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PENISTONE
Introduction to Penistone in the 1914 Penistone Almanack, repeated in other almanacks:
'Penistone 'or 'Peniston', the town on the Pen or hill - an etymology fully justified by its situation. In the Doomsday Survey, commenced in 1080 and completed in 1086, Penistone is referred to three times, being spelt Pangeston, Pengestone, and Pengeston.
'It can certainly lay claim to antiquity. It was occupied by Britons, Romans, and Saxons in turn, and, in 1066, was owned by Ailric. In 1069 it was devastated by the Conqueror, and was lying waste in 1086. It was given to Lacey, who had it divided into two manors, both of which were sub-infended soon afterwards to Swein, who, in turn, left them to his son. The family of de-Peniston held one of the manors, from which it descended in turn to the Clarels - one of whom was the founder of the Grammar School in 1392 - Fitzwilliams and Foljambes. The Wordsworths of Water Hall, who lived here in the reign of Edward III, were ancestors of the poet of that name.
'The market was granted in 1699. The descendents of Ailric built a church at Penistone soon after the Conquest. Formerly it had two Vicars, who each had equal rights to the church. Geoffrey de Loudham, vicar in 1229, afterwards became Archbishop of York. The present building appears to date from the 15th century, and is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The living is the gift of the Macdonald (Bosville) family.'
Shown here is the Penistone/Clarel coat-of-arms, used by this website and: Penistone Archives, local clubs, societies, Penistone Chusrch FC (modified form), Penistone Agricultural Society (in older document) and Penistone Town Council. In heraldry, the six birds are called martlets, which are footless swift-like birds with tufts of feathers in place of their feet. Swifts were thought to never land, with no need of feet. The Clarel line is no more but the coat-of-arms lives on, as Penistone's own.
History Section Links
The 'History Timeline' was a later addition to this website, collecting historic snippets from a wide range of sources. Each timeline concentrates on local, rather than national, happenings, although there are inevitably some of the more important ones included. As with all pages on this website, you can return to the next level above by clicking the 'Back' icon on each page bottom. Out of interest, take a look at Google Maps Streetview for 2009 and notice all of the changes.
Sources
Many thanks to Graham Saunders for the 'Spooky Stories' and to Steve Lavender for 'Stories from the Stones' and, of course, to all other contributors. These history sections contain snippets of information from many sources and some old photographs have been 'donated' (scanned and returned) through the goodwill of local people. For non-commercial purposes, if you use material from this website, please be kind enough to attribute the source. Archive groups can apply for funding to Townsweb Archiving to digitise their own collections.
The author of this website is not too precious about people making use of Penistone Pictorial-sourced photographs on such as Facebook but it is good manners to let people know about the source so that they might discover similar material. People copying pictures from this website ought not to imply or claim ownership of them.
The 1900 Map
Penistone Town Centre around 1900. The town centre buildings would easily be recognised, even today. Some features on the map had yet to arrive, such as the Carnegie Free Library (1913) and Penistone Town Hall (Paramount) with its council offices (1914). Public performances took place in the 'Assembly Rooms' which had been a gas showroom off St Mary's Street. The church had only one clock face until 1924 and the War Memorial was built the same year.
The Park Avenue estate did not start until 1936, partly on the site of 'Bailey's Park' (Mr Bailey's farm) which was used for football matches before PCFC had their own ground. The Thursday livestock market took place in Market Street and Market Place (outside the church) before the purpose-built market was built in 1910. Livestock and horses in the street left a lot of dirt and everyone wore boots.
One difference we would notice straightaway in the modern age is the colour of the stone-built houses, which they all were at the time. Every house and factory burned coal and, unlike now, every stone building in Penistone would have been black with soot and pollution, including the church.
The Name of Penistone
The usual explanation of the name is from the location being on a hill ('Pen' in Celtic) but another possibly might connected with a personal name similar to Penning. Most sources take the first explanation as the most likely. However, no stone remains unturned on this website so here is the alternative from 'Place-names of south-west Yorkshire' (p.227) by Armitage Goodall, published in 1914 and downloadable from Archive.org. It does not give a definitive description but is food for thought.
'PENISTONE, on the western border, may be compared with Penisale, an obsolete name connected with the adjacent township of Langsett. Early records of Penistone include:
DB 1086, Pengestone, Pengeston, Pangeston, and YR 1228 Penegelston, Penegeston. These forms are not in agreement with the following later forms, side by side with which those of Penisale are recorded.'
YI 1227 Penigheston - CR 1290 Peningeshale
YR 1232 Peningeston - CR 1307 Peningesale
YI 1258 Peningstone - CR 1308 Penyngesale
WCR 1284 Penyngston - CH 1358 Penesale
'The closeness of the names for Penistone and Penisale is obvious and we are fully warranted in explaining Penistone as being 'Pening's farm'; compare CR 1252 Peningeshalge, Lincolnshire, and the Frisian patronymic Penninga (Brons). It is not easy to account for the earliest of the forms of Penistone. Possibly Pengestone stands for Penige-stone, where Penig is an alternative to Pening; but, on the other hand, Penegelston finds no support and must be rejected.'
The Abbreviations (p.45) refer to these sources:
So now you know. There are still some Pennings left in Penistone, which makes one wonder if they might have a remote connection to the early settlers.
Penistone - The Cradle of Association Football
Penistone has a claim to fame as the 'Cradle of Association Football.' The authors of a book on the history of Penistone Church Football Club, Steve Lavender, Kevin Neill and Richard Galliford have built a compelling case that Penistone characters were at the forefront of the development of the national game of football. The development of Sheffield Football Club and Hallam Football Club was connected with Penistone, Thurlstone and surrounding area. Of particular note were Rev Samuel Sunderland, headmaster of Penistone Grammar School in 1836 and vicar of Penistone, and his pupils John Charles Shaw (became first Captain of Sheffield FC) and John Marsh (first secretary of the Wednesday team).
Further reading:
See Mr Lavender's Story from the Stones 18 - 'Penistone Church Football Club 1906' and the PCFC History.
In Context
For centuries, the nearby village of Thurlstone had been more populous and important than Penistone before the gradual decline of its textile cottage industry and the greater employment opportunities which Penistone attracted with the arrival of the railway and steelworks with other industries. Thurlstone had several important mills on the river Don in the old days, for textile, vegetable oil and grain processing.
The Subsidy Rolls (Poll Tax) of 1379 recorded 33 people in Thurlstone but only 12 in Penistone at that time. Denby ('Upper Denby') had 25 people in the Subsidy Rolls. The Hearth Tax returns of 1672 listed only 28 householders for Penistone compared with 65 for Thurlstone and 23 for Oxspring, although it would have under-reported the dwellings of the poor. The West Riding Directory of 1837 was published before the railway came to Penistone:
Penistone '... consists of one wide street, in which are a few neat houses; but it is now a place of no trade, though the linen and woollen manufactures extend into some of the out-townships of its extensive parish.... The market, held every Thursday, is of small importance.. The township of Penistone contains only 703 inhabitants ..' ... and so on.
But Penistone does have some historical value and has grown steadily over the years to eclipse Thurlstone in importance. There is also a hint of ancient history in the area, with fragments of an ancient Saxon cross in Penistone Church. On the moors a few miles away can be found earthworks from the time of Stonehenge and part of a Roman road. Penistone goes back to before the Magna Carta ("Did she die in vain?") and both Penistone and Thurlstone were in the Domesday Book.
Some houses and farms in our area are several centuries old. Our fine medieval church had used building materials from an earlier time. Part of an old Saxon cross can be found embedded side-ways on in one of the stone pillars near the pulpit. Possibly for several centuries, it is likely that the early Christian worshippers from a scattered community had gathered together as a focal point worship around this cross on top of the hill, where the church would be built in the 13th century. The church tower dates back to the 1500s, at about the same time as the similar tower of Silkstone church was also built. Penistone Grammar School can trace its roots back to 1392, although, according to old sources, the paperwork was lost to prove the point. It started in the church then continued in a building on Kirk Flatts (somewhere near JT Smith had a furniture shop) which was rebuilt at least once before the school moved to Weirfield, near the Netherfield chapel. Its current location is now on the site of the former Workhouse, lower down the hill than the old Weirfield site.
Local Industry in Brief
The Wrong Emphasis - Given Barnsley Council's remoteness from Penistone in distance and culture, they represent Penistone to the world with the image of the Woodland white-faced breed of sheep which is native to this area. However, Penistone's main industry for many years had been Iron and Steel and employed hundreds of people, with our neighbouring village of Thurlstone being the main textiles-producing area.
The Penistone name stone at Viewlands, Barnsley Road (shown here) is on one of the main entry points to our town and commemorates the local steel industry. It is likely to be replaced by Barnsley Council with a four-metre high tower with a sheep or shepherd on top, known as the 'Sheep on a stick.' (BMBC Planning Application 2023/0603).
Farming - Always a rural area, our locality continues farming with cows, sheep and hens, for milk, meat and wool. Stuart's, Siddon's and Rusby's farms have been milk producers for centuries and continue as dairies to this day, often working in arduous conditions and at all hours on our often bleak hillsides.
Textiles - As a traditional farming area in the old days with plenty of wool available, one of this area's main cottage industries was specialist textile-making and particularly in Thurlstone. This occupation is very evident in early censuses. There are still houses dotted around Thurlstone constructed with textiles in mind. Penistone had its own Cloth Hall built opposite Penistone Church but it failed as a commercial enterprise and would later become Clark's Chemist among other uses.
Penistone Iron and Steelworks - Iron and steel-making had been an important industry in our district since the mid-nineteenth century but has declined gradually over the decades. The name stone shown here was actually the foundation stone from Cammel Laird's (later David Brown's) steelworks and was on the location of the Bessemer Converter. The stone commemorates Penistone's largest employer and its plaque reads: 'This Cammel Laird Foundation Stone was Presented to Penistone by Yorkshire Land Ltd.'
The old Cammel Laird works had a good innings but came to a stop in the 1930s Great Depression, to be resurrected as David Brown's foundries after a five-year gap. It was an important local employer for hundreds of people. As Cammel-Laird, the company had great plans for Penistone. Take a look at the Cubley link to learn about a proposed 'Model Village' for steel-workers which was intended to be a model for the nation to copy. It never reached fruition because of the Depression.
As David Brown's foundries, it made heavy parts for wartime tanks and a tank loading bay for the railways can still be found near the Green Road bridge. DB's lasted many years and its long, red-brick wall along Green Road would have been a familiar sight to decades of pupils walking to Spring Vale school. The wall was demolished in stages from late 2007 to make way for new houses on part of the 'Hitec' site. Much of the former steelworks land was taken over by houses and the DB site became Fairfield's industrial centre.
Fox's Steelworks - Another major steelworks in the area was Samuel Fox's, a few miles away in the badlands of Stocksbridge. Anyone living in the Penistone area a few decades ago would remember the sky going red over Stocksbridge as the Bessemer Converter disgorged its contents. The electric current flowing through the massive cables to its electrodes would cause them to writhe like elephants' trunks as the current was switched on. The CEGB HQ near Leeds (electricity supply) had a metered branch for the company alone, labelled in MegaWatts. This company later became British Steel Company, BSC (aka 'Billy Smart's Circus').
Then British Steel merged with Hoogovens and created the Anglo-Dutch company CORUS, registered in the UK and run by British people (it was a takeover by any other name). Later, the Indian manufacturing company Tata took an interest. The rest of its timeline is lost to history, although there is still some steel activity in Stocksbridge. In its heyday, it was said that Fox's site stretched for seven miles down the valley. Much of the site is now the Fox Valley shopping area but there might be another ray of light for their district if they can get a railway line reinstated from the Porter Valley into Sheffield. At this time, I don't have pictures to illustrate the local steel industry.
Oxspring Wire Mill - This important steel product was essential to the nail-making industry. There were several small nail-makers around the Penistone area and one has been preserved at Hoylandswaine as a tiny museum. Winterbottom's produced specialist wires in their wire mill works close to the eponymous spring of Oxspring. It was said that they produced a special kind of wire for NASA's space shuttles. The company became known as Wintwire following a management buy-out. Now the site also hosts other companies such as John Donnachie's building company and smaller industrial units.
Cubley Brook Brewery - The Cubley Brook brewery at 'Vinegar Bottom' on Mortimer Road is fondly remembered in the area. It had started out as a beer brewery and maltings and it provided beer to local public houses. It was not the sole brewery in the district as there was a small one in Millhouse Green. Over time, the brewery became 'Penistone Pure Malt Vinegar Company' and provided vinegar for many well-known brands including Sarsons and Heinz. Now there is no trace of a brewery. The final indignity was for its horse-trough to be obliterated by builders in 2006-7 (follow the link above).
Gittus Coachworks - Gittus railway wagons manufactory was an important company near the railway sidings off the road from Spring Vale to Oxspring, now an industrial and housing area. It had started as builders of horse-drawn wagons in the old days but was sharp enough to move into railway wagons at a time they were in demand.
Hepworth Clay Products - A good many people worked for 'Hepworth Iron Works' near Crow Edge, a company which made clay pipes in spite of its name. It was no place for the lazy and they would not last long. There was a common saying that "t' Company made pipes and old men" - through hard work. They said that anyone who did not have a good breakfast to start the day would find their legs giving way. Also, when redundancies came around, they gave no prizes for loyalty. It was simply called "t' Company" in the local area.
The company was later renamed 'Hepworth Building Products' and expanded into a range of other products by take-over. It became part of a worldwide company of many parts, which even included a domestic boiler manufactory. The Hepworth company continues to make clay products in its kilns but also supplies specialist plastic pipes.
Of course there were many other notable local industries, such as flour mills, a boxworks, coffin-makers and Hawley's sawmill but the above are what come most easily to mind.
Penistone Historic Archive
The main local history resource for our district is the Penistone and District Community Archive, based on the great work of the late Neville Roebuck who had amassed a huge amount of material. The Neville Roebuck Room, Lower Hall in the Community Centre, Church Street, Penistone, S36 6AR, is
always our first port-of-call for anything about local history and the volunteers are very knowledgeable. In normal times the archive room is open from 10am to 1pm on Market Days (Thurs).
The group also holds bi-monthly history talks for members and public to enjoy, 1.45pm on the first and third Wednesday every month (except August) at the Community Centre, for a small fee, with a brew and a biscuit. If you have some historic local knowledge to share, guest speakers are always welcome and suitable contributors can be fitted in their busy schedule of speakers. The talks might be particularly suitable for older people who are in danger of social isolation, to enable them get out more, make friends and discover (or add to) local knowledge.
Thurgoland historian Neville Roebuck, had accumulated a large collection of material and wanted to preserve it for the local community. Much of it was photographs and newspaper cuttings but other material was on computer and DVDs. Neville tried for many years to pass on his work to the local council but his messages did not always reach the right people and there was a problem finding anywhere to put it all.
After he passed on, the collection was moved into a Town Hall storeroom (left side of the stage) and opened up to the public on Market Days, manned by volunteers. It was all in cardboard boxes, each labelled with their contents. The whole caboodle is now looked after and indexed by the Penistone History and Archive Group in a specially-allocated room in the Community centre, named the Nevile Roebuck Room.
The group is always looking for old documents, Penistone Almanacks, family histories, maps, memorabilia, photographs, slides, negatives, cine/video of local events and any history relevant to the Penistone district. These things are precious to us and must not fall into Barnsley's hands or otherwise leave our area. The group is entirely independent and, in spite of rumours to the contrary, will never send our history to Barnsley. All donations are welcome. Plans are now in operation to extend the Neville Roebuck room to enable much more capacity. There is also the possibility that Penistone might have a museum at some point, although that would need to be in another building, possibly in rooms next to Penistone Town Hall.
Brian Parkhurst
One of the group's most prolific supporters had been camera enthusiast Brian Parkhurst who scanned and photographed many of the documents to a very high professional standard for the archive. He collected all kinds of photographic memorabilia, such as old photographs, lantern slides from the 19th century, old film cameras and lenses.
Brian was a keen photographer and a member of Penistone Photographic Society but his combination of being a workaholic for his many interests and having a weak heart would catch up with him in the end. He died a month or two after his wife Liz passed away in 2019. They were both popular people in Penistone, with a lifestyle in harmony with the natural world. It is particularly sad that they passed away before properly enjoying the benefits of the new house which was being built. Interestingly, a touching tribute appeared to Brian in the Practical Photography magazine.
A Museum for Penistone?
A new 'Penistone Heritage Group' started in 2023 to look into the possibility of setting up a museum for Penistone and district. The group includes local councillors, amateur historians and others who support the idea of a museum for Penistone. Whilst the above-mentioned Archive Group has a wealth of document and photographic material, a museum could have hardware reflecting local history on display. This might reflect upon Penistone's industrial, leisure and agricultural history and its wartime efforts.
Undaunted by the obvious fact that the group does not actually have a building for a museum, the group has met several times to see what might be involved in the process, particularly the management required to run such an undertaking. If a suitable building could be found, the group would become a properly-constituted charity and legal entity with its own independent assets, management and trustees. Advice and support so far has been forthcoming from such as Barnsley MBC and Yorkshire Museums.
'Keep it in Penistone'
Some of Penistone's historic resources has migrated (and not via local groups) into the Barnsley museum. However, given that BMBC has amassed a huge amount of material and old records from the Borough, it has only a limited space to exhibit them ('The Barnsley Experience), which means that much of the Penistone collection will not see the light od day. Also, the people of Penistone have a sense of identity and community which goes beyond being 'part of Barnsley' or, worse still, 'in Barnsley.' We want to establish our own history as a permanent record of our past, not some ad-hoc exhibition on random occasions. Not only that but, with our own museum, we would like the materials to be returned home to our district.
If our local history goes to distant Barnsley rather than kept local, it might only be displayed in rotation, if at all, and become effectively lost, disregarded or forgotten from our point of view. Not everything can be displayed and the public cannot ask to see what they don't know about. Penistone aspires to having its own museum but there is the worry that our history which already gone to Barnsley might never be returned to Penistone.
Another matter is that we know that Barnsley's archive indexing system can be flaky. As one example, we know that the deeds to Penistone Town Hall went to Barnsley archives around 1974 during the Local Government Re-organisation changes but, after extensive searches by such as the late Cllr George Punt and others, the deeds have disappeared. This is important as it defines ownership of a building which had been financed from public subscription and (the old library) partly by help from Andrew Carnegie. Local history should be kept in local hands. 'Better kept in Penistone than lost in Barnsley.'
Burial Records
According to 'Diocesi Eboracensi', Penistone church registers start from 1644, with some defective marriage entries for 1750 - 1745 and 1786 - 1812. These old records can be found at the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield and their coverage is: Baptisms: 1644 - 1944, Marriages: 1644 - 1974 and Burials: 1644 - 1977. Transcripts of various Penistone Church marriage registers can be purchased from Barnsley Family History Society.
The Burial Board of the Ecclesiastic Parish of Penistone was formed in February 1870. After Stottercliff Cemetery was opened in 1880, all further burials in the Penistone area took place there and no further burials were permitted in the churchyard. Burial records for Stottercliff Cemetery can be found at Ardsley Crematorium, Barnsley, which covers the whole borough.
Genealogists can consult the larger branches of 'The Church of the Latter Day Saints' (Mormons) such as in Huddersfield, to study their church records on microfiche. The peculiar advantage of the Mormons is that they claim to be able to convert ancestors retrospectively and this has led them to collect vast repositories of church records from all over the world. Genealogy researchers might also like to visit Free Genealogy UK (including the FreeBMD project), which aims to put records of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the public domain, free of charge.
For War Memorials, Barnsley and District War Memorials has some interesting information. A 'Blogspot' from the same people has references to individual graves, such as that for Albert Webster in 2015, although it is not clear how to search it.
Please also see 'Stories from the Stones' - Gravestone inspirations by Steve Lavender (on this website) from Penistone churchyard and Stottercliffe cemetery.
Miscellany
Bits of local historic note.
The Penistone/Clarel Coat of Arms
This belonged to Penistone's absentee landlord, Thomas Clarel. It consists of Six footless, swift-like birds on a red background, as shown above. It was thought that swifts never landed and did not need feet, only
tufts of feathers. The Clarel line died out long ago but the town of Penistone uses the coat of arms as its own.
The Yorkshireman's Coit o' Arms
This consists of: A fly, a flea, a magpie and a flitch of bacon.
From JN Dransfield's 'History of the Parish of Penistone' as was explained by Mr AW Pope in The Spectator:
A Flea, a Fly, a Magpie, an' a Bacon Flitch,
Is t' Yorkshireman's Coit o' Arms:
An' t' reason they've choszn these things so rich,
Is becoss the've all speshal charms,
A flea will bite whoivver it can,
An' sooa, my lads, will a Yorkshireman.
A magpie can talk for a terrible span,
An' sooa an' all, can a Yorkshireman.
A flitch is no gooid whol it's hung, tha'll agree,
No more is a Yorkshireman, dun't tha see?
Buildings and Industry
The excellent PGS Archive site has 360° views of old PGS buildings, including Fulford Building and Netherfield. It also has a range of photographs and documents and a section on the PGS Time Capsule (which is now kept in the church). Also, see the Listed Buildings, bridges, etc., in our area. You can find local industries in Grace's Guide and a potted history of Britain and Penistone on Mr Wainwright's website.
Boundary Markers
This is a subject in its own right. Largely forgotten these days of better mapping and well-defined boundaries but in the old days the boundary stones were very important. Even in more recent times, they have led to disputes. Not so much about which side of a boundary someone's property and stock may lie upon, more to do with the boundary stones themselves. An interesting local example is the Maythorne Cross, which was claimed both by New Mill and Dunford parishes but which had spent a long time at Victoria. On at least one occasion, it was spirited away on the back of a lorry, see The Independent, 27th March 2004.
The above item came to light on Facebook following a photograph posted of the cross: 'Its one of the boundary crosses, erected around the area. There is one in Penistone church yard, a broken one in a field approaching Hartcliffe, from Penistone. One at the top of Bord Hill, approaching Woodhead and there used to be one at Fulshaw Cross, hence the name.'
Penistone churchyard has two cross bases (stumps actually), a market cross and another cross. Another marker that we all know is the Greyhound Stone in the wall at the entrance to Bella Vista farm, Hartcliff. This subject needs more attention.
History Links and Further Reading
A roundup of useful history links for further reading and research. Abbreviation, DDSP = Dumbed Down for Smartphone.
Search terms: 'Peniston' for Penistone and 'Thurlston' or sometimes 'Thurleston' for Thurlstone.
Penistone History
Penistone Church Football Club History
Surrounding Places
More General
Old Maps
The David Rumsey Map Collection - Hours of interest here. Yorkshire Archaeological Historical Society
Local History Books
These are of particular local interest but some will be out of print. Try Penistone Library, Penistone Church and local garden centres. A Yorkshire shop in Denby Dale has a good collection of Chris Heath's books, which mostly focus on Upper Denby and Denby Dale but give a rich insight into local life from Anglo-Saxon times, right up to the Industrial Revolution and beyond.
The Great War
Stories of the local fallen of the Great War (see also CWGC). Published in the centenary year, 2014. Available in local shops or via Janet Dyson, Tel. 01226 765093. See also Pen Memorials.
Winston Churchill: 'It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.'
