| Wednesday 11 January 1956.
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A cold and dark evening, 6 men gathered at a house in the Stairfoot area of Barnsley. Records show that the house belonged to a Mr H. L. Smith (apparently the ring leader). Tea was drunk and plans where laid. The men then, still under the cover of darkness, dispersed back to their own homes. Over the following weeks the group met several more times to fine tune their plans. Their plan was dependant upon the collusion of an insider at their target location, A Mr G. D. Pierpont of the Barnsley Boys Club. During the later stages of planning this man became the pivotal point of all their planning. And should he have failed to pave the way for their mission to go ahead, Then all the weeks of detailed planning would have been in vain. |
| Wednesday
21 March 1956.
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D-Day. The group finally implement their carefully laid plan and the Barnsley & District Model Railway Club is born. |
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OK. I personally do not know what the weather was like on that january evening in 1956, But it would have been a dark and quite possibly dismal evening. And any passerby could easily have been suspicious of any such comings and goings.
The first elected officers of the club where a Mr. G. D. Pierpont (Hon. President), Mr. R. Jackson (Chairman) and Mr. H. L. Smith (Secretary & Treasurer). One of the other founder members was a Mr. A. Scott who is still a member of the club today and is in fact now our Hon. President.
Initially the club was based in th Barnsley Boys Club and remained there until 1970. The first layout that the club built was 12ft x 8ft (3.66M x 2.44M) base and was layed with4 ovals of track (2 each of 2 rail and 3 rail) to accomodate the requirements of most members.
As 1957 began the use of the 3 rail track decreased and therefore all but 2 yards (1.8M) was lifted and relaid with 2 rail track. The 2 yards of 3 rail that was retained was for the purpose of test running 3 rail locos after repair.
1957 also saw the publication of the clubs journal which was called THE MAIL VAN .
Not much documented evidence is available as to what took place during the rest of 1957 or 1958, But in 1959 a further layout was built and a local exhibition was attended "To show our faces in the area".
In 1963 the club organised it's first exhibition at the Barnsley Boys Club at which 9 layouts were shown. The club has since held an exhibition every year.
During 1964 along with Wakefield, Rotherham and Sheffield clubs we were founder members of the "Yorkshire Association of Railway Modellers", later to be renamed the "East Pennines Association of Railway Modellers".
1964 was also a sad time for the club caused by the mindless idiots who broke into the Boys Club and vandalised the layouts, This precipitated a move from the Boys Club to new rooms in the basement of a building behind Barnsley Town Hall.
1966 saw the clubrooms flooded out due to heavy rain and so began the search for new clubrooms.
1969 was the Barnsley Borough Centenary and as part of the celebrations we organised a "Century of Railways" exhibition in the town and in the process unearthed a tremendous amount of relics and photographs which created great inerest amongst the visitors.
In 1970 the club moved to new accomodation, known as The Midland Stables, which were rented from Barnsley council. The interior layout of the stables were modified slightly to create a library / coffee bar / meeting room and a seperate layout room. The stables were located on what is now the County Way Car Parks.
Also in 1970 one of our members, a Mr Bill Hudson, won the Peco award, for his OO guage LMS layout "Ashover" which was had been on show at several exhibitions in the north of England.
1971 saw the official opening of the clubrooms by the then Mayor of Barnsley, Alderman B. Varley, both the Mayor and the club chairman were presented with horse brass pieces , both of which depicted a rail scene, which had been crafted by Bob Hunter of York. At that time there were only 30 members of the club.
1977/78 saw the club having to move out of the stables due to redevelopment of the court house site. This meant the club had to keep moving from one temporary home to another, ranging from a petrol station to a two bedroom flat over a shop (which was later demolished for a new road development).
1981 semi permanent accomodation was found above a Doctors surgery on Huddersfield Road. And the club spent productive years there.
1988 found the club in a position to be able to purchase its own premesis, A detatched building which had been used as a betting shop. A further more detailed description can be found in the section titled OUR CLUBROOMS .
