Barnsley Main Heritage Group
The Barnsley Main Heritage Group is a group of volunteers, established in 2016, which has transformed, and continue to maintain, the once rundown and neglected site of the No.4 shaft of Barnsley Main Colliery, the last remaining Pithead Gear still standing in South Yorkshire, which is now a Grade II listed site. The group is based in Oaks Lane Barnsley, at part of the site of Barnsley Main formerly Oaks Colliery.
The heritage group, which is officially owned by Barnsley Council under the umbrella of Barnsley Museums and Recreation, is a collective of volunteers which maintains the site to keep the history of mining alive, and to honour and commemorate all the miners who lost their lives in accidents and disasters since the site was opened in 1824.
The group of volunteers undertakes extensive weeding, shrub and tree planting, clearing, and fence and hedge building. They also litter pick on the site and surrounding lanes and paths to keep the site clean and tidy. They have also made a small pop-up museum in a former shipping container, which houses the history of the mine and includes maps and items given to the site from ex-miners in the area.
The Barnsley Main Heritage Group was awarded a grant of £1,000, from South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation, for its green space site project.
This has allowed the group to create a memorial garden, to provide an area for contemplation and information of all those who lost their lives or suffered injuries while working at the Barnsley Main Site.
The funding helped to buy laurel shrubs to border a seating area the group have created from materials found on site, plants for a garden area and the purchase and installation of a large information board.
One of the group’s volunteers carried out extensive research to identify all those who lost their lives in the mine - including many previously left out of national records because they died from minor accidents or later from injuries sustained underground. This work ensures they are finally recognised and remembered.
These fallen miners were commemorated on the information board, and in the pop-up museum, where the group have also printed and installed their memorial poem, commemorating the worst mining disaster in England that occurred on the site in 1866.
Janice Ingram, Treasurer at Barnsley Main Heritage Group, said:
The site is totally unrecognisable from the neglected dumping site it originally was.
The grant has helped us to honour the stories of those who were essential to mining history and to educate all generations on a significant part of South Yorkshire’s past. We’re incredibly grateful to South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation for making this possible.
Jess O’Neill, Grants and Partnerships Manager at SYCF, said:
It’s inspiring to see Barnsley Main Heritage Group’s tireless efforts to keep Barnsley mining history alive. This is a huge part of British working history, and we are delighted that our funding is making such a difference in maintaining this historical site.