Barnsley, Heelis Street Wesleyan Methodist First World War memorial plaque

 

A brass rubbing of the plaque (click to enlarge),
shown as a negative image edited for colour and contrast
(with thanks to Barnsley Archives)

The picture above was adapted from a brass rubbing of the plaque which was once displayed in the Heelis Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. The original, very large rubbing, which is in blue wax on a pale beige paper, is filed in Barnsley Archives under the Barnsley Pitt Street Chapel along with a number of other rubbings of old memorials to past clergy and distinguished members. See A-2-N/31/8/4/23 in the Barnsley Archives catalogue. Heelis Street Chapel's records are in A-2-N/22 in the same newly catalogued Nonconformist collection at the Archives. 

Note: As of 23 September 2022 I have not yet searched the records of this chapel for mentions of the plaque and its date of unveiling is unknown as no mention of it has been found in the newspapers currently available to me online. 

The chapel no longer exists, having been closed in the 1960s when the records were moved to the Pitt Street Chapel. The building was later demolished and, as can be seen in the image below (the chapel is central in the map snip), so has the terraced housing and close packed courts which used to surround it. The plot where the chapel once stood is still overgrown empty ground possibly because of its steep slope.

1930s map of Heelis Street and surrounding area v 2022 Google map image of the same place
(Map snip from Digimap - copyright for educational purposes only)

There is a picture of the back and side of the chapel on the Barnsley Council Yococo website here.

Links:

War Memorials Register listing

Inscription:

To the Glory of God
And in Grateful Memory of

Frederick Barman	Rev Arthur Rose
Albert Benn	Albert H Rose
John Derbyshire	George Ryan
John J Guest	Albert Salmon
Henry Hudson	Charles Schofield
Arthur Ogley	Ernest Wainwright

 Who Laid Down Their Lives in the
Great War 1914 - 1918

More information:
Most of the men named above were also remembered on the St John's Barebones war memorial. It seems that people often belonged to both the Anglican and Wesleyan congregations in the area.

Two sisters and a brother from the Ogley family
remembered in Barnsley Cemetery

Arthur Ogley was not remembered at St John's, however he was commemorated on his sisters' gravestone in Barnsley Cemetery, as were George Ryan and Ernest Wainwright on their families gravestones.  Those two men WERE both remembered at St John's. 

An inscription like this -

'Also of my dear son / Private Arthur Ogley / who was killed in action in Belgium / July 22nd 1917, aged 37 years'

- on a gravestone where a man is NOT buried makes that gravestone a war memorial in its own right. 

Most of the 157 war memorial gravestones in Barnsley Cemetery can be found listed here.  The page is a work in progress, with thanks to Wayne Bywater for many of the photographs. Both George Ryan and Ernest Wainwright also have individual pages, created by Mary Lipscombe, (which have been linked to their names here in blue) which include photos of their gravestones. 

The Rev. Arthur Rose appears to have just graduated with his BA from the Wesley College in Winnipeg, Canada before he enlisted in 1916. This, as the name suggests, was a college which trained Wesleyan Methodist clergy. He does not appear to be remembered on any other surviving or recorded memorial in Barnsley, although he may be the A. Rose named on the Barnsley Pitt Street Wesleyan Roll of Honour. His photograph appears on the Canadian Virtual Roll of Honour.

Albert H. Rose was also remembered on the Barnsley British Co-operative war memorial and Roll of Honour, and at St John's.

Albert Salmon was also remembered at St Edward's Kingstone. According to his obituary (22 December 1917 in the Barnsley Independent) he had been a teacher at the Heelis Street Wesleyan Sunday School when he enlisted. He married Sarah Ann Barman, who appears to be the sister of Frederick Barman also remembered at Heelis Street, at Pitt Street Wesleyan on 1 January 1916 shortly after attesting for army service. He went out to France in April 1916 as part of a draft from the reserve battalion, 15th York and Lancaster Regiment, and joined the 14th (2nd Barnsley Pals) Battalion York and Lancaster on arrival. More details about Albert can be found in the book 'Kingstone Remembers The Great War 1914-1918' by Gill Brookes.

Charles Schofield was not remembered anywhere else in Barnsley, possibly as he had moved away for work before the war. When he enlisted in 1915 his address was Clyde Terrace, Spennymoor, County Durham, where he was a boot shop manager. His next of kin was his father who still lived in Barnsley at 3 Lingard Street, off Huddersfield Road. His army service records noted that his religious affiliation was Wesleyan.

B&DWM #BAR92