Visiting Barnsley is probably the closest
Burnley fans will get to an understanding of what it must be like for away supporters to
come to Burnley. It's a small town, perhaps visually unprepossessing, even the sort
of place you might not come to unless you had a good reason. The football club is one of the most
important things around, and you can see the ground from just about anywhere in town. The
town centre is unwelcoming. There is a substantial police presence. Pubs have men on the
door. Stop me if any of this sounds familiar. Of course, you can stretch this comparison
too far; the football club doesn't have anything like our burden of history, and it
was only when they briefly entered the premier league that they acquired support in
numbers, now declining. And I suspect Burnley has more good pubs.
We should bear in mind that our most recent visit was perhaps untypical. Boxing
Day games bring bigger than normal crowds, and our away support of circa 5,500 may be more
than most will bring on a humdrum Saturday. Add to this the headlines we'd recently made
on account of some post-derby match shenanigans, and you can understand the substantial security
presence.
On that Boxing Day, the only time I've been to Barnsley,
I visited the three pubs then listed in the 2001 CAMRA Good Beer Guide. The
best was the Outpost, on the corner of Sheffield Road and Union Street,
about ten minutes south of the ground. Sheffield Road is a main road, which runs from the
far side of the Alhambra Centre if you're coming from the railway station and town centre. The pub is a
square, modern building, with two rooms, a lounge bar and a public bar with Sky tv and a
pool table. Don't be fooled by the lack of handpumps. They sell one real beer, and it's
dispensed by electric pump. That beer is Kimberley Best Bitter, and it's a good pint.
They're supposed to welcome both home and away supporters, but it wasn’t that cut and
dried on my visit. They had a number of doormen, and they were by no means letting
everyone in. From our conversations with the doormen it would appear that 'certain kinds'
of away supporters are welcome. We were alright, being obvious non yobs, but anyone with a
hint of Claret and Blue about them or, it seemed, young lads with baseball caps, were being
stopped at the door. One lad with just a Claret collar visible was given short shrift. In
fairness, the doormen say that some Barnsley yobs drink there, so they try to keep out the
people they might have a go at. Once in it's friendly enough, though. It was difficult to
see what the decor might be like, so covered was every available surface with Christmas
decorations.
From here you can follow the crowds to the ground, which you can see, down
one slope and up another. Although it's said to be ten minutes to the ground, the away end
(the North Stand - give it a proper name) is at the far side, so you'd need another
five.
You can also see and get to the ground from the railway station –
it’s almost as easy to find as Turf Moor. Of course, you’ll fancy a pint first.
The local Wetherspoon's pub is right by the station. It's
the Court House Station on Regent Street. Apparently
it used to be the main station building, and before that the town's court house. (Must
have taken them a long time to think of the name.) The station was heavily policed on our
visit, so I wouldn't bank on getting a drink around here. This pub is supposed to be for
home fans only. Naturally, we had to try it. And got in. I assume those in colours or in
large groups wouldn't, but individuals without colours must have a chance. Inside, it was
absolutely heaving with home fans. It's obviously a popular rendezvous, and for some
reason everyone seemed to be drinking Newcastle Brown Ale. No need for that, as there was
the usual Wetherspoon’s selection available, plus the welcome guest of Tim Taylor's
Landlord, although the beer was too bloody cold. The pub was far too crowded to
contemplate food, but I can guess what it would have been like.
Although we weren't the only away fans I recognised in there, it was
definitely a place to keep your head down. There were some people who looked like they
might fancy some trouble, given the chance. It's a nice, big old building, and probably
one of Wetherspoon's more interesting pubs, when it's quieter.
If you head up Regent Street towards the white, vaguely fascist-looking
town hall, you’ll be in the town centre. There are various pubs around here that are
recommended by other sources, although I didn’t try them myself as it was snowing and
I wanted to get to the Outpost. On Church Street is something called the Fealty and
Firkin, recommended by the Away Guide [www.awayguide.net].
I’ve no idea what a fealty is, but I know what Firkin pubs are like. Never a
favourite back when they brewed their own beer (which was often dreadful) they’re now
grim sub-sub-Wetherspoon’s places trying to lure Smirnoff Ice-swilling kids. Chances
are they’ll still sell some beer, probably mediocre Tetley’s. However, the good
people at Away Guide report that they do at least let away fans in, so it might be worth
knowing about. It seemed quiet as I walked past.
Further down the road, which changes its
name to Market Hill, is a pub which was, until recently in the Good Beer Guide, despite
it’s obvious fake Irishness. Durty O'Dwyers doesn’t sound my cup of tea,
but according to the old entry, it sells Barnsley bitter, which may be enough. It can be
an excellent pint, and is brewed, as you might expect, in Barnsley. Get away! The brewery
is Oakwell, a recent revival of a long-closed brewery. A second new brewery in town is Orchard
Brewery, on the other side of Market Hill. It was very closed on our visit, but looked
like a sort of café bar development, with, oddly enough, a fish and chip shop upstairs.
According to the brewery section of the faithful CAMRA bible, they brew three bitters,
including Tyke Bitter.
It has to be said that the centre isn’t exactly welcoming, and many
of the pubs around this neck of the woods looked on the dubious side. Some of them feature
in the list of pubs to avoid, hosted by the now mothballed Football Fans’ Guide [http://start.at/the.pub]. For the record, their list of
bad pubs is as follows: the Groggers Rest, by the bus station, the Mount, on
Pontefract Road close to the ground and Tommy Wallocks, Maceys and the Ticket
Office, all in the town centre. Just the names sound bad enough.
The other of the then CAMRA choices was nowhere near the ground, being
very much on the outskirts of town. The Keresforth Hall on Keresforth Hall Road
(oddly enough) in Kingstone qualifies, I think, for the description ‘hard to
find’. You’re looking for a track down from the road. It isn’t particularly
worth it. It struck me as a rather soulless destination pub, of the kind that hosts a
thousand functions. The beer range changes and they do food, but it’s more the sort
of place where you might take an elderly relative for a spot of lunch than neck some beers
in a pre-match session.
The Barnsley Rivals Net site Total Tykes [http://barnsley.rivals.net] has a list of drinking
places in the town. As there isn’t much description, and some of those listed also
take their place in the above roster of places to avoid, it’s hard to have much faith
in the list. I suspect it isn’t targeted at away fans. For their full list, select
‘club guide’ and then ‘pub guide from the menu. They all sound like theme
pubs anyway.
Probably the best unofficial site goes by the extraordinary name of
Copacabarnsley [www.copacabarnsley.co.uk].
Given the shortage of options (Barnsley is not what you’d call a
heavily pubbed town) one possibility may be to stop off in one of the outlying villages if
you’re coming by car. For those coming by public transport Leeds and Sheffield look like sound options, depending on what direction
you’re coming from.
