Had my walk this morning, went down Tank Row and noticed the signs for Beatson Clark’s have been removed from the warehouse complex they had down there and For Sale signs put up. It would seem that at least one company had taken space there. It’s a shame cos Beatsons’ had a presence in Hoyle Mill for many many years.
Barnsley had an history of glass making, hence the glassblower on the coat of arms ,sadly only one left.
They used to be allowed to send 'the lad' over to the working men's club and get em jugs of beer.. they sweated so much the beer never affected them.
Remember when I was a teenager and they started working on the playing fields on Rotherham Road - they dug up the old field and brought in loads of topsoil to level it off. It must have come from a glassworks somewhere as there were hundreds of bottes everywhere. We found one of the old type with the marble in the top - still got that all these years later. Many seem to have forgotten our heritage , particularly the mining industry. We should be proud of what we were and where we came from.
When my grandad died a few years back, I received some of personal papers, in it was a reference given to his grandfather from Rylands Glass when it was closing down, it showed he'd worked there for over 39years.
I was talking to someone a couple of years ago who started out at the black furnaces in Sheffield. He told me something similar about the men having 3-4 pints per shift to keep up their blood sugar levels.
