The Empire Strikes Back
Yoda famously said “Do or do not. There is no try.” That same mantra – to fully commit to anything you do, win or lose – could be as much a line from the McGrail Memoirs as it is the Skywalker Saga. The McGrail family’s protagonist, Mark, is a force...
A new base for Barnsley’s young people
This January, Barnsley is celebrating more than a fresh start. After years of consultation, construction and community collaboration, the town’s brand-new £10.5 million Base71 Youth Zone officially opens on Monday 19th January. The first youth zone of its kind in Yorkshire, Base71 marks a bold step forward in how Barnsley...
Aroundtown Meets Ed Clancy
It started with scraped knees and a wobbly hand-me-down bike on a quiet street in Ingbirchworth. That was the first taste of freedom for a boy who would go on to leave Yorkshire at 18 with almost nothing but a bike and soon find himself racing for Great Britain in...
Humphrey’s new hospice home
Humphrey, the beloved bear from Craft Corner and the Bear’s Den, has found a new home at Rotherham Hospice. His owners, Dawn and Keith Topliss, who have been his guardians for almost 30 years, decided to donate Humphrey to the Hospice’s Sunbeams children’s bereavement service so that he can bring...
Walk into wellbeing with South Yorkshire’s Ramblers groups
If you’re contemplating fresh starts and better habits in 2026, there’s no simpler, more uplifting resolution than pulling on your walking boots and joining your local Ramblers group. Here in our part of South Yorkshire, we have some fantastic volunteer-run groups where people of all ages and fitness levels meet...
A Valentine’s Weekend in Rotherham that hits all the right notes
This Valentine’s weekend, Rotherham is celebrating the thing it loves most: the creativity and musical skill of its own people.
Charity gives cancer patients a confidence boost
For anyone who has lived through cancer treatment, either as a patient or a carer, the journey can be as emotionally exhausting as it is physically demanding. While hospitals focus on chemotherapy schedules, surgeries and scans, there’s another side to recovery that often goes unnoticed: the need to feel human,...
Rockingham Kiln no longer at risk
Where once world-renowned porcelain and pottery was made for royalty and aristocracy, Rotherham’s Rockingham Kiln has been thrown a lifeline thanks to grant-funded repair works. The Swinton-based kiln is one of 12 heritage sites in Yorkshire that has been taken off Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register following extensive structural...
