HERE’S a selection of stories from the Barnsley Chronicle as they were reported at the time back in April 1992.
THE axe still hangs over Grimethorpe Colliery with a long-term threat to more than 1,300 jobs.
Difficult geological conditions and poor production levels are being blamed by British Coal which recently confirmed it is to shed 100 jobs at the loss-making Grimethorpe and Houghton Main pits.
Both still remain in the industry’s review procedure and were being carefully watched.
A further 50 men were temporarily transferred from Grimethorpe to Houghton as a result of the geological conditions.
A BLUEPRINT aimed at creating a total of 1,340 new jobs, improving almost 700 homes and building a new link road in a large area from the edge of Barnsley town centre to Cudworth will be considered by government ministers.
If the bid for some £37.5m worth of grants over five years from the government’s City
Challenge is successful, it will breathe new life into an area covering Oakwell, Hoyle Mill, Stairfoot, West Green, Lundwood, Cudworth and Shafton Two Gates. If the go-ahead is given, some £135m of private investment could be attracted to Barnsley.
Main elements of the blueprint to be considered by Environment Secretary, Michael Howard, are building a link road which would run from Pontefract Road behind Oakwell to the Harborough Hill Road junction. Creation of a further 620 office and general service jobs through a range of projects, and establishing an education, training, employment and enterprise centre opposite Priory School on Littleworth Lane, Lundwood. To be known as the Priory Campus, it would help the young and long-term unemployed, housewives wanting to return to work, and community groups.
TWO stone statues commissioned to commemorate the Husker Pit Disaster in which 26 children drowned when a storm flooded the workings more than 150 years ago have been stolen by thieves.
The sandstone statues of a boy and girl on their knees clawing at the earth were
erected near the site of the disaster in Knabbs Wood, Silkstone Common, in July
1988.
The memorial was put up as part of a week-long programme of events organised
to mark the 150th anniversary of the tragedy.
MOTORISTS using Barnsley’s new £7m Western Relief Road were subject to minor delays due to vital resurfacing work.
Bad weather during the construction of the road, which took 18 months to build, meant a skid-resistant surface could not be laid and the vital work had to be done once the weather improved.
Motorists paid the price and faced delays as they were confined to one lane along certain sections of the dual carriageway.
AN 18-YEAR-OLD girl has been remanded in custody following a bizarre Good Friday incident in which a boy fell more than 30ft from a railway bridge.
Ambulance men who rescued the 12-year-old boy by climbing down a steep cutting said the boy had fallen into an 18-inch deep pool of water which had probably saved his life.
The boy was taken to Barnsley General Hospital suffering from internal injuries following the incident on a disused bridge off Wakefield Road, Barnsley.
