Records of the West Riding of Yorkshire Miners’ Permanent Relief Fund Accessible for the First Time

What do Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, French President Emile Loubet and Swedish screen legend Greta Garbo all have in common? 

The answer is that they all get a mention in the brand-new catalogue of the historic records of the West Riding of Yorkshire Miners’ Permanent Relief Fund Friendly Society, produced by Barnsley Archives and Local Studies.  

The “Miners’ Permanent” was a voluntary society specifically for miners, providing financial benefits if a member was injured and unable to work, either temporarily or long-term. If the worst happened and a member was killed, the benefits extended to his widow and children. 

• The Society was founded in 1877 and had its heyday in the years before the First World War, but it continued serving its remaining members until its closure in the late 1980s. 

• Despite its name, the Society focused on the coalfields of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. 

• Its headquarters were in Barnsley, for many years in Church Street and latterly on Victoria Road. 

• The new catalogue contains over 1,000 separate entries of minute books, annual reports, accounts, correspondence files and members’ records. 

• The members’ records are fullest for those who were unfortunate enough to have to make a claim following an accident. 

• The Society supported almost 7,000 members who suffered permanent injuries that left them unable to work and the widows and dependents of over 2,000 members who were killed. 

• The Society really was ‘Permanent’ – some of the widows received their benefits for more than fifty years. 

• The most beautiful item in the collection is an illuminated address presented to the Reverend Henry Day, Rector of Barnsley, in thanks for his hard work and determination in establishing the Society. 

And in case you are still wondering about the famous names in the Society’s archive, Winston Churchill appears because a message of congratulation was sent to him following V.E. Day (to which his Private Secretary sent a brief but courteous reply); later in 1945 similar messages were sent after V.J. Day, by which time Clement Attlee was Prime Minister; Emile Loubet, the former President of France, sent a letter of thanks for the Society’s contribution to the Fund established following the appalling Courrieres Mine Disaster in 1906; and in 1932, one of the Society’s local branches sought to enliven one of its promotional meetings by combining it with a Greta Garbo movie, for which we still hold the poster. 

The catalogue of the Society’s historic records (along with many other of our collections) can be explored via Barnsley Museums’ online catalogue:  https://www.explorebarnsleycollections.com/  

And the documents themselves can be consulted, free of charge, at Barnsley Archives in the Town Hall. Please check our website for current opening hours: https://www.experience-barnsley.com/our-archives/visiting-us