THE Ministry of Defence has stepped in to call a halt on £13,000 plans to restore the historic regimental flags of the Barnsley Pals.
Historian Jane Ainsworth, who has been campaigning to conserve the colours of the two Barnsley Pals battalions - hundreds of whom were killed during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 - said she has been contacted by the MoD and told the colours belong to the state and must not be conserved.
They are in a poor state and Jane had hoped to have them professionally repaired and restored by expert conservators.
They are currently in a glass cabinet in St Mary’s Church in town where they will eventually deteriorate to rags, and when they do, the rules allow them to be buried, but never repaired, Jane said she had been told by the MoD.
Read more in this weeks Barnsley Chronicle
