Megan Wallace explores the Barnsley Chronicle archives from this week back in 1979.
AN ambitious plan to build new county headquarters in Barnsley which could cost £15 million over the next 15 years has been unveiled by South Yorkshire County Council.
The proposed headquarters will cover 400,000 sq ft on the Court House Station site and will be built in three or four phases.
The first phase which is still at the feasibility stage is expected to cost £4.9 million, and will house 570 staff who are at present in a number of different offices in Sheffield and Barnsley.
Labour leader Coun Roy Thwaites said at a press conference on Wednesday that it was essential that all staff scattered in offices in the county should be under the same roof.
“Barnsley is now the county town of South Yorkshire. It is bad economics to have sections scattered around the country.”
ALMOST £10,000 worth of books a year are “disappearing” from Barnsley’s central library.
A meeting of the town council was told last Thursday that despite taking steps to stop the missing books problem, the library could not find an answer.
A council sub-committee is now to considering more drastic action.
Coun Jack Wake, chairman of the Education Committee, said the figure was a disgraceful indictment on some of the public of Barnsley.
THE NCB training centre in Barnsley which has been given a face-lift costing £120,000 was opened on Saturday by Mr Cliff Shepherd, one of the new board’s industrial relations officials.
The 26-year-old centre at Barnsley Main now includes a workshops area where mining trainees can learn basic engineering pumping and hydraulics.
This year 1,000 trainees will ‘pass out’ from the centre 850 more than it was originally designed to handle when it opened in 1953.
REGULARS at a Barnsley public house could be said to be potty about their beer - chamber potty to be precise.
Ted and Pat Knight, licensees of the George and Dragon, Summer Lane, offer their customers the choice of drinking from traditional styled pot potties as well as the more customary glass pots.
Not surprisingly, the potty-training scheme developed completely by accident, when Pat bought a floral printed potty to hold a flower in.
The potty, still awaiting its plant, was spotted by pub regular Eric Beardshall, a self-employed builder, who decided to sample beer from the pot.
