the size of a dinner plate. It is a favourite of butchers and grill houses across Yorkshire. The town's market has been a local institution for generations, and the traditional order is pie and peas, with mint sauce if you are being fancy. Stalls on market day sell everything from black pudding to ribbon by the yard.
Famous Barnsley folk
The most famous Barnsley voice may be Michael Parkinson, born in 1935 in nearby Cudworth, who went on to host one of Britain's best-loved chat shows. Dickie Bird, the cricket umpire with the white cap and the nervous habits, was born in the town in 1933. A statue of him stands in the centre. Arthur Scargill, the miners' leader during the 1984-85 strike, grew up at Worsbrough. Earlier still came Joseph Bramah, born near Barnsley in 1748, who patented a famous lock and an early flushing toilet, and the hydraulic press. The sprinter Dorothy Hyman, from Cudworth, won Olympic medals in 1960 and 1964.