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Barnsley
Located on SW 30-7-4w, the settlement was named by station agent W.O. Taylor after his home town in England. For many years, Barnsley was known as “End-of-Track”, the point where the Manitoba and Southwestern Colonization Railway ended south of Elm Creek. From 1882 to 1889, when the line was finally completed six miles further south to Carman, this was the point where new arrivals disembarked, mail arrived, and livestock, grain and other goods were shipped or received.
Barnsley 2013
A post office opened at Barnsley in 1887 and continued until 1916 when rural delivery was introduced. School children attended McDermott School, one mile west or Tracy School, three miles to the northeast. Local folks started a Sunday School but no church was built at this location. Later, two grain elevators dominated the landscape at Barnsley. When the rail line by-passed Bradburn in 1929, Tissot’s store was moved here and a pool hall was added. This remained a social centre of the community until the 1960s. The elevators are privately owned and the community is still known as Barnsley.
Barnsley Farm HomeThe Dufferin area felt the impact of unemployment and poverty that were part of industrialization in Great Britain. Annie Macpherson of London used her wealth to support the British Child Emigration movement, an organization that brought children and orphans from poor industrialized areas of England to Canada.
In 1888, she purchased 583 hectares (1440 acres) of land near Barnsley and built a large home where boys were sent to learn farming. The group later amalgamated with the Bernardo organization which had similar goals. The intent was that, after a year of experience, the boys would be given land and equipment to farm on their own, or they could hire out as farm workers. The Farm Home operated until 1900. Among its notable residents was A.A. Brooke, whose paintings of Prairie agriculture are held in the Dufferin Historical Museum.
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