ANYONE who has ever worked at a colliery in Barnsley is being invited to a mass reunion by the volunteers behind major plans to create a mining heritage visitor centre around the historic Barnsley Main headgear.
The event next month is designed to be a get together for anyone who worked at Barnsley Main, Barrow and any other colliery in the Barnsley area, but it is also a chance for the Barnsley Main Heritage Group to tell former miners about their plans for the Barnsley Main site.
Coun Wayne Johnson, a member of the group, said it is important to tell miners about the plans both to build interest in the project, and to potentially recruit more volunteers to help make it a reality.
“It’s a very significant piece of our heritage,” he said. “It’s one of the very last surviving remnants of our mining industry certainly in Barnsley but probably also in the region.
“It’s important we discuss these plans with with former miners as if anybody is our core audience it’s them.”
The plan in the short term is to clear and tidy up the site, which is already largely complete, and to put in footpath links to connect it to the nearby Trans Pennine Trail to encourage visitors to the site. New and more welcoming gates are to be fitted which will still secure the site against unauthorised vehicles.
In the longer term are plans to restore and conserve the main building and winding tower, and to open it up to public access creating a visitor centre.
“It will be a fantastic addition to our heritage offer in that area of Barnsley,” said Coun Johnson.
“It forms almost a heritage triangle in that area, with Monk Bretton Priory and the Stairfoot Stairfoot Heritage Park centred around the former industries and railway station at Stairfoot which is being set up nearby.”
The Barnsley Main Heritage Group formed a year ago, initially organising an event at the site to lay crosses marking the Oaks Colliery Disaster anniversary and has already made significant progress improving the site.
“The volunteers have already logged more than 600 man-hours of volunteer time,” said Coun Johnson. “The site clearance has been remarkable. They’ve cleared an incredible amount of rubbish, and stripped out a load of knot weed and other weeds.
“One of the amazing things is it has already had an impact on flytipping.
“It used to be a flytipping hotspot but already there seems to have been a dramatic reduction in dumping.
“It’s as though people recognise that there has been effort put in, people are in there working, and they respect it a bit more.”
The Barnsley Main Heritage Group Reunion and Information Night is at Ardsley Oaks WMC on November 8 from 7pm. It will include a screening of the film Black Snow made to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Oaks Colliery Disaster.
