Barnsley Museums Natters

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 Our next episode will be released in time for International Women's Day in March

For our Christmas special this year we are taking you back to the 1980s, with a selection of clips from the Second Sight, a talking magazine for the blind and partially sighted that began in December 1982.These cassette recordings will form the basis of our podcast in 2026 - Future episodes will feature interviews with Stan Richards and Ashley Jackson

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.