South Yorkshire Times  January 20, 1933

The Town Bird

Why don’t the men who travel all these miles to Barnburgh pit taken a house near their work? There are plenty available. At Goldthorpe, only a mile and a half away, there are hundreds. At Thurnscoe a mile further on, there are hundreds more, some, I am told, that have never been occupied at all and are now derelict. For some reason, however, these men prefer to be near a town, even if they are a long way from work.

They would probably come to Mexborough, if they could. A Mexborough councillor said to me the other day, “If the Ministry would allow us, we could empty Goldthorpe.” And with six hundred and eighty applicants for fifty houses, more than half of them from outside, there appears to be something in it.

The rent arrears at Mexborough, though far too heavy—nearly £3 a house—are not to be compared with the “war debt” at Goldthorpe, which in itself is an indication that the tenants are fairly comfortable and on the whole would rather not be evicted.

A Popular Pit

In spite of the grouse about steel props, there are few more popular pits than Barnburgh Main, judging from the wide radius from which its workmen are drawn.

They come from as far as Worsborough, Stairfoot, Lundwood, Cudworth, South Kirkby, Adwick-le-Street, Bullcroft, and Doncaster, passing many pits on their way and spending a good deal of apparently unnecessary time and money in travelling.

Many of them, perhaps, cannot get employment nearer home, but some who could will not, for Barnburgh has one of the best price lists in Yorkshire and work has always been “good” there. Yet it is visited with sporadic strikes, while at less attractive pits such things are unknown. There are mysteries in mining which are past finding out.