Penistone Livestock Market - 2003 Article
What is it About
The normal purpose of this web site is to give the cyber-traveller or ex-pat a personal view of my home town. I don't care much for politics or politicians but as a native Penistonian I feel anger like the next man when we are trampled on. Every Thursday, Penistone had a retail and a livestock market, side-by-side. The historical livestock market has now been shut down although small livestock is still being auctioned. Meanwhile, the retail market of food, household goods and clothing, etc. continues to thrive.
For something like six centuries there has been some sort of livestock market in Penistone. It became an official 'market town' when a Royal Charter was granted in 1699 (see the history page). Because of complaints about the competition with Barnsley (who always had more power) in the old days, the market changed from Tuesday to Thursday and it is still the market day now.
Now Barnsley Council has closed down the livestock market to make way for a 'food' superstore. After they refused the funding needed to retain the livestock market, so-called 'Heritage' money was found for an expensive skateboard park on the edge of the Showground. (I think it was about £120,000). Although the skateboard park was welcomed by Penistone's youth, what does it mean when a skate park is more 'heritage' than our historic market.
What the Papers Said
Barnsley Chronicle and the Yorkshire Post both reported that Barnsley Council decided, in secret, - to force the market's closure to make room for a supermarket on the site, as it claimed the market was too expensive to run. They also said that the council had reneged on an agreement to keep it open for up to six months longer - which might have given the auctioneers enough time for relocation. All this at a time when the farming world was just starting to recover from the two major setbacks, of BSE and Foot & Mouth disease.
A figure of about £50,000 would have been enough to help sort out the problem but then the newspapers discovered that the council had decided to donate £3,000,000 from public funds to a football team. This figure did not appear anywhere in the annual accounts leaflet sent out with local tax demands. So much for 'open government'!
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
"A Sad Day as Market Shuts - Council Slammed for Lack of Help". The article has been reproduced here by kind permission of Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Saturday 20th Sept. 03). This Huddersfield paper has a readership in Penistone and the market shutdown featured strongly in readers' letters. Click on the scan for a full view of the article. Here's an extract:
"An auctioneer today says that a livestock market's closure was one of the saddest days of his life. Mr Dixon, of Holmfirth auctioneers William Sykes & Son, said that the last day had been an emotional one. He accused Barnsley council of letting everybody down - "I asked them for help - but there was not a chance of it. The market is now dead in the water. What they have done is criminal. They've poured so much money into Barnsley football club that they're skint."
TV Coverage
'Look North' and 'Calendar' (local tv programmes) also sent their reporters to cover this topic and made the same comparison of public funds saved versus public funds donated. Passers-by who were interviewed in the street unanimously showed their disgust and not even one person said that the demise of our market was a price worth paying. The general consensus was that Barnsley council were not 'playing the game' and nobody on the council could be found to put their side of the argument for TV news.
Fuming Anger
Everywhere in the Penistone area, Barnsley's dirty deed was the seething hot topic. In a Penistone pub, there was even talk of not paying council tax. Another strong view was that by destroying a key feature of the town and replacing it with a chain supermarket in 'a plastic building' (as one local called it), our identity as a town was being eroded. We were to become another of those clone towns beloved of the developers.
The normal purpose of this web site is to give the cyber-traveller or ex-pat a personal view of my home town. I don't care much for politics or politicians but as a native Penistonian I feel anger like the next man when we are trampled on. Every Thursday, Penistone had a retail and a livestock market, side-by-side. The historical livestock market has now been shut down although small livestock is still being auctioned. Meanwhile, the retail market of food, household goods and clothing, etc. continues to thrive. 
