Ashley Ball

2 days ago | barnsleychronicle.com | Ashley Ball

Ashley Ball goes to meet a gardener with an engineering background who’s found a special way to water... NOT long after meeting him, you quickly get the feeling that Mick Grain likes a challenge. “I don’t like watering the garden so I set up my own irrigation system,” he said. And there it is. Immaculate, ingenius and far too complex for me to get my head around. But it allows him more time to work on and enjoy his garden. “I find watering a real pain.

2 days ago | barnsleychronicle.com | Ashley Ball

ANOTHER addition to the region’s football heritage was secured last Friday with the unveiling of a blue plaque for arguably one of the most gifted scouts in the history of the game. Mark Crook has had a permanent reminder to his success cemented to the one-time home of his former feeder club, Wath Wanderers, who were set up by Mark to supply Wolves with players for four decades.

1 week ago | barnsleychronicle.com | Ashley Ball

A TOTAL of £2.6m has been pledged to support active travel in the future in Barnsley but what’s the current state-of-play? Ashley Ball got on his bike to find out. I’VE worked at the Barnsley Chronicle for 12 years now. It has often occurred to me, on those thousands of journeys into and out of the town centre, that there are so few people getting into the town on two (self-propelled) wheels. Why is that? I had my own theories but I wanted to put them to the test by commuting into work last week.

1 week ago | barnsleychronicle.com | Ashley Ball

I awoke to a social media frenzy the other Friday morning. Apparently, 60 asylum seekers were to be housed in Hoyland. Local community Facebook pages were ablaze. According to these posts, the council had endorsed the plans, but in truth, we knew nothing about any of it. On checking, it was all completely false. Made up by someone with sinister motives, and spread rapidly online, to stir things up.

1 week ago | barnsleychronicle.com | Ashley Ball

A BLUE plaque will be unveiled to the public on Friday. The lasting tribute is for football scout Mark Crook and will go on his club’s former home at Cortonwood Miners’ Welfare, Knollbeck Lane, Brampton. People are invited to attend the event which kicks off at 1pm at Brampton Parish Hall before the actual unveiling at 2pm across the road. Mark was a renowned talent finder and was responsible for sending the likes of World Cup winner Ron Flowers to Molineux.