The Stories from the Stones 14 - By Steve Lavender

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'Stories from the Stones'
Please visit the Contents Page for this section, where you will find other 'Stories from the Stones.'

These same stories are also published on Penistone Archive Group's Facebook page, their Journal and in 'The Bridge' magazine issued by St John's church, Penistone. Many thanks to their tireless author, Mr Steve Lavender, for his worthy contributions to local history and this website. - JB.

Story 14 - The Gravestone With No Inscription
Stone with no inscriptionFrom St John’s Church Burial Ground Project.

An investigation and a Discovery
When we were compiling the original Burial Ground mapping, one gravestone stood out which we knew we would want to investigate in the future. In the east of the graveyard is a distinctive gravestone with all traces of its inscription erased by weather and time. All that is apart from the symbol which is nowadays recognised as the inverted triangles of the Star of David.

Whilst we may have assumed that this grave might be linked to a Jewish family, we have discovered that it was only relatively recently that the Star of David was officially associated with the Jewish faith. The hexagram is a generic shape which is a common symbol and has many associations including the two triangles being a link between God and Man. What we wondered was whether we could use existing information to discover who was buried here.

Thanks to research by John Beardwood, we discovered two signs which led us to the names which would have been on the gravestone in its original condition. In my earlier activities of formulating the Burial Ground Project we mentioned that we were using a list compiled by Mr Arnold Dransfield of West Cliffe Penistone (son of John Ness Dransfield). However, it now seems that Arnold was in fact taking credit for the work of John Ness Dransfield’s junior clerk, one J W Penistone, as we have located an item which states that clerk Penistone ‘on leaving the Grammar School in 1904 …. made a complete record of the gravestones in Penistone Churchyard.’

So now we have put the record straight regarding who compiled this important register, we can look at how we might use it to identify our family. An interesting fact in the register is that the grave entries follow a general pattern moving from west to east and north to south across the graveyard. By locating the graves nearby and then positively identifying them, John was able to find the missing item. So we now present the missing detail from the grave with no inscription:

Here lies the body of Elizabeth Booth. Relict of John Booth of Thurlstone,
Who died October 8th 1858 aged 75 years.
Also of James Durrans, son-in-law of the above,
Who died December 21st 1867, aged 40 years.
Also, Mary Milnes, widow of the above James Durrans,
Born July 22nd 1821 Died August 5th 1892

Now we have this information we are taken to another story, which was unexpected. This James Durrans is the founder of the Thurlstone company which bears his name in 1863. He died in 1867 and was eventually succeeded in the business by his son, also James, in 1890. His wife Mary had been previously married to John Dickenson in 1842 at St John’s Church.

John died in 1850 aged 46. Mary married James in 1851 and then married Frederick Booth in 1871 following James death in 1867. Although being married three times, Mary chose to be buried here with James. We could indeed follow this story in many ways but maybe that will provide for another story in the future. The families Durrans, Booth and Dickenson have long and interesting histories associated with Penistone, Thurlstone, High Flatts and surrounding towns and villages and we will remember them.

I am as ever grateful to John Beardwood; Richard Galliford; Jack Briggs and Penistone Archive Group for their help with this story.
Steve Lavender Chair Friends St John’s Church Penistone
December 2021 - Photo by Richard Galliford.


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