LIONS and tigers and bears - oh my... Unfortunately the tiger never came for tea in Barnsley - but amazingly the others did.
Anywhere you go in England you’ll hear myths, legends and folklore about some of the ‘beasts’ that once roamed the area.
And in Barnsley it’s no different.
From a 70-foot whale which stopped off in the town on a country-wide tour to a pet lion which guarded a Cudworth scrapyard, and even a cheeky monkey which lived in Darfield - there’s plenty of incredible stories about Barnsley.
Chronicle chief reporter Jack Tolson delves a little deeper into the stories of some of the fantastic beasts of the town.
Burglar deterrent Ben the lion
Lions are native to Africa and India but amazingly one made its way to Barnsley in the 1970s - and lived on a Cudworth scrapyard.
Ben was owned by Dennis Higgs who was known to many as the ‘Lion Man’.
When Dennis first brought him to his scrapyard he was pulled to the floor in a playful tussle.
But it resulted in a trip to the vets for Ben who successfully de-clawed him so no further injuries could occur.
Why did Dennis even bring the lion to the town?
He told the Chronicle in 1975: “I bought Ben as a burglar deterrent.
“At present people are just walking over a nearby colliery spoil heap and stealing batteries worth £28 a time from my plant-hire equipment.
“I do not expect that situation to continue when Ben is chained up in the year.
“It gives people quite a shock when I take them to see my ‘cat’.
“Ben is quite friendly at the moment.
“He loves television and he loves cars.
“I have only to open the car door and he jumps inside.”
It’s fair to say there’s no longer any TV-loving car enthusiasts with four legs and huge teeth in Barnsley today.
Darfield’s cheeky monkey
Pigs, ponies and sheep are the kind of animals you expect to see when visiting a garden centre - but that certainly wasn’t the case in Darfield.
At Yew Tree Garden Centre on Barnsley Road, now at the site of Strawbridges Garden Centre, there was a badly behaved monkey.
Although there is no exact timeline of when he was in Barnsley, locals remember vividly any experiences they had with it.
And it’s fair to say they aren’t all good - some might say it was rather cheeky.
Coun James Higginbottom said: “There was definitely a monkey at the garden centre when I was a kid.
“It used to be kept in a cage outside, probably adjacent to where the entrance is now to the cafe and we were always told as kids to be careful as it would bite if we stuck our fingers through the bars.
“I can vaguely remember going up to see it, but I was most likely too scared to get close as I had a fear of most animals - be that sheep, goats or hens - as a kid and a monkey would have been a step too far.
“As I recall it wasn’t there all that long and certainly by the mid-2000s it had moved on.”
It wasn’t the only animal at the garden centre though, and tales of a huge pig are now folklore in Darfield.
Jonah the whale
Thousands turned out to see Jonah, the 70-foot finback whale in the 1960s when it arrived in the town centre on a huge truck.
He was originally caught off Trondheim, Norway, in 1952.
Jonah was examined and exhibited at Oslo University where his organs were removed, lungs inflated and a refrigeration unit was placed inside him.
He was loaded onto a 100-foot trailer - at the time the biggest lorry in the world - and toured by the Norwegians.
He was on tour for a quarter of a century and reached almost every corner of the globe - including in Barnsley.
His visit to the town in the 1960s has been captured with a number of photos.
Considering blue whales - the largest animal in the world - grow up to around 70 feet on average, Jonah was sure to have been quite the spectacle.
Though those who marvelled at his humongous frame admit it made them feel they wanted to stop whaling rather than see it flourish.
Touring bears
Although the cruelty of touring animals in circuses is blatantly obvious now, it was a different time in the 1900s.
Circuses touring the country would often stop in Barnsley with animals such as bears which would perform for amazed locals.
There are number of pictures in our archives of the bears who look to be dancing in the town centre.
It was a chance for locals to see wild animals up close without having to travel to a zoo miles away.
And of course it wasn’t as easy to travel then as it is now, so the idea of seeing a bear in the circus was met with amazement rather than being frowned upon like it is today.
Thankfully, a ban was placed on wild animals performing in circuses in 2020 - but it’s crazy to think that the huge animals once walked the same streets we do today.
