MovieChat Forums > Brassed Off (1996) Discussion > How is Grimethorpe, these days?

How is Grimethorpe, these days?

posted 20 years ago by epa101
15 replies | jump to latest

I'm an Ossett lad and most of my family were all coal miners - my dad having come from a bit further east. I moved away, but have returned and went for a drive. Driving around the region recently, I noticed some changes.

Hemsworth - which was, for a while, sufferring badly economically - was looking very prosperous now.

A lot of villages around Wakefield and Barnsley that were once very parochial seem to have lost that. The residents all seem to commute into the towns or into Sheffield or Leeds. Even the accent is dying down a lot. Something ironic, I thought, is that Ossett's relatively stronger local economy seems to have let it keep its character. Today, it remains that a majority of people in Ossett will work in Ossett or not far off - so it has kept its local identity. Places like Outwood, Dodworth and South Elmsall, which were once very tight-knit communities, are becoming dormitary towns, where everyone carries out most of their lives elsewhere.

Bolton-Upon Dearne looked a lot healthy than last time that I saw it.

I daren't drive around Fitzwilliam - which is close to Grimethorpe. I have bad memories about one visit there, when I nearly burst a tire on all the broken glass there from the derelict houses. Someone told me that they'd all been knocked down now and the village is recovering. I will never forget the state that place was in.

How is Grimethorpe? I didn't go round there. Is it still sufferring or has it regenerated itself?

[–] Aurora_7 20 years ago

I don't know about how Grimethorpe is, because i live too far north to ever have visited it. But i can tell you that its Brass band is and always has been very highly thought of.

[–] assave 20 years ago

The last time I travelled through Grimethorpe (and travel through is the best thing to do!) it looked rough, but then it always did! I was born there, but moved away when I was five. Hemsworth, in my opinion, is a damn sight rougher but there seems to be a great deal of regeneration going on, new housing etc. Still wouldn't live there, though!

[–] epa101 20 years ago

There have been a lot of drug raids in Hemsworth recently. It is a strange town. There are some quite nice houses about, but the town centre remains quite depressed. The schools aren't too bad, compared with the rest of the area.

I'm glad that regeneration is helping Grimethorpe. For those who don't know, two years before "Brassed Off" was made, it was named as the poorest village in Britain and one of the poorest in Europe, by a huge E.U. survery for funding.

One odd thing that I've noticed from moving away is how everyone seems to talk about a "Barnsley accent" like it's the broadest thing ever, but don't seem to know anything about a "Wakefield accent" and will just presume that it's like Leeds. I'd say that Wakefield has an accent much closer to Barnsley than to Leeds, despite being in West Yorkshire, and I would have thought that it would've been a bit harder to understand [for a Southerner], due to the funny pronounciations of "Blue" like "bleuw" and "utensil" like "euw-tensil".

[–] CloudStrifeKiller 20 years ago

Well im currently living in Grimethorpe and no it hasn't got any better people have said there going to make this place better ,there was sopose to be spending 19M here iv only see 150k spent (used to make skatepark) but apart from that nothing the village no better just full of rubbish and needles i hope with this being my own home village it will get better im not planning on living here my whole life but if this was to be better maybe i would , as for brassed off me and a few people in my family are in it i was five at the time i was in the church scene.
Great Film 10/10 it was nice to see Grimethopre nice......was ashame it was just while the film was being made.

[–] epa101 20 years ago

Sad to hear Grimethorpe's still struggling. Hope it gets better one day.

I was saddened watching the story on the news about the kids in Dewsbury today. That is a town that has never recovered from the 1980s; I'm not saying that it's as badly-off as Grimethorpe, but it is a very poor area. It was more a mill town than a mining one, but there was the Savile & Shawcross pit between Dewsbury and Ossett that was one of the deepest around; closed in 1985, I think. The schools are all bad there, the hospitals are struggling, racial tension has divided the town into ghettos, heroin is about, a third of the houses don't have central heating [according to government statistics]. If I was a religious man, I'd also pray for the town of Dewsbury.

[–] panda-2182 20 years ago

I'm from Batley, I've never really seen Dewsbury as being poor, however, me and my mum were stuck in traffic in Dewsbury a couple of days ago, just as the story of the little boy being strangled came out and I could see that there were parts that were dog-rough. There doesn't seem to be that much racial tension in Dewsbury to me, again though I don't live there, and where I do live is pretty much detached from the rest of Batley. It does seem that people only focus attention on a town or place, when something goes bad there, Bradford was only focused upon following the riots, people have been living there and coping with the poverty there many years before the riots happened. But the focus only comes when something comes to a head, and then you get the knobheads like the NF/BNP sticking their beak in, and stirring it up..

[–] epa101 20 years ago

I visited Dewsbury and Batley recently. Wearing a suit in Dewsbury always makes me feel a bit out of place there.

The ironic thing for this message board is that the most affluent part of Dewsbury is the part which the pit was partly named after - Shaw Cross. It wouldn't count as affluent in hardly any other town in the country, however. There is a sizeable industrial park there and Dewsbury Rams have their ground. The pit was halfway to my hometown of Ossett and Ossett is almost "posh" nowadays. They're even demolishing the relic to the scruffy days that was the bus station. Such a change from just 10 years back.

As for racial segregation, note how Ravensthorpe is all Pakistani, Saviletown is all Indian, then Chickenley and Dewsbury Moor are all White. The only area where there seems to be a bit of a mix is Earlsheaton. There is a very old joke about Chickenley, which I shall repeat here:

The circus came to Dewsbury one time and a lion and tiger escaped. They were seen heading towards the Chickenley estate. The policemen followed and captured the lion, but not the tiger. When it became dark in the evening, the policeman looked around and couldn't find it still, so he said, *beep* it! It can fend for itsen arand 'ere!" and went home to bed.

[–] TemporaryOne-1 20 years ago

Yes, it is extremely depressing to know that Grimethorpe is struggling.

After watching the film, my heart felt completely extingushed, I felt hollow. I researched Grimethorpe and other areas of the UK, and struggled for days with despair over the hell these people have to go through their entire lives.

It's unforgivable that abysses of grinding poverty exist in which people are born knowing they will die with nothing. It's unforgivable, it's intolerable, there are no words to describe it. It's horrifying to know that inhumanity will exist infinitely, eternally. It's horrifying to know that inhumanity is just as great (omnipotent) as G-d.

Thatcher

[–] robbert-j 19 years ago

It is very awkward to hear that the village of Grimethorpe is in such a poor state, while the Grimethorpe Colliery Band is very highly thought of internationally. (I'm Belgian myself) I was astonished to see the comments on this movie, which I have yet to see.

[–] TemporaryOne-1 19 years ago

You must watch this film.

It's an emotional experience that you will never forget; Brassed Off will enrich your life immensely and permanently.

You will know what it means to watch a brilliant film, you will hear one of the greatest soundtrack-scores ever made, and you'll witness a group of struggling, beaten people joyously embrace and celebrate the power of music, music which gives them the will to carry on against the odds.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] graemeomeara 19 years ago

So that makes you about what, 14 now. Thats just incredible, have you ever thought of joining the brass band trade? You have a huge opportunity right at your fingertips. Didn't know that Grimethorpe was such a fairly poor run-down area.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] rw0106 18 years ago

i live in wombwell which is close to grimethrope, and as part of my university dissertation i am looking at regeneration from grimethorpe, ando other parts of the Dearne. its interesting cos id never driven through or even visited grimethorpe until yesterday, even tho i live so close. apparently the area is a lot better than it was say even 5 or 6 years ago. the 'seaside' estate has been knocked down and there are new houses being built in grimethorpe, which apparently was unheard of a few years ago as no1 would want to live there.