Barnsley and Beyond

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It’s our tribute to those no longer with us, to those who lost loves ones and to those working-class heroes who sacrificed so much to keep us safe. Men and women from Barnsley have fought, struggled and laboured time and time again for our tomorrow. Their journey is one we continue. Barnsley’s sons and daughters have a long and proud history of stepping out and shaping a better world.

I became aware, from experience in Grimethorpe at the time of the pit closures, how seriously the decimation of industrial opportunities in this area affected not only men and boys, but equally the women and girls. Faced with far fewer opportunities and the increasing influence of media concentration on celebrity status frequently results in a negative reaction to both education and ambition. And in 2019, her lifelong commitment to culture in her hometown was rewarded when she was made an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list. She was also an acclaimed author who used her connections across the globe to showcase the great achievements of people who were Barnsley born and bred.Mel always insisted one of her proudest achievements came at Willowgarth HIgh School when she spearheaded a ‘book-in-a-day’ project, with contributions from miners, families, school children and celebrity supporters. Mel uses their anecdotal accounts to reflect on the changes in education over the past sixty years, and to put the case for a revival of the arts in teaching, which she argues is currently at risk of being lost in schools, despite being generally accepted as a vital element in education.

Our community was left devasted by the pandemic, I know everyone here this evening has their own story – me included.I obviously wanted to take Sarah up on her offer – her endorsement would’ve been very useful, but it suddenly dawned on me this encounter was laden with risk. Politicians come and go, of course – and if the people of Barnsley want to get rid of me as their MP, then that is their absolute right. But I am not walking away from them.

It was to encourage emulation by highlighting that wide range of local skill, talent, persistence, gift, versatility, tenacity, lateral thinking, hard work or opportunistic chance-taking, that I wrote the books “All for Barnsley” and “Barnsley & Beyond”. When you walk through our town, you are walking through a chronicle of our past – lessons in who we are, voices reminding us of what we have achieved, inspiration for generations to come.While the Pals’ struggle took them to foreign soil, the miners’ struggle was brought to their very doorstep.

Their story reminds us that the lone hero is a myth – we are all in fact, threads, woven together to create something much stronger. She was world class at networking, but not for herself, she delighted in setting up channels of communication between people that she knew would be mutually beneficial to them. She would do anything for the arts and got rightly angry when there were cuts to any of the services and she battled for change. She was passionate about the benefits of teaching the arts in schools and was especially a cheerleader for the arts in Barnsley because she loved the town, loved to show the rest of the planet what we had to offer here. And she loved to watch young people of the town blossom and grow and become successful because of where they came from – not in spite of coming from here. She was rightly so very proud of the Barnsley Youth Choir, she couldn’t have shouted more loudly about it. I do also want to say a word about the Platinum Jubilee – truly a milestone in our nation’s history. As I had also done visiting lectures and secondments at Bretton Hall College of Higher Education since 1972/73 on the PGCE Secondary Teacher Training Courses, I joined them on a full-time basis in 1995. Some thought that I would step away as MP and keep going with the mayoralty, but I have a fierce loyalty to our town.To their detriment, successive governments failed to recognise it wasn’t just coal that came out from the collieries, but community too. Let me tell you why… there is so much to celebrate about Barnsley – but above all, it is the enduring spirit of our people that sets us apart.