Talk:Barnsley

Changes
Changed Thatcher govt from "deciding" the pits were oncompetivative to "noticing". Uncompetitiveness is not "decided", it is a numerical fact that can be read off company accounts. The govt is still negatively protrayed here though -- I think its generally accepted that their handling of the problem was botched -- however they did not create the problem (it had been building up but brushed under the carpet for years before they were even elected) and (presumably) tried to act in the best interests of the taxpayer. Anyone know if other approaches were tried before closing them -- selling them off to the higheswt bidder would have been the obvious tory method? Did they try this but with no buyers?
 * The wording needs to be as politically neutral as possible. The issue is a lot more complicated than mere profitability.  During the Cold War, every country was keen to be energy self-sufficient.  Britain subsidised its coalfields, but generally to a much lower level than France, Germany or Belgium.  Nowadays, we import lots of coal from Russia.  We could not have done that before the 1980s.  Anyway, that issue should be confined to UK miners' strike (1984-1985).  Letting a political issue into a town's article can have ugly consquences.  The Wiki article for Dewsbury attracted lots of remarks about the town's race relations, which led to a very unpleasant article.  Let us not do the same thing for Barnsley and mining!  Epa101 (talk) 20:28, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

The Barnsley Plinth
I don't believe anyone proposed to have a statue of Tuscan hill villages on the Barnsley plinth - I'm therefore removing this reference.--XmarkX 08:50, 12 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The famous plinth with nothing on it, is effectionately called 'Vermin Island' by the local police. Due to the calibre of people who sit on it during the day.

biggest load of bullshit ever! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.176.105.132 (talk) 19:11, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Regeneration
although regeneration is now underway, it still falls behind the other local towns Doncaster, Wakefield, Sheffield and Leeds

Isn't this a bit overly opinionated? What does it fall behind them for? Barnsley has more small businesses per head than anywhere else. Why not also list towns that Barnsley might be seen as being "ahead of", such as glorious Dewsbury?

"The youth and large student population of Barnsley and other Futurists would prefer to leave those images behind and choose an emblem of the EU, or of technology." I don't think saying that the youth and student popultaion totally support this is accurate and seams to be an assumption.

Statue To Dickie
"The most popular suggestion so far seems to be a statue of famous Barnsley Cricket umpire Dickie Bird, a symbol of good will and fair play."

What is the basis for this?

Barnsley Population
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the actual population for actually 222,100 going by the figures on BMBC's website for 2005? Surely this should be ammended. Also I am now led to belive that the number has rose by quite a bit now but no figures are currently out.

http://www.barnsley.gov.uk/bguk/Economic_Finance/Central%20Research%20Team/Mid-year%20Population%20EstimatesĒ

(Callum-1997 (talk) 12:11, 9 May 2008 (UTC))

Barnsley's population is now 350,000 going by the council's own words in this video: youtu.be/I7aOuYb8DIo?t=9 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hadwell (talk • contribs) 15:21, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

Removal of "Notable Person"
Sam Nixon; yay he didn't even win a "talent" show, who cares? - He's probably forgot about the place by now, being a "celebrity" and all. Are people so dimm to follow such nonsense. ZellDenver (talk) 05:45, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * We call that a wikitroll.


 * Sam Nixon, has released 2 Albums alongside Mark Rhodes, worked for the CBBC, Top of the Pops Reloaded, and still currently presents TMi. Oh, and he's in a band called Mason. I believe, he is. Indeed Notable.


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Nixon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.47.154.167 (talk) 17:34, 16 July 2009 (UTC)


 * But have you got a reliable reference to connect him to Barnsley? Keith D (talk) 00:19, 17 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Fair enough, but to be honest, I wouldn't consider him notable, I suppose it's down to the individual. And could you sighn your comments please? Thanks ZellDenver (talk) 07:06, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Redevelopment
Where is the reference for starting construction on barnsley market in early 2010? as a barnsley resident i can say that work has definatly not started as of june 2010. Mikyt90 (talk) 09:36, 18 June 2010 (UTC) The current status of the new development according to BMBC is a start date of somewhere in 2014. This is not the first proposed start date, and is probably no more likely to occur any more than its predecessors. The developer apparently still has no funding and the Council are unable to contribute cash!Moonraker55 (talk) 23:42, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

The Chocolate Bar
Can't think of a better place to ask this, what names did The Chocolate Bar on Shambles Street have in the past? I remember in the 80s it was owned by the people who owned Brownes, I think the manager was called Noel. Later it was owned by the people who also owned Stereo on Peel Street, before it changed its name. Also, what was Stereo formerly called? Thanks, Matthewedwards : Chat  06:30, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

History - etymology of Barnsley
I seriously doubt that an undisputed definition of the origins of the name Barnsley will ever be established beyond all doubt; however, I seriously doubt that which is attributed to the Council in the article. The word Berne is not the OE (Anglo-Saxon) word for barn or stone building, that would be bereæn. There are many authorities to use but the longest established and respected source is J R Clark-Hall "A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary" originally published by the Cambridge University Press in 1894. My own copy is the fourth edition from 1960 reprinted up to 2000. The word laithe is far more common in these parts for a barn or stone building used in agriculture or for the tithes and coming not from OE but from OS (Old Scandinavian). My own reasoning makes me prefer alternatives. The first, which I think unlikely, or at least there is no particular reason to believe it to be true, is related to beren meaning barley and the suffix leah meaning in this context meadow, i.e. a barley meadow. What is perhaps far more likely is that the name is derived from the actual geology of Barnsley.

OE and modern English, as well as OS and modern Scandinavian languages, plus a huge number of others including Sanskrit and Urdu are all members of the Indo-European family of languages and this is important to know in order to understand my suggestion. The words bærn and biern, are ancestors of the modern word burn (as in burnt etc.). The OE language like most in the earlier developments of Proto-Indo-European languages were quite descriptive. The word for coal in a great many related languages were literally describing the burning and light giving qualities of the carboniferous rock. Coal extraction was not introduced into the area in modern times; there is significant evidence of a great many pits in the area going back to at least the Domesday period, with small bell pits and other surface extraction methods. The word leah also has an alternative meaning in context in OE, that is "a piece of ground". It is my suggestion that the etymology of Barnsley is the piece (or pieces) of ground with the burning (or burnable and light-giving) rock - coal!Moonraker55 (talk) 23:38, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Economy - a coal town!
In the article the author has written “The town was known for coal mining, although most of the pits were in the surrounding villages, rather than the town itself. “ On the 1:1250 scale Ordnance Survey map of the town of Barnsley published in 1852, which covered the town and immediately surrounding areas, there were six collieries within walking distance of the town – Mount Osborne, Mount Osborne New, Barnsley New (which was not the same as the Barnsley Main), but which was a neighbour to Honeywell colliery. Gawber New (much closer to town than the Gawber colliery), and the Oaks colliery. The area of Mesborough Common, east of Oakwell lane, part of which became the Barnsley Main colliery, was already pitted by mediaeval pits. This is evidence that the town was very much a coal town, although the later deep mines were further out. Then a brief synopsis of the industrial economy in which the author states “The proportion employed in mining varied.[5] All the mines in the borough are now closed; Goldthorpe was the last to close in 1994. Wire, linen and glass making were also major industries, but only glass making remains, with one company still operating. “ In 1852 the most major industry in Barnsley by far was linen manufacturing. It declined by the end of the century and was replaced by coal. The surrounding countryside was littered with bleaching grounds and bleaching works and the town hosted a great many linen mills. Flax, the plant from which linen is derived seems to have been grown in surrounding areas to serve the industry as well as being imported from Nottinghamshire. Unlike the later industries of deep mining and the railways, the evidence from the censuses of 1851 to 1881, demonstrates that the owners and managers of the linen industry were local people, whereas the leaders in the coal and rail industries were mainly inward migrants, leaving more menial tasks to those locals no longer employed in agriculture. The other growth employment opportunities related to the movement of goods and people. The Barnsley canal and the Dove and Dearne canals were important before the coming of the railways. The railways themselves brought new work. Moonraker55 (talk) 00:39, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20061210044112/http://www.barnsleydevelopmentagency.co.uk:80/index_remaking.php to http://www.barnsleydevelopmentagency.co.uk/index_remaking.php
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External links modified (January 2018)
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160507120406/http://www.visit-barnsley.com/cycling-in-barnsley to http://www.visit-barnsley.com/cycling-in-barnsley

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Population
Just so editors know, I've heavily adjusted the population which was for the borough and not the town itself. It was obviously not checked properly as there's no way the town is bigger than Rotherham and Doncaster. Barnsley is the fourth largest settlement by population and it's borough is nowhere near the population of the other boroughs. So corrected using a handy settlement search on Cities Population and it had a different number for the town alone than the borough. So please check the sources before adding a wrong article population when there's two different population sizes DragonofBatley (talk) 21:51, 13 November 2022 (UTC)