BARNSLEY - THE BUSES AND THE ATTRACTIONS

Many moons ago, we could have arrived in Barnsley by Booker's charabanc. 

We would have found Barnsley & District's trams in operation.

This one came a bit of a cropper!

Barnsley & District became Yorkshire Traction.

This Leyland Titanic had been new to Doncaster Corporation and had entered the "Tracky" fleet after the takeover of Cawthornes, one of several vanished Barnsley area independents.

By the early 1970s the old livery was being replaced by standard NBC red.

More photos in NBC days, with a good variety of buses.

Some more modern Yorkshire Traction buses in its later days.

Yorkshire Traction had a low cost subsidiary called Barnsley & District.

Yorkshire Traction was taken over by Stagecoach and this Olympian is still in the old red colours but has received Stagecoach stickers.

Stagecoach is, today, the major operator in Barnsley.

It's nice to see that Stagecoach have painted no. 15414 into the former "Tracky" livery.

Other NBC operators to be seen in Barnsley have included West Riding, Yorkshire Woollen District and West Yorkshire Road Car.

 South Yorkshire PTE also served Barnsley.

Firstbus inherited many former PTE routes.

The last traditional Barnsley independent to go was LP Coaches of Thurnscoe.

Post deregulation, various companies tried running services into Barnsley. These included SUT, Veolia and Shearings.

Smaller operators were Jowitts, Aldham Coaches, Tates, Clarksons and Pride of The Road.

Two surviving independents are Globe and Watersons.

Right, that's enough buses. Time for a look around the town centre. Here's the top of Market Hill before the Town hall was built.

And here is that Town Hall.

A postcard of Cheapside and Queen Street.

One of Barnsley's town centre attractions is The Arcade. seen here in 1910 and 2016.

Within The Arcade, a micropub, the Arcade Alehouse, since renamed as the Jolly Tap on The Arcade.

A purpose built Wetherspoons was the Silkstone Inn, but they closed it down.

There was once a brew pub called the Orchard Brewery. 

The Orchard Brewery has transformed into a Wetherspoons, the Joseph Bramah.

One's best bet for real ale in Barnsley town centre is the Old No. 7.

It would have been nice to have concluded this tour at the Wheatsheaf, a great Tetley pub, but they pulled it down shortly after my visit in 1989.

Next time, we'll take a town around the edges of the town then, head off in a northerly (ish) direction.

OUR ALBERTS, THEN ON TO BARNSLEY

Our first stop today is the village of Blacker Hill, just north of Hoyland. You can see our route on this map. Here we could once find the wonderful Royal Albert ("Our Alberts"), which I first visited as a Ward's pub. It's seen here in 2003, when it sold Wentworth Ales. Sadly it has since closed, a great loss.

Here's a much earlier photo of Blacker Hill and the Royal Albert.

Blacker Hill was once home to a bus scrapyard. A former Wilts & Dorset Bristol LS is awaiting the torch.

Several former Doncaster Corporation buses met their end here.

We're in an area once littered with coal mines. Beside the GCR line was Rockingham Colliery.

To the north was the freight only line through Worsbrough, seen here through the camera lens of the late Ben Brooksbank. Electrification is imminent, but steam was still in use at both ends of the train (Creative Commons License).

There were several level crossings on the line through Worsbrough. Here's an early view of the one at Worsbrough Dale,

And this is Glasshouse Crossing signal box in the late 1970s.

Barnsley's trams had termini at Worsbrough Bridge and Worsbrough Dale. This is the latter.

The Red Lion pub, at Worsbrough Bridge, seen here in an old photo, is still serving decent beer.

The Edmunds Arms at Worsbrough is a Samuel Smith's house.

Into the Barnsley suburbs now, once reached by this Barnsley & District bus, seen at Kingstone.

The Keresforth Hall was a pub in Kingstone, serving some real ale. It has since closed and become a private residence.

We pass through an area called Pogmoor on our way into Barnsley, noting Yorkshire Traction Leyland Leopard no. 375 on service.

Now we've arrived into Barnsley town centre. We start with the rail facilities serving the central area. The surviving station is what was called Barnsley Exchange, until the 1960s, a single platform affair. The loco shed, seen here in LNER days, was alongside.

At the south end of Exchange station was Jumble Lane level crossing and here, in 1967, Yorkshire Traction rebuilt Leyland Tiger no. 787 is waiting for the gates to reopen (Les Flint).

Maybe that crowd was here to see "Flying Scotsman", though this is a later occasion (1969). No. 4472 is about to depart from the new southbound platform.

Here's Jumble Lane signal box in 1980, with a Cravens DMU in the station.

Some more DMUs at Barnsley.

A "Pacer", in brown and cream colours, calls at the station, before the buildings were rebuilt.

An earlier railbus, a class 141, at the rebuilt Barnsley station in 1994.

At the north end of the station was Barnsley Station Junction signal box, of L&YR design.

Both signal boxes shown here were replaced by this new affair.

Today's services are provided by Northern Rail.

Barnsley's other station was called Court House and was situated at height over the bus station, within spitting distance of Exchange railway station.

58075 is seen inside Court House station, on the shuttle service to Cudworth (Ben Brooksbank - Creative Commons License).

The Court House itself was adapted to become the station offices. Long after closure of Court House station, the building became a Wetherspoons pub called the Courthouse, though they've since sold it on.

That's where I'll leave you for now. Next time, more about Barnsley's beer and its buses.