Barnsley is often looked upon with disdain, both by the people who live here and people from outside, but I've been to loads of towns all over the country and I find it fairly middle of the road. In fact, to say we're sandwiched between two of the UK's largest cities that have had loads of public and private money thrown at them over the years we don't do too bad. (Could also mention that 20 year-old mass transit system that we are still paying for in our council tax despite the fact that it barely comes within 10 miles of the border of the town but that's another story). Every town and city has problems with heroin addiction, people playing the benefits system as well as unemployment/low paid jobs but because those of us who live here see it every day we might see it as a local problem when in reality it is, to a point, the system itself in this country which has created these issues. Does Barnsley have any proper rough areas? I don't think it does these days - when I was growing up Kendray was to be avoided like Chernobyl, and as a nipper it seemed almost lawless in places but I would have no problem living there now if I had to. If you look on these stupid maps the BBC seem to be obsessed with on their website that look at house prices and wages etc, people in the South must think it's like the third world up here, but I find these metrics totally flawed. I've had opportunities to work in a few areas within about an hour of Central London and based on salary alone, you'd think it was a great opportunity, but then you look at the cost of renting a home (buying would be massively out of my reach), some tiny sh*thole that hasn't been modernised since the 60's that takes about 70% of your wage (if you're lucky) and there really is no point, yet this is how the majority of people live down there. Is that really living? I earn a modest wage, could be a lot worse like, but I find living in Barnsley there is nothing (in the normal scheme of materialistic possessions or holidays) that is out of my reach - why would I want to live anywhere else where I don't think this would be the case despite the numbers on my bank statement being a bit bigger?
There`s nowt like gerrin home to thi own bed is there. Wakeys in that sarnie anall often gets overlooked.
Well yeah, fair point, I do like Wakey but with city status it's always going to be higher up the list for capital investment and having a mainline railway station helps a lot.
Had to laugh when scunny fans were singing the usual Barnsley's a s**hole - I've been to scunny! There's not much difference between Sheffield and us - better areas bigger and the rougher parts are bigger - they don't like it when it's pointed out
Seconded! What is never taken into account is location. Barnsley, lets face it, missed the boom years and the town centre looks dated apart from a few college buildings and the interchange and is stuck with the 70's concrete cr*p. That said, unlike London and the South East look what Barnsley has on the doorstep, Moors, Dales, Peak District, great small restaurants 20 min drive (e.g. Iris in Wakefield) at a fraction of the price you would pay in London and the South East. I was born in the East of London close to the Thames and spent the first 7 years of my life there and then 6 years in Blackpool (my dad was a civil servant) and still have a nostalgic twinge when I smell the underground and see the London bus stop signs- stupid stuff like that. I loved growing up in Blackpool too and hated having to leave my friends and move to Barnsley in the late '60s. But do you know what? If someone offered me a house in London, Blackpool or in Barnsley on condition I lived in it I would choose the latter every time. London is a great place for short visits but people are way friendlier in Barnsley. I spent most of my life in and around Barnsley apart from a short time in Ranmoor, Sheffield when I worked there. I married a Barnsley lass too. OK I'll fess up - we retired to Italy for the climate, food and scenery and the fact that we could get a rural property in a fantastic scenic location that I could never have afforded in the UK. Le Marche is not a 'fashionable' region of Italy and is relatively poor compared to its neighbours like Tuscany with high unemployment, but the people in our area remind me of Barnsley folk. I stand by what I said about Barnsley though. It makes me laugh when people who have only ever seen 'Kes' using it as a reference having never been North of Watford (and there are plenty of Southern 'ten bob millionaire' expats in Italy believe me) slag the town off we say where we are from. I call it the 'Skoda mentality'. Barnsley may have lost a bit of its warmth since Thatcher ripped the heart out of the industrial North but is still a friendly town.
Barnsley fairs very well indeed compared to other towns ,we are still fairly community minded even though the industrys that made them have long gone. Go into Barnsley town centre on market days and all over town you see people gathered in small groups greeting and talking to each other. There's not many places as now where you see that. I know the council gets plenty of things wrong and comes under lots of critisism but by enlarge make most decisions to better the town and services in an honest and fair way IMO.
Not half. I particularly enjoy the irony missed by the Wednesday/United fans who sing "feed the dingles, let them know it's Christmas time" when we've played them recently, conveniently forgetting that afterwards they'll be shuffling off to their hovels in Parson Cross, Darnall, Manor Top, Hillsborough and many other suburbs of Sheffield exponentially poorer and run down than anywhere in Barnsley.
Barnsleys dying a slow painful death. Shops are closing. Markets a farce. Rebuilding barnsley has taken later than the similar projects in wakey and rotherham combiend
