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1. Dickie Bird
31:38||Season 3, Ep. 1Welcome 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.
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The Barnsley Carol (Christmas Eve) by Arthur Godfrey
17:37|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
8. #Strike40 In conversation with.....Arthur Scargill in 1983
15:21||Season 2, Ep. 8There'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.
7. #Strike40 Kenneth O’Mara shares his memories of Elsecar and the miners' strike
18:53||Season 2, Ep. 7
6. #Strike40 Gerald O'Brien shares his memories of Elsecar Main Colliery
16:42||Season 2, Ep. 6
5. #Strike40 - Women Against Pit Closures - Rally at Barnsley Civic Hall, May 1984
20:06||Season 2, Ep. 5The 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.
4. #Strike40 Cllr Mick Stowe shares his memories of the 1984 Miners' Strike
17:50||Season 2, Ep. 4