Along with Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham, Barnsley is one of South Yorkshire’s four main conurbations, located at the centre of its own Metropolitan Borough. Whilst not really thought of as one today, it is a market town, and one which developed a rich industrial heritage due to its later history as a centre for coal mining, glassmaking and textiles. It has been inhabited since at least 1086, since it is referred to in Domesday Book as “Berneslai”, and it may take its name from the Saxon words Berne (barn or storehouse) and Lay (field). George Orwell wrote about it in his book The Road to Wigan Pier, a pre-World War Two attempt to document how grim it really is up north, and like many places in South Yorkshire it suffered post-industrial decline during the latter half of the twentieth century. However, the twenty-first century has seen an intense program of regeneration (including, most recently the building of a new shopping and entertainment complex named the Glass Works), and today Barnsley is a thriving town.
Barnsley Interchange, originally Barnsley Exchange Station, opened in 1850 but no longer has any of its original buildings, having been completely rebuilt; the thoroughly modern station lacks charm, but has not facilities. Leave the station by walking through the interchange to Eldon Street. Turn right, then cross the road and turn left along Regent Street, passing the former Queen’s Hotel on the corner and the Court House pub on your right. Proceed up the hill, emerging onto Church Street opposite the War Memorial and Barnsley Town Hall, which houses the Experience Barnsley Museum and Discovery Centre. The town hall is probably Barnsley’s most recognisable building, built in 1932-1933 with a striking facade of Portland stone. The museum is worth a visit, and has artefacts and exhibits that showcase the town’s local history, including archaeological finds dating from prehistoric times.
Barnsley Town Hall.
From the Town hall, turn right along Church Street, passing the Barnsley College Church Street building on the left and the Cooper Gallery on the right, which is free to visit and is also worth a look. The gallery is housed within a building that was originally built as Barnsley Grammar School in 1769.
Turn left opposite the Cooper Gallery, and walk up St Mary’s Gate, with the Grade II*-listed Church of St. Mary on the right. The tower of St Mary’s dates from the fourteenth century, whilst the rest was built in 1822. At the top of the road, turn left along Church Street, walking past the former Court House, then turn right along Westgate. At the end of Westgate, turn left past the Lamproom Theatre, which was originally built as a chapel in around 1780. With one hundred and eighty-six seats, the Lamproom makes an intimate setting for pantomimes, plays, comedy and concerts. Bear right and descend steps to Shambles Street, then turn left again and follow this to its junction, passing the Town Hall again on your left before turning right and following Market Hill. Continue past several old banks and the Old No. 7 and Joseph Bramah pubs. Turn right into Peel Square and cross this, bearing left towards Chambers, then turn right and walk along Pitt Street. Just after this crosses a bridge over West Way, turn left into George Street, passing the Holy Rood Roman Catholic Church on your left. Turn right along Castlereach Street; a house on the left was once used as Barnsley Synagogue, a fact celebrated by a blue plaque. Turn right into Princess Street, then right again back onto Pitt Street.
Turn left and walk along York Street, passing the handsome former Barnsley Public Baths building, which dates from 1872. At the end of the road, turn left and then keep bearing left at the roundabout into Racecommon Road. Walk along Racecommon Road for almost a mile, eventually reaching Broadway Park Road; this is a fairly uninteresting stretch of suburban walking, but it allows us to reach the Church of St. Edward the Confessor, where we turn left and then cross over to enter Locke Park. This fine example of a Victorian park was donated to the people of Barnsley by Phoebe Locke, widow of railway pioneer Joseph Locke, in 1861 and later extended in 1874 by the donation of further land by her sister Sarah McCreery. The park’s finest feature is Locke Park Tower, a monument erected at the behest of McCreery, which ranks amongst South Yorkshire’s finest architectural curiosities.
Locke Park Tower.
Explore the park, looking out for the bandstand and a bronze statue of Locke, before leaving via the exit near the tower on Racecommon Lane. Turn left along the lane, turning left again along Highstone Road at a Y-junction. When the road ends at Mount Vernon Road, turn left and walk to Sheffield Road, then turn right. Cross over and turn left along Oxford Street, and at the bottom turn left again along Pindar Oaks Street. Turn right at the end and follow Cemetery Road until it joins Doncaster Road, passing Barnsley Cemetery on route (incidentally, for anyone interested in these things, the cemetery’s pair of Gothic chapels was demolished in 1983, but the arcade that ran between them survives).
Turn right along Doncaster Road until the Kendray Hill monument to the Oaks Colliery explosion appears on your left, directly opposite the entrance to Kendray Hospital, which originated as a fever hospital in 1889 and today is an NHS hospital that provides – amongst other things – neuro-rehabilitation and psychiatric intensive care services. The Oaks Colliery explosion occurred in 1866, killed three hundred and sixty-one people, and remains the worst mining accident in English history. Cross over to view the memorial, then backtrack and turn right along Oaks Lane. Walk to the end and continue straight ahead along a path, which passes under a railway bridge. On reaching the Trans-Pennine Trail, keep straight ahead as the path curves left, then turn right and follow a path across open space. Keep walking straight ahead towards Barnsley Main Colliery and on reaching Oaks Lane turn left past this. This is colliery was where the Oaks disaster occurred, and although the pits long closed the remaining structures above ground – including the pit head – have been preserved as a local landmark and granted Grade II-listed status.
Stay on Oaks Lane until it ends at Pontefract Road, then turn left. Cross the road and turn right along Lord Street, continuing straight ahead when this becomes a path leading into Dearne Valley Country Park. The county park surrounds the River Dearne and includes various wildlife habitats including wetland, grassland and woodland. On reaching a junction, we turn left and shortly reach the junction of the derelict Barnsley and Dearne and Dove Canals. The Dearne and Dove Canal we have already encountered on the Swinton, Elsecar and Wombwell walks; the Barnsley Canal was fourteen and a half miles long and ran from Barnsley to the Aire and Calder Navigation at Wakefield. It was authorised by an Act of 1793, opened in 1799, and finally closed in 1946; restoration looks increasingly unlikely, but far more of the canal remains in water than the Dearne and Dove Canal, and the line of the towpath makes for a fine waterside walk between Barnsley and Wakefield. From the canal junction, continue straight ahead along the line of the Barnsley Canal, until the path ends at Harborough Hill Road. Here, turn left and then cross over at the pedestrian crossing and walk straight ahead to the junction with Old Mill Lane. Turn left into Eldon Street North and walk uphill, finally turning left into Schwabisch Gmund Way to return to Barnsley Interchange.
From Barnsley, our route diverges into two once more for the final four railway stations in South Yorkshire. Three of these are on the Penistone Line, which runs from Barnsley to Huddersfield, but before we venture along that, we shall continue on the Hallam Line towards Wakefield for a single stop at the village of Darton…
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