Megan Wallace explores the Barnsley Chronicle archives from 1999.
BARNSLEY schools and youth groups face cancelling summer trips to Scout Dike to make way for up to 150 Kosovan refugees.
Council representatives were told on Wednesday to expect scores of men, women and children to arrive in the town from June 7 onwards.
The exact dates will be known in the next few days.
But it looks likely that Barnsley, as on of the Yorkshire towns best prepared for the influx, will receive refugees on one of the early flights from the war zone.
Up to 90 can be accommodated in the former Belmont old people’s home in Monk Bretton which is being brought up to scratch for them - but the rest would probably have to go to Scout Dike, meaning schools and other trips there would have to be cancelled from June onwards.
A SPORTS hall costing around £700,000 could be built next to Barnsley FC’s Oakwell stadium.
The club has applied for planning permission for the proposed hall which would house an artificial pitch with viewing area.
The Reds’ general manager/secretary, Mike Spinks said he did not yet know when construction work would start.
But he added it would improve already excellent facilities at the club’s football academy, set up to try to discover and nurture the next generation of Barnsley FC stars.
He said: “We are always looking to improve facilities we have here at Oakwell and this sports hall is simply the next phase of our strategy.”
BARNSLEY Muslims have a good chance of getting lottery money to build a new community centre - but say they will only accept the cash as a last resort.
The Muslim community is trying to raise £10,000 to replace the centre off Dodworth Road which was gutted in an arson attack.
Lottery bosses say the centre should get a grant quite easily but the Muslims are worried about accepting the cash because their religion forbids them from accepting money made from gambling.
Even if they do use lottery money, they will still pay for a new prayer room out of their own pockets to avoid any conflict with their elders.
Naeem Jarrel, from the centre, said: “We had a meeting at the town hall last Friday and the council promised to make every effort to set up a new centre.”
JANE Green has always treasured the engraved safety lamp given to her in appreciation of her baking for soup kitchens during the miners’ strike.
But an appeal for miners’ lamps to form a display at Barnsley’s new Lamproom Theatre made her feel it was something she should share with others.
Jane, of Tingle Bridge Lane, Hemingfield, was the first person to donate a lamp to the appeal.
The theatre hopes to form a permanent collection from all 50 Barnsley pits in operation at the end of the last war.
“I’m proud that my lamp will be on permanent display in the theatre,” said Jane, whose father, Russell Oughton, and father-in-law, the late Ted Green, were both miners.
BARNSLEY umpire Dickie Bird, who knows a thing or two about the World Cup, having stood at a record breaking three finals, reckons that England have a great chance of claiming the trophy for the first time.
He believes that, because the competition is being played in May and early June, when there is bound to be a lot of moisture on the cricket squares throughout the country, the conditions will suit such players as Darren Gough, Mark Ealham, Angus Fraser and Ian Austin, who are capable of exploiting the kind of pitches that will produce.
