Category: Barnsley Civic Trust

A blue plaque for Joseph Bramah

We celebrated Joseph Bramah at Wentworth Castle Gardens on Tuesday 12th September, during Heritage Open Days.

Joseph Bramah (1748 to 1814), from Stainborough, was one of Britain’s most important inventors and the father of hydraulic power. Amongst many other things, he invented a lock that could not be picked, a beer pump, a flushing toilet, hydraulic presses and devices for pulling up trees.

Barnsley Museums have the original 1791 continuous fire pump made by Joseph Bramah for Wentworth Castle, the first of its kind. It can be seen at Experience Barnsley at Barnsley Town Hall.

Barnsley Civic Trust and
National Trust Wentworth Castle Gardens.
Heritage Open Day: Free Entrance to Wentworth Castle Gardens
#BarnsleyHeritageMonth

Barnsley Civic Trust Talks

The Barnsley Civic trust programme of talks includes:

Thursday 19 October ‘Mining under Barnsley’. Paul Darlow will give a talk on the fascinating history of the mining of coal under Barnsley Town Centre and the surrounding area. Venue: Miners Hall. 

Thursday 16 November: History of the Barnsley Trinity Players, a presentation on the history of the theatre group by Phil Johnson.

Thursday 30 November: Development of Barnsley Town Centre, a presentation on recent and forthcoming developments by Kathy McArdle, Service Director Culture and Regeneration, Barnsley Council.

Other talks include: Blue Plaques for Brian Glover and Barry Hines by Ronnie Steele on 25 January; Barnsley Canal by Stephen Woodcock on 29 February and  Barnsley News in the 1800s by Josh Daniels on 21 March 2024

Talks are open to members and non-members

Watch this space for details of other talks and activities.

Victorian Society visit August 2023

Barnsley Civic Trust welcomed Victorian Society members for a tour, guided by Allen Parks, of some of the Victorian and Edwardian buildings in Barnsley town centre and nearby conservation areas.

We explored the iconic NUM Miners Hall with Paul Darlow and this time called in at the home of Barnsley Civic Trust Chairman John Love for tea with Victorian cakes produced in Barnsley!

BCT events

Coming up this year with Barnsley Civic Trust …

Town Tours
We have two tours of Barnsley Town Centre coming up for visiting groups, looking at significant buildings, both historic and new:
Saturday 22 July: Huddersfield Civic Trust visit for tour of Barnsley Town Centre

Sunday 20 August 20: Yorkshire Victorian Society tour of Victorian buildings.

We also intend to repeat the tours for Barnsley Civic Trust members and Barnsley residents.

Blue Plaques
Two Barnsley Civic Trust Blue Plaques are being unveiled in the next few months.

Tuesday 12 September: Blue Plaque for Joseph Bramah, Engineer and Inventor, at Wentworth Castle, in association with the National Trust Wentworth Castle Gardens. This is one of the national Heritage Open Days and access to Wentworth Castle Gardens will be free of charge.

Thursday 14 September: Blue Plaque for Ernest Harold Jones, Artist and Egyptologist, with a talk by Joann Fletcher.

Saturday 15 July: There is also the unveiling of another Blue Plaque at Wentworth Castle to commemorate the achievements of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. This is a Royal Society of Biology and National Trust event with talks. 

Barnsley Civic Trust would be interested to hear of nominations for Blue Plaques especially where funding can be provided by a sponsor.
 
Further Talks
Thursday 19 October at the Miners Hall (NUM Offices). Paul Darlow will give a talk on the fascinating history of the mining of coal under Barnsley Town Centre and the surrounding area.

Thursday 16 November: History of the Barnsley Trinity Players, a presentation on the history of the theatre group by Phil Johnson.

Talks are open to members and non-members

Watch this space for details of other talks and activities. 

Barnsley Civic Trust 2023 agm

Barnsley Civic Trust’s 2023 AGM is on Thursday 8th June, at 7.00pm at the Masonic Hall in Cockerham Lane, Barnsley S75 1AT.

A talk on 50 Buildings of Barnsley, by Keiron Dunn, follows. Keiron is a former planner in Barnsley and intends to share his views on Barnsley’s buildings and the changes that have taken place over the years. Come along, join the discussion and give your views!

If you love Barnsley, how it looks, its heritage and its buildings, then please attend and try to encourage others who might share these views.

2022 annual general meeting

Barnsley Civic Trust held a short AGM on Thursday 13 October before an interesting and stimulating presentation by Barnsley Archives’ Paul Stebbing.

A Committee was elected with Allen Parks (secretary), Bill Gaunt, John Love (chair), Linda Burgess, Peter Roberts, Phyllis Barnes (treasurer) and Rebecca Battye. If other members would like to join the committee, please let us know.

Some minor changes were made to update the constitution to make the running of the organisation more straightforward. These included the numbers on the committee and the quorums required for the committee and general meetings.

John Love outlined some of BCT’s activities in the last year as well as future ones planned. These include blue plaques, working on a schools project with Eldon Street Heritage Action Zone, commenting on the design of proposed development, supporting the Local Heritage Listing project, and a programme of talks. A new facebook page had been launched: Beautiful Barnsley by Civic Trust for anyone to post images to celebrate Barnsley at its best.

Award-winning Barnsley Archives

Barnsley Archives has been named the ‘Record Keeping Service of The Year’ at the Archives & Records Association national conference on 1 September 2022. It is well deserved!

Barnsley Civic Trust had a timely illustrated presentation by Paul Stebbing, Archives and Local Studies Manager, at our meeting on Thursday 13th October.

We found out about the award-winning Barnsley Archives, what they have achieved over the years, and about their exciting plans for the future.

The Archive Service has launched a new 360° interactive tour which allows you to virtually walk around their Barnsley Town Hall search room: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=ju4s96wzNT5