Penistone's Old Inns

Watering Holes
The painted advertisement below, for Bentley's Beers, is on the wall of Penistone Balti House next to the Old Crown. You can see Ales/Beers and Rotherham in the sign.

The oldest inn in Penistone is the White Hart (now renamed the White Heart), which dates back to 1377. Complete with a ghost. Its sign being the badge of King Richard II. It had a connection with the grammar school, as a 1604 charity commission enquiry records that the croft of John Leadbeater of the White Hart paid 3d per annum to the schoolmaster.

From early times the English inn has provided refreshment and accommodation for travellers along the tortuous roads of the countryside, especially when journeys were slow and transport was primitive. It could take days to travel what takes an hour now, especially if it was raining or foggy. Inns had a legal duty to provide food, drink and accommodation to weary travellers in those days. When the late Sam Thacker was still running the White Hart, he said that the law was still in operation.

Several local public houses have come and gone over the years. The Penistone Almanack of 1953 says that Horns Inn closed in 1926 (location not known by this writer) and that the White Bear opened in 1861. Its entrance was in the ginnel by the current Clark's chemist. Benjamin White was landlord. It had a fair run until 1925, when it became the Penistone British Legion Club. Then in the 1970s a new building was put up for the British Legion opposite Penistone Lock-up.

The Old Crown, Rose & Crown and Spread Eagle are all listed in the West Riding Directory of 1837. The Rose & Crown used to be a coaching inn, a stopping-off place for the weekly Halifax to London coach. The present Rose & Crown was built in 1869 on a slightly different site to the original one which completely blocked the junction of Market Street and Shrewsbury Road and had a yard with stables. Now in 2011, the Rose & Crown is no more as a public house. It has been consigned to the history books as it has been changed into an office block for local solicitors.

On Sheephouse hill, there was an even older Rose and Crown which serviced the needs of the Penistone to Hope coach (via Hollins Lane). Please see the public houses page in the tour section for some recent views of our current pubs.