Milling, mining and laikin round the res

I remember clearly my first supply teaching day in Barnsley - my first ever day of teaching in fact. It was Monday morning and I did the usual, "What did you do at the weekend?"
The reply came back, "I went Laikin at res". "Oh so you went pond dipping?". No, was the reply. "Laikin. Door knocking," said another child. So I eventually worked out Laikin (pronounced laykin) is playing.

And the res (Worsrough reservoir) really is a gorgeous place to laik.
We tend to go there on a Sunday morning, for a walk around the res
and then bacon sandwich at Wigfield farm.

At the side of the reservoir is the mill

Last week we took a tour of the mill with a difference

We were transported back to the 1800's

Through game, song and theatre we learned how the mill worked all those years ago.

With Mrs Anne Shaw we made bread

into faces

and shapes.

At the end of the tour, the date Sep 2 1819, was pointed out.
The date Anne Smith had died.

At home, Geoff and the girls made bread.

We found out more about local history with a display of old books from Worsbrough,

that are now kept at the Sheffield university.

The girls loved trying to read the old swirly script

There was also a display showing the history of Worsbrough

In 1875 Barrow colliery opened.
Along with the button mill, furnaces, gunpowder factory and other industries that had sprung up in Worsbrough near the canal and later the railway, it provided employment for most of the local rapidly expanding population.

And here is a photo of the seven men that died in the Barrow colliery disaster. It brought a tear to our eye when we read the story of one of the men. His mother was getting his birthday tea ready of the eve of his 21st birthday. He never tasted it...
Barrow colliery was at the heart of Worsbrough for many years. Every family had a relative that worked down the pit. For many years there has been a campaign to bring home the banner.

And finally Barrow Colliery banner has come home.
Although we have only been in Barnsley for 13 years, and the pits had long gone before we came, growing up in nearby Rotherham, I can clearly remember the miners strike of the 1980's, especially a gala held in Clifton Park.
The miner's strike finished in 1985, with Barrow colliery shutting shortly after.
27 years after the closure of the mine, ex-miners stood shoulder to shoulder, chatting and standing proud.

We were served a traditional miner's lunch, pork pie and mushy peas.

In Yorkshire the mines and steel works are long gone. And we are in the midst of a double dip recession, being told to go out and spend. Go and spend at Meadowhall, where once great steel works operated. Surely we'd have been better off keeping our industries running, even if only at a small profit. Then maybe folks could go out and spend!

Life must have been much simpler when it was all about, milling and laikin round the res...