Come and dial a hotline to the heart of our communities thanks to an innovative new town centre attraction, Calling Barnsley. 

Calling Barnsley is centred on a bespoke phone box with a difference at Barnsley Civic, where you can lift the receiver and listen to one of 30 previously untold stories. 

This free installation will be based at the Civic from January until March. 

Later in the year, the customised phone box will go on tour around our Principal Towns of Cudworth, Goldthorpe, Hoyland, Penistone, Royston and Wombwell. 

Theatre company LUNG worked with Barnsley College students to research, write, and record short playlets based on the lives of members of the public from Barnsley’s Principal Towns. The recordings are by a mixture of professional actors and students.  

Students performed a selection of the stories as monologues for an invited audience at Calling Barnsley’s launch at the Civic. You can now come and listen for yourself from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday. 

As part of this project, LUNG is hosting free creative workshops at the Civic from 11am to 4pm every Saturday from January until March.  

Calling Barnsley is part of Storying Barnsley, a Cultural Development Fund project supported by Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. 

Storying Barnsley aims to boost Barnsley’s cultural and creative sectors through partnerships and offer unique cultural experiences for people living and visiting the town.