September 2026. Barnsley.
Back home from Kent, a man’s mind turns to exploration.
In search of “recommended” pubs, I head to Greater Barnsley, which has all the life and vitality Huntingdon lacks.
“Kooth” ? I’d just about caught up with “rad” and “sick” and the kidz invent another new word.
There’s loads of youth about in Barnsley town centre, none of them admiring the elegant town centre,
or the “trees growing out buildings” exhibition (on until October 19th),
or standing to admire the red phone box turned into a poetry display.
By Simon Armitage, but you knew that.
Pubs aside, I’m a big fan of Barnsley, but you knew that as well. The borough to the west covers some of England’s greatest countryside, and the town hall encapsulates the sense of civic pride you feel in town.
Home to Experience Barnsley, one of the UK’s great social history museums, and also one of its busiest.
A simple formula, fill the rooms with childhood memories like Mousetrap and terrifying Nativity puppets,
and watch gentlefolk flock in on a Thursday lunchtime to relive their youth.
There’s a TV playing (unintentionally hilarious) highlights of Barnsley FC, and a sign for the local brewery with an oddly Germanic font.
But can you still get Barnsley Bitter in Barnsley ?
retiredmartin 
The font looks like a variation of Olde English which might have been borrowed by Germanic folk.
I remember it being commonplace when I joined a march through the town over fifty years ago protesting against Courage’s proposed closure of the Barnsley Brewery whose Barnsley Bitter had a strong local following.
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