A disability adapted afternoon walk to Monk Bretton War Memorial and Experience Barnsley

The OH likes to go on long walks, once upon a time I could go with him - I could walk ten miles and it was OK.  Nowadays just getting to the local Co-op is difficult.  But yesterday we had a free Saturday, not something that happens very often, so I wanted to spend time with my husband.  I also wanted to go for another look around Experience Barnsley, as I hadn't really had time on Thursday when it opened and to take some pictures of the War Memorial in Monk Bretton following a query from a friend.


 

The War Memorial at Monk Bretton

Because I can't walk very far or fast we came up with a cunning plan ... we would walk on the normal roadside footpaths, not the countryside shortcuts the OH likes so much - there are a few stretches of the Transpennine Trail around Barnsley and lots of disused railway lines.  Whenever I got tired I would hop on a bus to the next important stopping point and wait for the OH there.

I managed from our house to the bus stop for the Monk Bretton bus near Redfearn's Glass - that took me half an hour for a mile, not bad, but bear in mind I'm fresh at this point and I had the OH to lean on. There is a bus that runs from Cudworth to Monk Bretton, but it only runs two or three times a day, and the other Cudworth buses don't cross the route of the Monk Bretton buses - you'd have to go all the way into town and back out, so this was the easiest way to get me there. The OH left me at the stop and carried on walking.

I soon caught a bus and waved at the OH as I passed him - unfortunately I missed the best stop for the War Memorial and had to walk back a bit ... drat!  Wasted energy.

I took photos of the Memorial, that's the one of the whole thing above, and individual photos of the eight sides of the bases of the pillars where the inscriptions are.  I used my Billion Graves app, I wrote a blog about using this app a few days ago.  I did have to repeat one photo when I realised there was a name, out of order, on the bottom of one pillar, partially hidden by the poppy wreaths.

Slight adjustment to wreaths so I could photo Samuel Gammons' name

The OH had caught me up and walked with me to the next bus stop - I was seriously flagging by now and we decided our next meeting point would be the bus station in Barnsley.  I did have to wait for him some time there, however there are plenty of seats and I have some magazines on my tablet for just such occasions. 

I had regained some 'zing' by the time the OH found me in the bus station.  We walked slowly up to Experience Barnsley for a leisurely look around.  We also popped into the Archives where I enquired if anyone is currently researching the Monk Bretton War Memorial to their knowledge - no-one was aware of anyone, although there is a Monk Bretton Local History Group. 


Listening to Memories of Cudworth at Experience Barnsley

I found the button to press to listen to the voices of the members of the Cudworth Local History Group describing their memories of Cudworth.  I remember them talking about this at a meeting not long after I joined, some students came down and recorded them talking, they weren't quite sure what for ... well now I know.  And it was lovely to hear DW, FW and BS chatting away while sitting in the museum.

That's another good point - there are lots of benches, some with activities set into them and others with panels to read.  Very use friendly for people who can't stand for long.

I slowly made my way back to the bus station - the OH had to leave me to run a few more errands and then he was going to walk home - walking saves money on bus fares AND is good exercise (for him).  As for me when I got home I went flooop! and had an ice cream!