Barnsley, West Riding

Description
Barnsley, a municipal borough, market town, and head of a poor law union, in the parish of Silkstone, W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands in a fertile tract on the river Deame, at a focus of railways and canals, 10 miles SW of Wakefield, 17 from Sheffield, and 174 from London. It was incorporated on 5 July, 1869, by Royal Charter. The Corporation act as the urban sanitary authority. The streets are well lighted and well kept, and the borough is supplied with water under the supervision of the town council. There is a cemetery of 13 acres, with two mortuary chapels, also under the management of the town council, who form the burial board. For ecclesiastical purposes the town is divided into four parishes£St Mary's, St George's, St John's, and St Peter's, in the diocese of Wakefield. The living of St Mary's is a rectory, net value, £650 ; of St George's, a vicarage, net value, £250, both in the gift of the Bishop; of St John's, a vicarage, gross value, £300, in the gift of the Crown and Bishop alternately; and of St Peter's, a perpetual curacy, gross value, £150, in the gift of the Rector of St Mary's. It figures in Domesday as a manorial seat, under the name of Bemesley, and was known afterwards as Bleak Barnesley or Black Barnsley, but is now a busy and flourishing scene of manufacturing industry, and the principal centre of the West Yorkshire coal district. It consists chiefly of narrow streets, and is straggling and plain, yet has two large market-places and some handsome houses, and is built principally of stone from quarries in the neighbourhood. Its cliief objects are waterworks, enlarged in 1868; a handsome court-house, built in 1879 near the old one; a large com-exchange, in the Grecian style; a public park presented to the town by the widow of Joseph Locke, Esq., the eminent engineer, and containing a statue of him by Marochetti, erected in 1866, with additions presented in 1877 by Miss M'Creery, sister of Mrs Locke, and F. Wm. Thos. Vernon Wentworth, Esq.; a church, rebuilt in 1821, and restored in 1870 ; two handsome churches, built in 1822 and 1858 ; a temporary building (not consecrated), erected in 1881 for the district of St Peter's; a beautiful Congregational chapel, built at a cost of £7000 ; a fine and very spacious Wesleyan cliapel; eight other dissenting chapels; a Friends' meetinghouse ; a Roman Catholic church; a free public library; a mechanics' institute; a Conservative Club, erected in 1884; a temperance hall; a theatre; the Beckett Hospital and Dispensary, enlarged in 1887; an endowed grammar-school and lecture hall, also several public and private schools; a workhouse; and charities amounting to about £700 a year.

The town has a head post and telegraph office, three banks, and three chief inns, and it is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and publishes two newspapers. A weekly market for corn and poultry is held on Wednesday, and one on Saturday for meat and vegetables; and fairs on the Wednesday before 28 Feb., 13 May, and 11 Oct., and a statute fair for hiring of servants on the first Saturday in Nov. Wire-drawing was carried on from at least the time of James I., and Barnsley had long the reputation of producing the best wire in the kingdom, hut this manufacture has now very greatly declined. The manufacture of linen cloth, damasks, diapers, ducks, checks, ticks, and similar fabrics, took the place of the wire-drawing, and is very prosperous. The yam is partly spun in large mills on the spot, and partly brought from the mills of Leeds, and is woven principally by the weavers in their own houses. About 2000 hand and power looms are employed. Bleaching, dyeing, wool-working, glass-making, and iron-working also are carried on. There are also steam corn and saw mills. Extensive coal mines likewise are in the neighbourhood. An explosion, with a loss of 365 lives, took place in 1866 at the Oaks Colliery. Population of the civil parish and municipal borough, 35,427. Barnsley includes also the hamlets of Old Barnsley, Measborough, Kingston-place, Old Mill, and Pogmoor. Acreage, 2386. Barnsley Parliamentary Division of W. R. Yorkshire was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 78,844. The division includes the following:£Staincross (part of)£Ardsley, Barnsley, Barugh, Billingley, Brierley, Carlton, Cudworth, Darton, Darfield, Havercroft-with-Cold, Hiendley, Houghton (Great), Houghton (Little), Kexborough, Monk Bretton, Notton, Boyston, Ryhill, Shafton, South Hiendley, Wintersett, Wombwell, Woolley; Osgoldcross (Upper, part of)£Hemsworth.