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Thursday 14 June 2007

Barnsley is home to a proud tradition of brass bands, originally created as social clubs for the mining communities. Grimethorpe Colliery Band, located in a village 5 miles to the east of Barnsley, is perhaps the best brass band in Britain. It rose to fame in the film Brassed Off and is now the 'artist in residence' at the Royal College of Music, London. The band has performed in Hyde Park during the Last Night of the Proms.

The 'Bard of Barnsley' Ian McMillan writes in local dialect, was recently nominated for a chair of poetry at Oxford University, and often appears on Radio 4. The Barnsley accent has a slight Scottish influence mixed in with traditional West Riding dialect; this is due to the large-scale relocation of Scottish coal miners to the area following the Second World War, when most of the pits in Scotland were exhausted. For example, a "t-shirt" is sometimes called a "t-shot" in Barnsley, as in parts of Scotland. However, this is starting to wear off amongst the younger generation.

Ken Loach's film Kes was set and filmed in Barnsley, using local actors such as Freddie Fletcher.

There is a live rock music scene, which reached its height in the Britpop years, around 1997, due to its proximity to Sheffield and Manchester. Barnsley rock band Saxon were famous in the 1980s. Two of the Arctic Monkeys studied music at Barnsley College.

Barnsley Council operates three museums, Cannon Hall, the Cooper Gallery and Worsbrough Mill. There are plans for a fourth museum located within the town hall. The project to create this is known as Experience Barnsley. Other museums in Barnsley include the volunteer-run Darfield Museum and the Cawthorne Victoria Jubilee Museum. Other heritage sites include Wortley Top Forge, Wortley Hall, Wentworth Castle and Monk Bretton Priory.

The Lamproom Theatre has three theatrical companies, and gives performances ranging from West End musicals to Shakespeare. Its Youth Company presents up to three productions a year and recently performed a critically acclaimed production of 'Les Miserables: School Edition' in November 2005 which was greeted by standing ovations on each performance. The once celebrated Victorian theatre the 'Civic' has lapsed from its previous role as the cultural centre of the town and is now being developed into gallery space.

Barnsley has two twin towns: