Barnsley rebranded UK's first 'tech town' as US giants join AI push

Barnsley has struggled with unemployment and deprivation since the coal pits closed. Barnsley has struggled with unemployment and deprivation since the coal pits closed. Barnsley rebranded UK's first'tech town' as US giants join AI push In 2002 Barnsley toyed with a redesign as a Tuscan hill village as it sought out a brighter post-industrial future. In 2021 it adopted the airily vague slogan "the place of possibilities". Now it is trying a different image: Britain's first "tech town".