The spot has become popular with urban explorers, something which the landowners have condemned, saying they are ‘wrongfully’ breaking into the site. Barnsley has been dubbed the ‘bus scrapping capital’ of the UK following the success of entrepreneur Paul Sykes, 82, who is one of Britain’s richest people, being worth a cool £775m, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.
Aged 19, he started his own business dismantling buses for scrap metal and later evolved into exporting engines and parts, which were fitted in fishing junks in The Far East, Hong Kong, Penang and Singapore. He also exported complete buses to Australia, New Zealand, Africa and other commonwealth countries, which he did profitably for over 20 years.
One of his companies also became the largest distributor of buses in the UK.