Guide Booklet
A well illustrated booklet has been produced which contains a lot of history about local churches of Penistone team ministry. These are: Penistone Parish Church, Thurlstone St Saviour's, Carlecotes St. Anne's, Midhopestones St. James' and Oxspring St. Aidan's.
Local graphics designer Adele Tolladay has worked her usual magic (at 'Gablelake') to make it a pleasant object for the bookshelf and it costs around £3. It can be purchased form Penistone church, which is usually open Saturday mornings and Market Days for tea and biscuits.
The Church
Penistone Church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and has long stood as a worthy landmark above all other features in the town. Along with the viaduct, it is one of our town's key features. Its clock's Westminster chime has a pleasant tone and can be heard in most parts of the town - day or night. The melodic and joyful carillon of eight bells can often be heard during Thursday practice nights and at weddings.
The founder appears to have been Sweyn of Hoylandswaine, who lived in the twelfth century, but there are clues that the site was used by Christians well before then. Priests belonging to a church in Penistone are referred to in documents dating from around 1200. Part of a Saxon cross shaft (shown below) was used in the construction of an internal pillar near the pulpit and the church is built upon foundations of an earlier church from around 900 AD. The masonry was built in a herringbone pattern and, along with other clues, helps to date the oldest parts of the church at around a thousand years old.
Most of the present building was erected in the 1300s and added to over the years, as with most churches in this country. During a period of relative prosperity around 1500, the square Norman tower on the West side was added. It is unusual in having clocks on two sides. The porch was added in the eighteenth century, using old stones from the ruin of a mediaeval chapel in Chapel Lane. Old grave covers from the same place are used as porch seats.
From another book by David Hey: 'Several South Yorkshire churches... (list includes Penistone) ... have nave arcades that date from a transitional period about the year 1200.' - the transition being the Norman style, giving way to early English Gothic. It was extended about two hundred years later and the 80 ft high tower was built around 1500. I heard that before the tower was built, the church had a spire.
The gritstone of the church is likely to have been quarried from Harden Clough near Dunford Bridge, about five miles away. Some of the stained glass is from the seventeenth century. One of these celebrates the marriage of Godfrey Bosville (pronounced 'Boswell') of Gunthwaite and Bridget Hotham, in 1681. The Bosvilles were the most influential family in the Tudor and Stuart period. In recent times the windows have had to be protected by sheets of perspex from the attentions of vacuous youths who have no idea what they are destroying.
An in-depth study of the church features can be found in the booklet and a book by local historian Prof. David Hey. The old picture above shows the church interior before the alteration of the altar choir stalls during the time of Rev. Baxter.
The Clock and Other Details
A clock was installed in the church tower,10th April 1817 for a cost of £87, which would have been a lot of money in those days. The current one was installed in 1924 and its weight had to be wound up to the top about three times a week. The winding mechanism was motorised in the late 2000s to save all this trouble but it wasn't all plain sailing. Various breakdowns stopped the clock in 2010 and 2011.
The carillon originally had only six bells. Until about 1860, these were rung each day to this schedule:
In 1924, the six bells were re-cast into eight and the present clock installed (1923 manufacturing date on its nameplate) at around the same time. The general pitch of the bells must been lower in older times. The total cost in 1924 was £1,217. Have a look at the Church Tour page for more pictures of the bells. In 1930, £1,500 was raised to repair damage done by death-watch beetles and this was completed in 1932. The organ was installed in 1975 as a gift from Salem United Reformed Church of Bradford.
The lychgate was built in 1959 as a memorial to Rev. Canon William Turnbull, who was vicar at the church 1855-1915, and responsible for restorations during the Victorian era. In 1975 a local pensioner made a stainless steel fish weathervane for the tower, the fish being a secret sign of the early Christians and the steel referring to local industry.
2007 Changes
As part of a drive to bring back Penistone church to being more towards the centre of our community, various new facilities were installed. These include toilets with wheelchair access and a kitchen area. The font was moved from the vestibule into the main part of the church and a large block of pews were removed to make a dining area. Chairs can be put in to accommodate large services. Please refer back to the Church Tour page for more information.
Religious Variations in the Area
Quakerism was well established in the area and there continues to be a Quaker Society of Friends meeting house at High Flatts. There is a Quaker section on this website (link below) which takes a look at the Friends' Meeting Place of High Flatts. The small chapel at Bullhouse is one of the very oldest non-comformest chapels in this country (link below). It has a continuous history from 1692 to the present day. For such a small chapel, it is interesting that its congregation in 1715 was 200 people.
With the arrival of Eastern Europeans in recent times, the UK's Roman Catholics now outnumber other religious groups for the first time in centuries. Anglicans are now in second place. St Mary's Roman Catholic church was built in the 1950's on Talbot Road to support Penistone's increasing population. Methodism in all of its variations has also been strong in this area right from its early beginnings, with several chapels in the area. Penistone had the old St Paul's chapel but the building was badly infested with woodworm and had to be demolished. It was re-built on the same site as St Andrew's and its congregation combined with that of Netherfield Congregational Church. In Thurlstone, the Wesleyan chapel and the Primitive Methodists were very strong, although now the latter is the only one which continues. There has not been any significant import of other religions to the area.
See the sections on Quakers and Bullhouse Chapel.
Records
Graveyard records for the Barnsley area, including Penistone, are kept at the Crematorium, Ardsley, Barnsley. Genealogists might consult larger branches of 'The Church of the Latter Day Saints' (Mormons) to study church records. According to 'Diocesi Eboracensi', Penistone church register books start from 1644, with some defective marriage entries for 1750 - 1745 and 1786 - 1812.
