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We're celebrating International Women's Day 2026 with a selection of interviews from our collection featuring some recognisable Barnsley voices and others we'll introduce you to for the first time: Rita Britton, the Barnsley fashion icon, Dorothy Hyman the Olympic champion, 'Mrs Barnsley' Mel Dyke. Prof Selina Wray, Dana Kubick who designed tins for the Barnsley Canister company and Gail Haimes shares her memories of working at Slazengers. These short clips are from much longer interviews which you can listen to here: https://soundcloud.com/barnsleymuseums/sets/international-womens-day-2026

After a short break we're back with regular episodes in 2026 as we make more of our oral history interviews available online for the first time. It's been 21 years since Stan Richards passed away but he is still fondly remembered, this interview was recorded by John Kelly for the Second Sight magazine in 1983. You will hear more interviews from these tapes later in the series. The second half of this episode pays tribute to Geoffrey Hutchinson who died in January 2025, without his hard work and dedication there probably wouldn't be a Maurice Dobson Museum and Heritage Centre here today. Geoff was the first chair of the museum and was responsible along with a small group of volunteers for the first National Lottery Heritage Funding in South Yorkshire. The interview is a longer version which featured in Memories of Maurice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H6mfnEfWRI Our next episode will be released in time for International Women's Day in March

Welcome back to the Barnsley Museums Natters podcast, we're taking you back to the 1980s for the majority of this series and exploring a series of cassette tapes. Second Sight was a talking newspaper which launched in 1982, and for the first time these recordings are being shared online. We begin with an interview with Dickie Bird, take a tour of the Mayor's parlour and hear from the then Mayor Ken Rispin as he and the mayoress look back on the mayoral year. There will be regular episodes of our podcast in 2026 featuring lots of archive interviews that are being shared online for the first time.

A Christmas carol lost for 90 years and re-discovered by Barnsley Museums in 2023. Watch videos, read blogs and download the lyrics from our website https://www.barnsley-museums.com/the-barnsley-carol-christmas-eve-by-arthur-godfrey

There's lots of interviews online with Arthur Scargill that focus on his involvement in the miners strike. In this interview that pre-dates the strike John Kelly focuses on Arthur's formative years in Barnsley, his interests and influences away from the pit. This is the first time this interview has been shared online, it's from a recently digitised cassette tape from a Barnsley Archives collection. Recorded in 1983 for the Second Sight magazine created especially for the blind and partially sighted, we are currently working through the collection and will share more interviews in the near future. Download a transcript of the interview https://www.barnsley-museums.com/admin/downloads/1470

#Strike40 Kenneth O’Mara shares his memories of Elsecar and the miners' strike by Barnsley Museums

#Strike40 Gerald O'Brien shares his memories of Elsecar Main Colliery by Barnsley Museums

The interviews in this episode were recorded on 12th May 1984 at a large Women Against Pit Closures rally at the Barnsley Civic Hall. The event was much larger than expected with an estimated 10,000 women travelling from all parts of the country to the event at the civic hall and had 40 speakers. You are about to hear speeches by Ann Hunter (chairperson of rally), Lorraine Hunter, two miners' wives from Nottinghamshire and Arthur Scargill. Interviews with Chris Hall (of Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures), various miners' wives, nurses from South Wales raining community, miners' wives from Wales, and Susan Sykes, miner's wife from Grimethorpe. Special thanks to Sheffield Archives for digitising the cassette and allowing us to make it available in this podcast.

Continuing our miners' strike podcast series, this episode was recorded as part of the Elsecar Building Bridges project which you can read about on our website https://www.elsecar-heritage.com/elsecar-building-bridges-project

Recorded in 2004, Brian speaks with Ernest Kaye about his lifetime down the mines, including his striking memories

Throughout the year we are going to share highlights from Brian Elliott's oral history collection, a local historian and published author who has generously donated his sound archive to Barnsley Archives and Local Studies which we are now making available online for the first time.

Betty Cook was a founding member of the Barnsley Miners Wives Action Group which led to the formation of The Woman Against Pit Closures in Barnsley. This interview was recorded in 2009 as part of The South Yorkshire Women In Industry lottery funded project. It is being shared for the first time as part of Barnsley Museums' year-long programme of events marking 40 years since the Miners' Strike. For more details, visit our website http://www.experience-barnsley.com/strike40

A Christmas message from Barnsley Museums, featuring a Barnsley carol 'Christmas Eve' written by Arthur Godfrey and published in the Barnsley Chronicle in December 1933. With photographs of Barnsley at Christmas from Barnsley Archives. Read our blog to learn more about the carol https://barnsleymuseums.art.blog/2023/12/12/a-barnsley-christmas-eve-carol-1933/

We've got a brand new podcast, find us over on Acast for Barnsley Museums Natters https://shows.acast.com/barnsley-museums-natters the first series is all about Experience Barnsley Museums

Episode 39 - Merry Christmas! by Barnsley Museums