ABSTRACT

Barnsley’s coat of arms is flanked by two figures: a miner on one side and a glassblower on the other, marking out the two main industries which used to sustain the town. Tom’s mum, Karen, told me she came from a mining family, while her husband Andy did not. His dad had been in the RAF, she said, and after that he had gone to work in one of the glassworks. That was how things used to go, she explained – most people came either from a mining family or a glassmaking family.