Chronicle chief reporter Jack Tolson takes a look back through the archives of April 2007.
BEN NETS OAKWELL EXHIBITION
SUCCESSFUL artist and Barnsley fan Ben Mosley is holding an exhibition with a portion of the proceeds going to the club.
Ben, 25, has sold his art through exhibitions in London and Manchester, been showcased on MTV and is regularly commissioned to paint.
Now he is bringing his work into the football club that has inspired so much of his art.
Ben, whose dad is from Cudworth, is exhibiting several paintings in the Legends’ Suite at Oakwell and per cent of the sales will go to help the club’s finances.
The Hertfordshire-born artist said: “It is an honour for me to have my work displayed at Oakwell.
“Barnsley is very close to my heart, I’ve been watching them for 20 years.”
COOLEST GRANNY IN THE SKATE PARK
CHECK it. Irene Hartley is the coolest granny at the skate park.
Irene, 64, from Wath, takes her grandchildren on a bike ride every Sunday and on the way back she always ends up at the skate park.
While most grandmas are content to offer the kids a dip into the biscuit tin, she encourages the young ‘uns to show off their skills on the halfpipe.
Irene said: “I go up on the small ramps - it’s not anything really spectacular.
“I try to encourage the kids,
“They just think I’m a groovy grandma.”
Irene hasn’t had a go on a skateboard yet but said she is tempted.
“My son keeps telling me that I’d break my leg, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
“I think I could use a skateboard maybe, if someone were to teach me properly.”
GRIMETHORPE WILL BE BIGGER AND BETTER
THERE were houses on sale in Grimethorpe in 1997 for £200 - and no-one wanted them.
Now they are selling houses faster than they can build them.
More than 200 are to be built o the former Seaside estate site at an average of £130,000.
That illustrates how much the village has changed since the colliery - the last in the Barnsley coalfield - closed in the early 1990s.
The aftermath of the pit closure programme led to the population dropping by about 1,500, crime and drugs were rife and the village was in danger of self destruction.
The council had doubts as to whether the village could be saved and knocking it down was seen as a serious possibility.
However those left living in the village weren’t prepared to let that happens and talks started with the remaining 3,000 residents about what they wanted to see.
Ten years on and helped by £100m worth of investment Grimethorpe has emerged out of the economic darkness and has silenced its critics.
