Book - History research brings pit girls’ toil to surface (South Yorkshire)

WORK down South Yorkshire’s coal mines was hard, hot and heavy work - and no place for a lady...


Well, at least after 1842, that was.

While searching her ancestry, Denise Bates discovered her great, great, great, great grandmother from Barnsley was a miner and that she was in fact among several thousand women working underground.

Denise, who grew up in Heeley, Sheffield, is a chartered accountant, but has a degree in history and decided to investigate what life would have been like for her old relative, Rebecca Whitehead, who lived between 1791 and 1873.

She has now put together a book called Pit Lasses.

Denise said: “I found she was registered as a miner while her husband was a farmer. I spent 12 months researching the topic to find out what life would have been like for Rebecca.

“I found out that there were 6,500 women working below ground alongside 100,000 men. Sometimes, they would work with their fathers or brothers.

“I carried out the research in libraries, on the internet and through old newspaper cuttings.

“Their life was extremely hard and I don’t know how they physically were able to manage. The worst example was a lady moving a truck equivalent to 10 times her body weight.

“There is no evidence to say it shortened their life-spans, but it would certainly have had an impact upon the women’s health.”

Denise believes she has managed to track down a woman she thinks is her four times great grandmother in the archives - although she has not been able to confirm her name.

“At Silkstone, the archives detail a lady who could earn more than the men. Rebecca would have been earning more than her husband, who was a farmer. The archives also say that the same women would often give birth soon after leaving work. Rebecca had eight children.”

Denise’s research found girls as young as nine years old working down the mines.

But they were banned from underground work in the pits in 1842 on moral rather than health grounds.

Denise said: “It was rumoured the women were working underground topless with naked men.

“I found no evidence the women were topless from my research, but it became a national scandal.”

Copies of Denise’s book are available from Barnsley publisher Pen and Sword books - www.pen-and-sword.co.uk or 01226 734555 - or Amazon. For further information, also search for Pit Lasses on Facebook.

From: http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/history-research-brings-pit-girls-toil-to-surface-1-4594607

News - Bid to preserve historic furnace (Wentworth)

VOLUNTEERS from a South Yorkshire history society have carried out a survey of a 300-year-old furnace and engine house as part of a project to rescue the historic structures.


South Yorkshire Industrial History Society is trying to save the Rockley complex on Wentworth Castle estate, Barnsley, one of the few early survivors from the county’s industrial revolution.

Now the society is set to announce its findings and plans for the site.

Society president Margaret Tylee said: “The last two harsh winters have taken their toll on the furnace and engine house.

“We have carried out the first comprehensive surveys of the site and its structures in order to understand them better and to find the best way to preserve them for the future.

“Lots of people visit the castle on the Wentworth estate and we’d love them to stop by and see the industrial heritage nearby which represents such an important part of South Yorkshire’s history.”

English Heritage has been working closely with the project, advising the society on the conservation of the two scheduled monuments.

The furnace was built between 1698 and 1704 to smelt local iron ore, while the engine house dates from 1813 and housed a pump to drain the mine nearby.

Volunteers are aiming to repair the monuments to save them for future generations.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/green-scene/bid-to-preserve-historic-furnace-1-4560643

News - Museum project for Barnsley at last becomes a Reality

RARE archaeological finds discovered in Barnsley will soon be coming home to a new £2.6 million museum and archives centre to be created in the Town Hall.


Experience Barnsley is the first museum telling the story of the borough. The project is being made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The museum will feature collections and stories spanning thousands of years to the present day and will be put together over the next two years.

The project has also attracted £62,400 in funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund.

The cash is to pay for research into Barnsley’s archaeological treasures and provide opportunities for people to see the collections and become involved with projects working with them.

The museum is being put together with The University of Sheffield’s Department of Archaeology, with a whole team of researchers working on different areas of the collections.

Axes and hammers from the Neolithic period – 4,000 BC to 2,300 BC – from Langsett, Dunford and Penistone are some of the stone tools that will go on show include.

There will be an arrowhead and spearhead from the Bronze Age – 2,300 BC to 700 BC – from the Penistone and Crow Edge area and coin hoards from Darfield.

Also on show will be a bronze bracelet from Billingley from the Roman period and pots from Monk Bretton Priory from the medieval period.

The museum will offer activities and events to schools, interested groups and individuals around the borough, culminating in a major exhibition in the Town Hall.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/museum-project-for-barnsley-at-last-becomes-a-reality-1-4531882

News - Help uncover family’s history (Barnsley)

VOLUNTEERS are being sought to help bring the history of a Barnsley family to life.


Barnsley Archives and Local Studies is looking for members of the public to help catalogue documents and photographs belonging to the Spencer-Stanhope family, who owned Cannon Hall.

Volunteers use their research to compile a history of the well-known South Yorkshire family and their properties.

To sign up for the project, email archives@barnsley.gov.uk or call 01226 773950.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/help-uncover-family-s-history-1-4525351

Book - Author pens book on old unsolved murders (South Yorkshire)

A BOOK is being penned about unsolved murders in South Yorkshire dating back to the 1800s.

Scott Lomax, from Chesterfield, is researching old cases South Yorkshire Police have failed to crack over the years.

One of the chapters will be about the death of a 61-year-old Barnsley woman, killed 50 years ago.

Lily Stephenson was found dead near her home in Barnsley on January 31, 1962, after a shopping trip.

The book also looks at the death of John Wortley, a car park attendant who was killed in a car park off Arundel Gate, Sheffield city centre, in 1975.

The money John had collected that night had been stolen.

The author, 29, who has had a book published about unsolved murders in Derbyshire, said: “The police never close cases where they believe there is a credible chance the person or people responsible might still be alive.

“It is my hope that my book will help renew interest in cold cases.”

Scott’s book, which he is trying to get published, also looks at the deaths of Ann Dunwell, from Rotherham, who was 13 years old when she was killed and Barbara Young, who was killed in Doncaster in 1977 while working as a prostitute.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/author_pens_book_on_old_unsolved_murders_1_4208647

News - Why Chinese tourists will soon be flocking to Barnsley

A PLAN to honour a British missionary who is virtually unknown in the UK could mean an unlikely influx of Chinese tourists to Barnsley.

James Hudson Taylor is not even a household name in the South Yorkshire town where he was born and preached in the 19th century.

But he is credited with taking Christianity to China and is revered by millions of Christians across Asia.

Now Barnsley’s James Hudson Taylor Group is hoping to set up a trail in the town to recognise his work, and local businessmen believe it could become a place of pilgrimage for thousands of Chinese Christians.

John Foster, who runs a bakery in Barnsley, said it was incredible that Mr Hudson Taylor was such a noted figure in the Asia-Pacific region but virtually unknown in his home town.

“If you go round Barnsley and ask people about James Hudson Taylor, they’ll know absolutely nothing,” Mr Foster said.

“But he’s probably Yorkshire’s biggest export.

“He took Christianity to China and in the Asia-Pacific region there isn’t a Christian who will not have heard of him.

“He’s their founding father, like Wesley is to the Methodists.

“Yet in his home town, he’s not known.”

Mr Foster said the group wants to put a series of plaques around the town to mark the places where Mr Hudson Taylor was born, lived and preached.

And the revamped town museum is set to open later this year with a section on his achievements.

Mr Foster said he is sure Chinese visitors will flock to pay their respects to Mr Hudson Taylor.

He said a group of Chinese Christians were seen kissing the ground near the missionary’s birthplace during a visit a few years ago.

The businessman said those at the inaugural meeting of the James Hudson Taylor Group last year were also amazed when they were interrupted by a New Zealander who had come halfway round the world to visit the Salem Chapel where Mr Hudson Taylor preached.

James Hudson Taylor was born in a room above his father’s pharmacy in Barnsley in 1832. The building is still used as a pharmacy by Boots.

He later became an English missionary to China, where he stayed for 50 years and founded the China Inland Mission, one of the largest Christian movements in the world. He died in 1905.

From: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/why_chinese_tourists_will_soon_be_flocking_to_barnsley_1_4154649

Book - Experts publish first book of county’s plants (South Yorkshire)

BOTANICAL experts have put together a new South Yorkshire Plant Atlas which they say is the ‘first comprehensive collection to celebrate the region’s plantlife’.

The publication has been created by the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union and Yorkshire and the Humber Ecological Data Trust, and details species found across Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

The project has taken 90 botanists, natural history societies and other institutions over a decade to put together.

Geoffrey Wilmore, coordinator, said: “It has been very much a team effort with enthusiasts using their skills together on field trips or making information available from their own records or data centres.”

The book also draws on earlier data from 300 sources dating back over 200 years. In total, over 200,000 individual plant records have been collected since 2001 from 1,665 square kilometres surveyed.

Each finds a place in the atlas, with a description of its habitat.

The book is lavishly illustrated and, for 1,000 plant species, there are coloured maps showing where they occur.

It also includes guided tours around some of the region’s botanical ‘hotspots’ so readers can explore the diversity of the county’s plant life for themselves.

The book describes the vegetation found in the diverse landscapes from the high Pennine moorlands in the west to the limestone country and peatlands of the east and the farmland, woods and wetlands between.

It also reveals how even urban and industrial wastelands and waysides have revealed some surprising and interesting finds.

Jeff Lunn, one of the book’s editors said: “A detailed record of the plant life of a region is hugely interesting to amateurs and experts alike, and plays a vital role in the local government planning process, in helping to protect our countryside and green spaces in a time of increasing human impact and environmental change across the region.”

The book has been released as the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union marks its 150th anniversary.

■ Copies of the book can be bought from Summerfield Books, online at www.summerfieldbooks.com or by calling 017684 84909 priced at £54.50 including post and packing.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/green-scene/experts_publish_first_book_of_county_s_plants_1_4057887

News - Wentworth Castle conservatory restoration wins European cash

Work can now begin to restore the conservatory at Wentworth Castle, Barnsley, after it won £820,000 from the European Regional Development Fund.

Michael Klemperer, Wentworth estate manager, said the conservatory could now be taken apart and fully restored.

"It is fantastic not only for Barnsley but for the whole country," he said.

'Barnsley's Crystal Palace'

Wentworth Castle, which is Grade I listed, came third in the BBC TV programme Restoration in 2003 after receiving 130,000 votes.

The series asked viewers to choose which historic British building they wanted restored.

Mr Klemperer said the European Regional Development Fund award to save the Grade II listed conservatory was "really exciting".

"It has sat unused for many years and we have been desperate to restore it, but we've never quite had the money," he said.

"This is the last great conservatory in this country which hasn't been restored, and now it can be."

"It's Barnsley's very own Crystal Palace."

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-16023733

Events - get yours mentioned on this blog

In a history, archaeology or metal detecting society and want your events publicising on here?  Are you an author who wants to publicise a new book or do you want to get an article out to the greater public?  

So long as the event is in Nottinghamshire or South Yorkshire or the book article is about the area or people from this part of the world we'll gladly help. There's no charge as this service is set up to work for the community and to publicise as much of our great wealth of history as possible. 

E-mail me at priorieshistoricalsociety[@]rocketmail.com

Article - A Town in Development (Barnsley)

When the first visitors to Experience Barnsley pass through its doors in September 2012 they will be able to see a state-of-the art heritage and archive centre housed in one of the most impressive art decor public buildings in the north of England, Barnsley Town Hall.  The lottery-funded ‘people’s museum’ has taken more than ten years of planning thanks to the help of volunteers, councillors and professionals. But the main impetus has been the willingness of Barnsley people to donate objects and provide information celebrating the history and heritage of the town and its neighbourhood.  Barnsley people are  proud of its long and interesting history.  For well over a century coal mining was the dominant industry, at a great human cost for many families.  Other economic activities however also need to be recognized, especially linen and textiles, glass, leather, iron working and metal trades; and from medieval times Barnsley, with its weekly market and annual fairs was an important place for trade and travel epitomized in the later 'BARNSLEY FOR BARGAINS' slogan.                       

Today, Barnsley is rightly being marketed as a 21st-century market town and many new and restored public and private buildings reflect a ‘new town’ and forward-looking urban feel: for example, the Transport Interchange, Gateway Plaza, Digital Media Centre, Barnsley College, University Centre Barnsley, Civic Hall and Town Hall.  In a sense the new and revamped landmarks reciprocate a vision of hope and aspiration that began in Norman times when a new market town was strategically established in a key part of southern Yorkshire.  The post-pit closure years affected the town and its old mining communities badly and it has been a long haul to remake and recreate new services and facilities.  The hard task continues in the wake of national and international upheaval.  And yet Barnsley’s greatest asset, historically speaking and in the present day shines through: its people.  Everyone has heard of Michael Parkinson and Dickie Bird but  Experience Barnsley will reflect countless lost heroes of the town in areas such as Art, Music, Literature, Science, Business, Politics, Sport and Entertainment; and of course will not forget those who have given so much to their town and country via the armed services.   Enjoy the New Barnsley by all means but lets also not forget the Old.

Barnsley Then & Now by Brian Elliott

£12.99 Hardback, 978-0-7524-6402-2

Click here to view 'Barnsley Then & Now' on The History Press website

From: http://www.facebook.com/notes/the-history-press/barnsley-a-town-in-development-by-brian-elliott/10150422197263631

News - Town Hall’s new look (Barnsley)

SCAFFOLDING has been removed after a six-month project to restore the exterior of Barnsley’s historic Town Hall, leaving the masonry bright and clean.

Mayor of Barnsley Coun Karen Dyson and Barnsley Council leader, Coun Steve Houghton, proudly showed the work to Dr Fiona Spiers, director of the Heritage Lottery Fund which provided a grant.

The relaunch was also attended by schoolchildren and other officials.

The Town Hall will reopen in 2012 when it will be used as a new museum and archive centre, Experience Barnsley.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/town_hall_s_new_look_1_4012520

News - Goldthorpe pit strike tragedy memorial re-dedicated (Goldthorpe)

A memorial to two South Yorkshire boys killed while collecting coal during the miners' strike in 1984 has been re-dedicated at a special service.

Paul Holmes, 15, and his brother Darren, 14, were killed when an embankment collapsed on them at the pit village of Goldthorpe near Barnsley.

The memorial to the boys was until recently located in the centre of Goldthorpe, but had been vandalised.

It has now been moved to the grounds of Dearne Advanced Learning College.

The teenagers died in November 1984 while collecting coal which they were planning to sell for pocket money.

Local residents and the emergency services tried to dig the boys out. They both died as a result of their injuries.

'Still remember'

The memorial to the teenagers was the idea of three girls at Dearneside Comprehensive, the school which Paul and Darren attended.

After the boys' funeral, which was attended by hundreds of people, the girls decided they wanted to create a permanent memorial.

One year later, it was unveiled in the centre of Goldthorpe.

It shows a map of Yorkshire with a miner on each side and a plaque which names the brothers.

In recent years, however, it was targeted by vandals who defaced the memorial with graffiti.

Trevor Holmes, the boys' father, had long campaigned for it to be moved to a better location.

Mr Holmes said the memorial to his sons served as an important reminder of the tragedy.

"It shows that people are still thinking about it even today," he said.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-15842394

News - In search of stump (Worsbrough)

I AM among of people who are taking an active interest in the whereabouts of an item antiquity, an old ‘stump’ cross, that has gone missing in Worsbrough Village, near Barnsley.

It stood near the crossroads in Worsbrough Park some years ago. The land was subsequently owned by the Coal Board and was covered over. It was at this stage that it disappeared.

There are rumours as to what happened, including it being thrown in a pond or ditch or being used as hard core to create a roundabout at the top of the park. I find that suggestion hard to believe.

I have found records of this stump cross from 1688. These stumps (sometimes known as crosses) were common features in medieval villages, acting as meeting points. There might also have been regular visits by the local priest who would give prayers. So these crosses were an important part of medieval communities.

Members of Worsbrough History Society are actively trying find out what actually happened to it, so we can narrow our search. Any information we would receive would be included in our collection of evidence which we are intending to forward to a couple of archaeology departments at local universities.

We have approached two universities who have expressed an interest in making an official investigation but obviously any information we might be able to give to them would be an enormous help to all concerned.

I’m writing to ask if allow us to appeal for people who remember the cross to come forward with their information. Any information at all could prove really useful.

We are particularly anxious for someone to give us a drawing or even a photograph so we can know exactly what we are looking for.

Many accounts of the cross have been contradictory so we need to clarify things so that our findings are concise and as accurate as possible for any archaeological investigations that might follow.

Christine Summers, Park View, Barnsley

 

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/letters/in_search_of_stump_1_3932224

TV - Lottery projects in the running (Wentworth)

TWO South Yorkshire lottery projects are waiting to hear whether they have been successful in winning national awards.

Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park Trust, near Barnsley, and Altogether Better in Sheffield, who have both benefited from lottery funding, will find out if they are winners in a live show to be screened on BBC One on Saturday, November 5.

Altogether Better used lottery funding to train and support people in Sheffield to help others improve their health and well-being.

Wentworth Castle was rescued from ruin through a Lottery-funded programme of restoration.

The winning projects in each of seven awards categories will be announced on TV and each winner will receive a £2,000 cash prize.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/lottery_projects_in_the_running_1_3917757

News - English Heritage brand Newcomen Beam Engine 'at risk' (Elsecar)

A listed building in South Yorkshire continues to be one of the most at risk, according to English Heritage.

English Heritage listed 10 key industrial sites on the at-risk register which included the Elsecar Newcomen Beam Engine.

Earlier this year the Heritage Lottery Fund [HLF] gave £40,500 to the Elsecar Heritage Centre to develop plans to restore the engine house.

The centre will submit plans next month and await a decision on its funding.

The Elsecar Heritage Centre, near Barnsley, estimates it will cost £500,000 to restore the engine back to working order, as well as developing and updating the visitor attraction, if it is awarded full funding by HLF in March 2012.

The engine, which was built by John Bargh of Chesterfield in 1795 at a cost of £167, was used to pump water out of the colliery in Elsecar to allow the exploitation of deeper coal seams until 1923.

The engine was placed on the at-risk register by English Heritage last year and is thought to be the only remaining example in situ.

The engine was later replaced with electric pumps, and remained working until the 1950s.

The site of a former ironworks and colliery is now an antique centre and used by local craftsmen and women as workshops, as well as showcasing the village's rich past.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-15368925

News - Museum to sell off large furniture (Cannon Hall Museum)

A SOUTH Yorkshire museum is disposing of 22 items from its stored furniture collection.

The items will be offloaded by Cannon Hall Museum, Barnsley, after approval by the council’s ruling cabinet.

Councillors received a report which informed them the storage areas at Cannon Hall are inadequate and very cramped - meaning quite large pieces of furniture are poorly stored and unlikely to be displayed again.

The collections have been assessed by museum staff and it was proposed pieces of furniture will first be offered to other museums for display.

If other museums do not wish to house the items, they will be auctioned.

Money raised will be earmarked to improve storage conditions at Cannon Hall Museum.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/hall_to_sell_off_large_furniture_1_3835222

Book - Dead but not forgotten... time to revive poet’s reputation (Austerfield/Stanley Cook)

Stanley Cook wrote incomparable poems about Yorkshire people and places yet he has largely been forgotten. Ian McMillan remembers him.

How’s this for a poetic description of one of the kids in your class at school: “Unhealthily pale as if he were grown indoors/or underneath a brick that excluded the sun” ?

Or this, for a likeness of one of your old teachers: “His fading youth was underlined by wrinkles/and floodlit by the sporty shirts he wore”? Yes, we’ve sat with lads like that in assembly and been taught by the bloke who “maintained his ideals in a mild-mannered way/that only invited opposition”.

Those exact and lyrical descriptions are from poems by Stanley Cook, one of Yorkshire’s unsung writers who died 20 years ago this year and whose reputation is well-worth reviving in preparation for the 90th anniversary of his birth next year.

Cook was born in Austerfield in the flatlands near Doncaster in 1922, and lived a quiet and unremarkable life, going to Doncaster Grammar School then to Oxford and a career teaching in secondary schools and lecturing at what was then Huddersfield Polytechnic.

However, he produced a remarkable body of work that should give him a place in the Yorkshire Poetic Hall of Fame somewhere between Ted Hughes and Simon Armitage, between the nature poet and the sharp observer of human frailty and majesty.

Many years ago, I went to interview Stanley Cook at his house for a now-defunct literary magazine. I was nervous at meeting the great man, a poet whose work I admired and who had sent kind and thoughtful rejection slips or elegant acceptances when I submitted examples of my own verse to him in his role as editor of Poetry Nottingham magazine.

I knocked on his door in Sheffield and he answered straight away, as though he’d been waiting for me. I was sweating and flustered, having got off the bus a couple of stops too early and marched briskly to his house.

He took my coat and held it up. “I’ll put in the wardrobe,” he said, and he put it in one that just happened to be at the bottom of the stairs. Then he locked the wardrobe door and put the key in his pocket. “You’re not in Barnsley now,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

He began to publish in the early 1970s and the poems about the pupil and the teacher I quoted above are from his two excellent pamphlets Form Photograph and Staff Photograph, snapshots of the children he taught and the colleagues he worked alongside. Although they’re sharp and incisive, these poems are never mealy-mouthed or cynical; there’s humanity here, and a kind of love.

Here’s the naughty boy, portrayed with depth and sympathy: “Officially bad, he looks long-suffering and pale/from staying up too late to watch his anti-heroes/ on the telly, skipping breakfast next day/to get to school.” And here’s the teacher who can’t control the class despite (or because of) his wife being an ex-stripper: “He sometimes yelled for quiet/ but couldn’t do a thing about discipline;/ a few more serious boys drew up to his desk/for snatches of education underheard/below the general din.”

Those poems are typical of the observation he was so good at; Yorkshire in general and South Yorkshire in particular captured his imagination and he was determined throughout his writing life to try and capture the essence of the landscape and the people.

There’s George the Barber, “Plump, with a fat man’s manual dexterity” and an unforgettable image of Worsborough Dale near Barnsley in winter “cold fixes birds like toys to the boughs”; Crow Edge is illuminated as “…the village that bumps its head/against bad weather high up on the moors” and Grandpa Spencer “a little man with a trowel-shaped face tipped with a silver beard”.

His long poem Woods Beyond a Cornfield, published in 1979, is a masterpiece, I reckon; it’s an examination of a terrible murder in a pastoral setting and a tour-de-force of nature writing that combines description and imagery with a knowledge of history: “Oh for the learned crofters of a century ago/reciting Homer at the plough to the birds who followed!”

Stanley Cook also wrote poems for children but for me Cook’s lasting legacy should be his portrayal of Yorkshire landscape and people and the spaces and connections between the two.

It’s odd that writers can all too often just slip out of the public view once they die; let’s hope that, as anniversaries of Stanley Cook’s birth and death appear on the calendar, he can be remembered.

Stanley Cook’s Collected Poems Woods Beyond a Cornfield is published by Smith/Doorstop, Sheffield.

From: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/lifestyle/the-arts/dead_but_not_forgotten_time_to_revive_poet_s_reputation_1_3833884

News - Precious Crimean War medals come back home (Barnsley)

A UNIQUE collection of medals honouring the heroism of the last surviving officer of the Charge of the Light Brigade is to find a new home in a South Yorkshire museum.


Tony Kent, a former RAF reconnaissance pilot who moved to the United States in 1946, had considered keeping his great grandfather’s military decorations and personal papers in Virginia.

But fearing the collection of Crimean medals might eventually be split up and sold to US collectors, he has returned to England to hand them over to his ancestor’s regimental museum, Cannon Hall in Barnsley.
Tony’s great-grandfather Captain Percy Shawe-Smith was a lieutenant and acting adjutant in the 13 Light Dragoons, which took part in the infamous charge in 1854.

Shawe-Smith’s regiment suffered devastating casualties but his job was to keep his dragoons moving forward.

He was the only one to bring his original horse back and he was on parade the next day. Only 20 members of the 13 Light Dragoons emerged from the Valley of Death.

There were not enough survivors to sustain the regiment, which was disbanded.

Mr Kent, now in his 80s, said: “I feel very proud to have handed the medals over and I know my great grandfather would be very happy to have everything back home.”

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/precious_crimean_war_medals_come_back_home_1_3824839

News - Castle project is up for prize (Wentworth Castle)

THE restoration of a stately home in South Yorkshire has been nominated for an award which recognises the country’s best heritage projects.

Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park, near Barnsley, has made the finals in the National Lottery Awards.

The stately home’s restoration has just finished its first phase, and has been voted through to the finals in the Best Heritage Project category.

Claire Herring, director of the Wentworth Castle trust, said she was ‘delighted’ by the accolade.

She said: “It’s a wonderful achievement for everyone who has helped us to become a real jewel in Barnsley’s crown.”

The winners are decided by the public, and voting takes place until September 26.

Visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/best-heritage-project/138/ to vote for Wentworth.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/barnsley/castle_project_is_up_for_prize_1_3748742

Event/Course - Ha-Ha happy to help (Wentworth)

IT may be called the Ha-Ha wall – but restoring this historic feature on a South Yorkshire estate is no laughing matter!

Volunteers are being trained in the intricate art of dry stone wall building to repair the East Ha-Ha at Wentworth Castle at Stainborough, Barnsley.

The wall, which is set into a trench, was created in the mid-18th century to allow uninterrupted views of Wentworth’s landscape while at the same time preventing grazing animals straying onto the ornamental gardens from nearby parkland.

Over the last 30 years the feature has gradually crumbled and now needs significant restoration work to bring it back to its former state.

The project has been set up by Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust, Steel Valley Project and the Yorkshire Dry Stone Walling Academy, with help from the East Peak Innovation Partnership.

Walling instructors from the academy have trained 12 conservation volunteers and staff before they set about rebuilding the structure.

On Saturday, October 8 a free all-day session is being led by trainers from the academy, giving beginners an introduction to building dry stone walls.

For more information or to book a place call Kate Hughes at the Steel Valley Project on 0114 2830880.

A lecture is also taking place next Saturday to discuss the estate’s Blackamoor garden statue, which was restored last year.

The talk, titled The Wentworth Blackamoor and the War of the Spanish Succession, will be led by Wentworth Castle Trust trustee Dr Patrick Eyres.

Dr Eyres will give an insight into the statue, installed at the gardens in around 1720 as a monument to Thomas Wentworth’s achievement in bringing about the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the Spanish war.

The talk starts at 2pm and will be rounded off with a traditional cream tea.

To book visit www.wentworthcastle.org or telephone 01226 776040.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/green-scene/ha_ha_happy_to_help_1_3706122