friends of locke park
Latest Post
Coming up in Locke Park
Saturday 1 July – Car boot sale – weather permitting
Sunday 2 July – Locke Park Tower open from 2 until 4 pm, weather permitting.
Sunday 23 July – Barnsley Hospice’s Bubble Rush.
Sunday 13 August – Summer Gala from 12 noon.
Saturday 16 September – Car boot sale – weather permitting.
Barnsley parkrun each Saturday at 9am; junior parkrun each Sunday at 9am.
Locke Park Tower opened by Friends of Locke Park on first Sunday of the month, from 2pm to 4pm, weather permitting.
Locke Park Cafe open from 10.30am to 2.30pm each weekday; from 9am until 3pm at weekends. May close in extreme weather. May also open for longer in holidays or really great weather!
Please email info@friendsoflockepark.org.uk or phone 01226 384656 (in office hours) if you need to get in touch
Featured Posts
The Friends of Locke Park Christmas event in Locke Park is an event for all the family; it’s a real community event with carols and music, planting pots with spring bulbs and putting together bird boxes to take home; tombola and raffle; craft stalls; enjoying mince pies, stolen and mulled wine; and an opportunity to meet Father Christmas.
There’s also pawsitive pooches’ fun dog show (entries £2) with categories: handsomest boy 14.00; best rescue 14.15; golden oldie 14.30; prettiest girl 14.45; and xmas doggy fancy dress 15.00. Plus opportunity to ‘have a go agility’.
See you there from 12 until 4 o’clock, Sunday 4 December.
We also plan to open Locke Park Tower from 2 pm until 4 pm.
From 8 until 12 noon. Going ahead. Weather forecast looks ok. Free admission for buyers. £8 for car or small van sellers; £12 for larger van. Open for sellers from 7am.
Thank you to everyone for your comments and feedback on our new Cafe. We are very excited to be open in time for summer and we are trying our best to make sure everyone has a good experience and is happy. We have taken on board all of your comments and will keep fine tuning our service and menu to suit – please bear with us during this settling in period!
Many thanks from the Cafe Team!
Great news: Locke Park cafe is open again – refurbished inside and out, and with an attractive offer. Lots of positive feedback on facebook with some suggestions. Open from 9am to 5pm each day.
Despite the downpour at 2pm, our classic car event on Sunday 12 June organised with Yorkshire Thoroughbred Car Club went well with a few hundred classic cars attending and lots of visitors. 
A bench in memory of a loved one? A flower bed, shrub or tree, or improvements to other aspects of Locke Park? Would you like to sponsor something in Locke Park? Please get in touch if this is something you would like to do.
Great time at the Easter event. Lots of people joining in, ignoring the occasional rain burst!
Barnsley parkrun is held each Saturday in Locke Park at 9 am; junior parkrun each Sunday at 9 am.
Its all free – organised by volunteers.
We all run for our own enjoyment. Please come along and join in whatever your pace!
Please register on-line before your first run
It is entirely organised by volunteers – email If you want to help email: barnsleyhelpers@parkrun.com.
More information: Web: parkrun.org.uk/barnsley/ or parkrun.org.uk/barnsley-juniors/
Facebook: Barnsley parkrun or Barnsley junior parkrun
Twitter: @Barnsleyparkrun or @Bsleyjnrparkrun
Despite the weather lots of people in Locke Park enjoying being in the Santa Dash – for a good cause. 
We held the Locke Park car boot sale but the weather was against us. Let’s hope for better weather next time – in the Spring. We will let you know the possible dates once decided.
Many thanks to all those people – and there were lots of you – who came to our Summer Gala, enjoyed it and supported our event.
A special thanks for all those friends of Locke Park and friends of friends of Locke Park who helped make it a success.
The Friends of Locke Park car boot sale held in the morning of Saturday 11 July was very popular with lots of sellers, browser and buyers.
All the proceeds go towards improvements to Locke Park.
300+ Classic cars and vehicles, Needy Paws Dog show, Fun fair, Live music, Dodworth Brass Band, Stalls and much more.
All in great environment of Locke Park from 12 noon to late afternoon.
Despite damp weather, crowds turned out and we all enjoyed ourselves.
A great and very popular community event this Easter Sunday with an egg hunt and egg rolling on the hillside as well as facepainting, music and stalls. So popular that we ran out of eggs before the end. Sorry to anyone who missed out. But really enjoyable and the weather got better as the day went on. A record number of visitors to the Tower as well.
Thanks to everyone who made it happen – and 
those who came along to enjoy it!
Friends of Locke Park have conducted a survey to get your views: what would you like to see in the park to help children and adults play and exercise. The initial survey is now closed.
We are now looking through the results and we will tell you want people think. After that, the next step will be to see what can be done.
Friends of Locke Park would like to hear about your memories of Locke Park and hear your ideas about its future. You can post them here by leaving a reply.
Previously In Locke Park!
- Christmas event in Locke Park on Sunday 7th December. Everyone enjoyed the Friends of Locke Park Christmas event in Locke Park, an event for all the family; a real community event. We had carols and music with Rhythm Inc and St Edward's Church choirs; all the kids joined in with planting pots with spring bulbs and putting together bird boxes; and the visit to see Santa was a real treat. And then there were the mince pies and mulled wine - and the Christmas fare provided by the Locke Park cafe. The mood was great inspite of the weather which brought wind, rain, hail and a 'wintry showers'. Brrr! Thanks to everyone who made it happen - and those who came along to enjoy it!
- A great bonfire and fireworks in Locke Park on Saturday 8th November 2014, organised by Barnsley Round Table.
- Halloween Xplorer events flew into Locke Park on 30th and 31st October 1pm to 4pm Organised by TeamActive: Loads of kids and families finding the halloween markers around the park. Well done to all who took part and braved the scary conditions!
- A fun dog show, stalls and activities organised by Needy Paws (Churchfield Vets) and RSPCA Barnsley on Sunday 5 October. Dog Show with Best Rescue, Gorgeous Girl, Handsome Hunk & Waggiest Tail categories. Plus for all dogs and their owners ( or anyone really!) a walk from Locke Park to Worsbrough country park (and back) in aid of RSPCA Barnsley.
- Unfortunately the car boot sale on Saturday 20 September had to be cancelled due to the wet weather and in particular the ground conditions for the stalls and public parking. On one event when it was only half as wet, we had to tow cars out! The next car boot will now have to be next year - probably in March.
- Celebrating 40 years of road running in Barnsley an exhibition in the archives in Barnsley Town Hall on Saturday and Sunday, 6 and 7 September, with a anniversary 5k run in Locke Park on Wednesday September 10: start 7.15pm. Barnsley Athletic Club
- The Annual Locke Park Gala on Sunday 10 August was cancelled due to the weather warning. It rained for much of the day and the ground conditions got steadily worse. We looked into whether we could run it later but it is proving to be impractical. A great disappointment for us all.
- A high energy dance performance by students from Darton and Horizon colleges with a bike-based sculpture near Locke Park Tower on Saturday 12 July. Inspired by the Tour de France Grand Depart Yorkshire and The Gallery@The Civic’s Bike Show. Moved by Art Yorkshire .
- Friends of Locke Park's Christmas event took place on Sunday 8th December. The café area was absolutely packed with people building bird boxes, planting bulbs, making decorations, and taking advantage of the stalls and attractions. All the family could join in. And there was Father Christmas! And mulled wine and mince pies! A real community event. Great!!
- The Friends of Locke Park AGM was held on Tuesday 19 November at 6 pm at the Locke Park Café. David Allen was re-elected as Chair, Mandy Stuart was elected as Secretary and Diane Carr elected as Treasurer. The meeting discussed the progress made, financial accounts were presented and then the arrangements for the Christmas event were discussed.
- The Barno Bootcamp group held a two hour fun Bootcamp for kids and adults near the play area in Locke Park on Sunday 17th November to raise money for Macmillan cancer support. Barno Bootcamp normally meets twice a week in Locke Park for female get-fit sessions run by Steph and Vicki.
- Friends of Locke Park are opening Locke Park Tower for visits on the first Sunday of each month from 2pm to 4 pm. This follows the opening of the Tower by David Allen chair of FOLP and Ken Richardson Mayor of Barnsley Council on September 14 2013. No charge but contributions for the further restoration of the Tower and other improvements to the Park very welcome.
- It's 21 years this year that Barnsley Round Table have run their bonfire and fireworks in Locke Park so it was a special occasion on 2 November. All the proceeds go to charity. And the rain stopped just in time!
