TRANSFORMATIONAL work at the site of one of Barnsley’s largest coal mines has reached another milestone.
A team of volunteers dubbed the Barnsley Main Heritage Group have worked for more than two years in their quest to clear the site and make it a location for Barnsley to be proud of, and this week the group revealed plans to turn the former ‘timber stack’ area into an interactive educational site.
The group has cleared the area where the stack would have sat - an area the size of a football pitch, in view of the pithead and engine house.
The original rail lines used to transport coal, uncovered after some clearing work, snake around a patch of earth and grass which the group fenced off by creating natural walls out of fallen branches.
“The transformation over two years has been outstanding,” said group member Helen Totty.
“When we got here this area wasn’t nice, it was a bit of a drinking den. None of the ground was visible. We dug it up and found the original concrete floor.
“We’re trying to limit what we bring in and use all the natural materials from the site.”
Paths run through the space each one named after a former seam at the Barnsley Main and Oaks Collieries contributed by those who worked on them converging on a clearing which frames the Grade II listed pithead.
The next stage is a pop-up museum, which has been developed with funding from Tesco and the council-backed Crowdfund Barnsley.
Work on the museum is already underway and it is hoped it will be on site in the next few weeks.
However, that won’t be the end of it - Helen said the group wants ex-miners and their families to continue to contribute their wealth of experience, and artefacts, to build the area into an educational space.
Alongside the museum, there are plans for interpretation boards using recordings of former miners telling their stories, to bring the history of the area to life.
“We want miners to come and tell us their stories,” Helen said. “We want the area to be interactive.
“Kids know nothing about what went on here. It’s history now. It’s about remembering miners and their families, and their impact on the social and economic past of Barnsley.
“We want to look after it and preserve it for future generations and to educate those generations by documenting what life was like before we lose this generation. As all the miners who lived through so much are getting older, all that experience is going to be lost if we don’t do something.”
n If anyone has any information or artefacts they wish to donate, contact the group’s mining engineer Dave McMahon on davidmcmahon23@me.com.
