ACES SPRING CONFERENCE
BARNSLEY – SOCIAL REPORT DAVID ALBON
David Albon was formerly the Director of Technical Services at St Edmundsbury Borough Council. He is a regular social delegate at ACES conferences.
David gives an overview of the social programme as well as some personal observations about Barnsley. “We especially appreciated the amazing friendliness, enthusiasm, commitment and knowledge of everyone we met.”
Barnsley did not seem to be the most auspicious place for an ACES Conference. I must admit that my initial reaction was how do I get out of this one? This feeling was confirmed when we arrived at Dodworth Railway Station and walked up the road towards the Barnsley Holiday Inn. We just made it before the rain started in earnest so we decided to get totally immersed by taking up the free entry to the leisure pool. I must admit that my spirits lifted a bit when I collided with a large lady who instructed me to move to the fast swim lane.
The rain continued until the minibus turned up to take early arrivals for a pre-conference meal. This was to be at Puccini’s, you guessed, an Italian Restaurant. We pulled up outside an imposing Victorian villa, 102 Dodworth Road, obviously the former residence of a mine or mill manager, but now with a very different atmosphere. The owner takes great pride in creating a warm welcoming and relaxing atmosphere, the staff were excellent and the food was good too. Colin Bradford seemed to find my Angel Hotel champagne story so funny that he contrived a spurious reason to repeat it to the entire company at dinner the following evening.
Next day the conference proper started, registration in the morning, so
THE TERRIER - Summer 2012 Cannon Hall 7
I took a bus into Barnsley centre for a preliminary look around. The first sight was a glance of the wedding cake Town Hall tower. I had just been rereading “The Road to Wigan Pier” which includes much information about living conditions in Barnsley in the 1930s and Orwell took exception to the building of the Town Hall at a cost of £150,000 when so much of the housing problem could have been alleviated for that amount. Of course, I now needed a loo, so followed the sign to Peel Square. This is a proper Public Lavatory, located prominently in the middle of the Square, underground, a magnificent Victorian edifice, original porcelain scrupulously clean and somebody actually polishes the brasswork. I hadn’t seen this done for years and I had an immediate very favourable impression. A little wander followed noting some nice little streets
each one seemed to contain a range of local non-chain eateries or cafes. I stopped at one and asked the lady what I should particularly look out for in Barnsley. Her immediate response was the market. So I hurried past The Alhambra to the market. It was not market day, only a handful of stalls, but I was rather impressed by the robustness of it, and a market still in the centre rather than hidden away. The Transport Interchange looked inviting so I caught the train back to Dodworth for the buffet lunch.
In the afternoon the social programme began, meeting up with friends old and new, the group a little smaller this year and fitting nicely into a minibus. We left Barnsley surprisingly quickly and enjoyed lovely undulating Yorkshire countryside, all in intense Hockney greens from the
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