Barnsley, England, Tuesday August 5th

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We set off quite late to go to Sheffield but it is one of the beauties of staying put for a while that you don’t have to do everything in one day or in a rush. The transport building in Barnsley is fantastic, if not aesthetically in tune with its surrounding buildings. The bus and train systems are linked and there is an information service that looks for best travel options using the combined services. This is something that we have always wanted but in other places the train and bus systems in other places do not mix.
With Kerry as our guide, it was a breeze and we were soon on a train whizzing towards Sheffield. At this speed the alternating green belts between village and town clusters were really obvious. It wasn’t long before we were in the city outskirts. Already known for knife production in the 14th Century, Sheffield was a famous steel city in the 19th Century and is where crucible and stainless steel was developed. The population increased ten fold during the industrial revolution, with the building of slums and an enormous increase in pollution. During the Second World War the city was heavily bombed because the steel works were used for arms manufacture. The city took a bit of a dip in the 1960s and 70s from international competition in its traditional industries and the decline and eventual closing in the 80s of the coal industries in the surrounding districts, which affected Sheffield’s economy. Sheffield has the most trees per person of any city in Europe and many green spaces are retained throughout the city. After this day we were to drive through Sheffield and the sense of being in a sizeable city is definitely there but, like the other towns around here, you can’t go far before the views are connecting you to the countryside. Coming from the station into the city centre, it is a grand and solid looking city with many beautiful old buildings and a wide range of more modern ones.
We walked through the glassed-in ‘Winter Garden’, an area the size of a city square, between buildings where a full scale garden with trees has been planted. A botanical garden, you can read about the plants and for many there is a little bit more information on their origins and uses. Paths winding through the garden led us to the Australian plants, the bamboo, a range of cacti with some with exotic looking flowers and many more, all presumably ones that don’t go for cold, snowy winters, cool summers and lots of rain. Lots of people were strolling or relaxing on the benches, so it is an area that is well used and appreciated and has created a garden that can be enjoyed in the winter and has brought scientific plant knowledge to where the people are. We read that the ‘Winter Garden’ is part of a major revamp of that part of the central city so it would be interesting to know what other creative ideas they will be using.
A special highlight of the day was the area called the ‘Peace Gardens’, reached by going around the town hall and down into a dip where a fountain draws your eye to the centre. Paths and little water canals lead to the centre, taking water from the surrounding stepped fountains where the water runs down from green copper sculptured forms, looking like molten steel. Looking across the gardens to the roof of the town hall, the green matches the colours in the domes. What was so good about these gardens was that the elements had a symbolism related to the history of the city, were aesthetically cohesive, pleasing and quite distinctive, yet linked visually to the square of gothic buildings surrounding them.
In front of the town hall there were two figures made from steel; comic characters composed of parts that would have been familiar to any steel worker.
Over lunch we chatted about all sorts of topics. It was interesting to learn that, in Yorkshire, the system of education incorporates further study in vocational areas into the secondary school system, a split of schooling into vocational direction or academic direction at about twelve years, and the separation of what we, in Victoria in Australia, would call ‘Middle Years’ from the Primary and final two years of schooling.
As we walked into the pub we could see that the servings were very generous, and the prices on the menu were reasonable. It was a ‘chain’ pub but it had a relaxed and homely atmosphere, seeming very ‘English’ to us. Once again we were struck by the wonder of being able to understand everything easily.
It was rush hour by the time we finished and set off for the station again. Black and white is definitely the colour of city work clothes for men and women, with an occasional touch of vibrant colour. Rohan and Kerry and I sat in seats facing each other with a permanent table in between, with Keith in a similar setting with three strangers over the aisle from us. Not all seats are like this, and I wondered if this table arrangement was to accommodate eating, playing cards or maybe even computer use. On a crowded commuter train it just meant a bit of a squeeze with the day packs and not being sure of whose feet I bumped when I stretched out.
It had been a very enjoyable outing and a great chance to get to know Kerry better and to spend time with Kerry and Rohan together.
That evening Joanne and Chris came over. They are very friendly and fun to be with. Jo is Maureen’s cousin and the same age, so they had spent their childhoods at school and at dancing classes together. They had done ballroom dancing competitively, with their mothers making all their costumes and Jo reaching a stage where she was winning holidays and other prizes. The best part of the anecdotes was when they got onto their behaviour at school camp. They told the stories together, building on each other’s memories and hardly being able to explain things at some points because they were laughing so much. They must have been the children from hell to take on the school camps, and it was amusing to hear them talk about the teachers and how they dealt with it, from the child’s point of view. Just as in Australia, the rules and regulations for running a safe camp are so tight now. None of the small tent, open field camping, with the teachers’ tents all together up one end and masses of students for a few teachers that they had experienced, would be allowed today. Maureen even told of how she had a headache for one activity, so the teachers and all the students went off, leaving her and Joanne (who faked a headache), at the camp by themselves for the day. Not that they stayed there, with a shopping trip to the nearby village being too great a temptation.
It was very late when we finally fell into bed, with me translating some of the camp stories for Keith so that he could fully understand what had been told in high speed Barnsley interspersed with laughter.

We took photos on Rohan’s camera, which has temporarily disappeared, so this page will be added to with photos when it turns up