Town plans blue plaque honour for Charlie Williams

The plaque is expected to be unveiled on the Eldon Street elevation of the hall in a ceremony expected to take place in early July and will include the entertainer’s catchphrase “Hey up me old flower, in’t it a lovely day?” as well as the legend “A footballer, comedian and entertainer who never forgot his Barnsley roots”.

Experience Barnsley, which is behind the town’s forthcoming museum, suggested the idea and the Civic was selected as the most appropriate location because Williams performed there during his career, including a pantomime season which was the most successful in the hall’s history.

The Civic re-opened two years ago after an extensive refurbishment, with a new entrance at the rear of the “old” building, in Hanson Street, but the plaque will go up in Eldon Street because that is where the front entrance which Williams would have recognised remains.

He became one of the best known comics of the early 1970s after taking to the stage following a footballing career spent mainly playing for Doncaster Rovers. Work as a singer gave way to a comic routine.

After working the club circuit he got his big breakthrough by appearing on the popular ITV show The Comedians in the early 1970s and also hosted The Golden Shot.

In more recent years he ran a pub in Hoyland and was awarded the MBE in the late 1990s for his charity work.

Civic chief executive Fergus Justice-Mills said: “It made sense for it to go on the Eldon Street frontage. That is the most historic part of the building, which he would have known, rather than the new entrance on Hanson Street.

“When he was a performer he was in panto at the old Civic Theatre, one of the most successful they ran here. He had a longstanding relationship with the town.”

Williams died in 2006 after suffering from Parkinson’s disease.