Barnsley Archives’ Conservation programme – Friendly Society membership book 

Barnsley Archives and Local Studies have an ongoing conservation programme to ensure that the 4000 collections in their custody can still be safely used by researchers many years, decades and centuries from now. This programme is a crucial part of the work we do and is supported by Barnsley MBC, the Friends of Barnsley Archives and the Barnsley Museums and Heritage Trust.  

During 2024, a number of items have been worked on, one of the most interesting being a membership book relating to a Silkstone Friendly Society. First donated to Barnsley Archives nearly 35 years ago, such was the book’s extremely poor condition, that we were unable to provide access to researchers. Now, following a programme of professional conservation work, we can examine it more closely and make it available to researchers for the first time. 

Sickness and unemployment can impoverish even the most prudent low-income households. A solution to this problem has long been mutual aid. In Britain, this has frequently been provided by friendly societies, sometimes known as benefit clubs. Over the last 200 years, these friendly societies have played an important part in pension, funeral and medical provision in Britain. They became one of the most persistent and widespread forms of voluntary association. The concept is probably as old as urban civilisation. In Classical Greece and Rome members of specific trades – artisans, soldiers, even gladiators – would form clubs to which they subscribed, and from which they received benefits in times of need. Members made payments into a common fund and societies made payments from those funds when members were sick. 

It was during the 19th and early 20th centuries that friendly societies became Britain’s premier working-class self-help organisations. In 1835, when the male population over 20 was five and a half million, there were a million men in friendly societies. By the 1870s It was estimated that there were around five million members (including a small number of women), and as many as 9.5 million in 1910. In return for weekly payments of a few pence, a sick allowance of 8s or 10s a week was paid, reducing after some months, together with attendance by a doctor usually appointed by the society, and a funeral benefit of up to £10. 

Local authority archive services often hold records of friendly societies that existed in their particular area, but the survival rate is quite patchy. Helpfully, local newspapers frequently reported on the activities of these societies, which helps to increase our knowledge. 

Barnsley Archives holds relatively few records relating to such societies, which is why we are so delighted to make this book accessible for the first time. The Silkstone book covers a period of approximately 60 years, commencing in 1832 and running until the late 1880s. Information provided for each subscriber is: Date of Proposition; Name of Person proposed; Trade; Age; Residence; By whom Proposed; By whom Seconded; Cash Paid; Date of Initiation; and Remarks. The book is not branded with the name of the society, and we do not have any other related records, so we do not know its exact nature. It is very clear that the society was Silkstone-based. It contains the details of over 350 men who subscribed to the society; the vast majority being miners, presumably working the Silkstone coal seam. However, despite the vast majority being miners, a number of other trades are featured, so it is clearly a society not restricted to just that one occupation. Almost 100% of subscribers are Silkstone residents, with just a tiny number from neighbouring villages such as Thurgoland and Dodworth. On balance, the society was likely place related rather than occupation bound.  

Our volunteers will be working to produce a full transcription of the book in the next few months, which we hope will be of interest to Silkstone historians. 

For further information regarding the fascinating records held by Barnsley Archives contact archives@barnsley.gov.uk