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The Last Journey
Don't be late. But all who reside here are late. It's a surprisingly busy place as it is very close to the Trans-pennine trail and local people often visit it, walk their dogs here or use it as a short cut to Thurlstone Road. Some people call it the dead centre of Penistone (sorry about that one).
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As I took the centre-left picture, I contemplated those with a one-way ticket down this side path, never to return. The sombre thought of a sea of tears. The lane shown to its right is top side of the cemetery wall. With the TP trail on the left, it leads to Stottercliff lane, which emerges on to Thurlstone road, near the bad bend. There is a good collection of family, acquaintances and other familiar names buried here and the cemetery is reasonably well kept by the council, although it is becoming quite full.
The oldest memorial stones are of stone and the newer ones usually of black or white polished granite, often with a feature such as a rose or cross etched in. None of these graves date before 1880 and most have an occupancy of two or even three. Some very old ones have angelic figures or carved ornate crosses.
Consecration of the New Cemetery Extension
This was a special and rather rare ceremony: the official opening and blessing of a new cemetery ground. It took place on the cold but sunny day of Tues 6th March 2007 on a plot of land just above the Stottercliff cemetery It was attended by a gathering of dignitaries and a few of the public. After an opening address by Ken Eastwood, Director of Regulatory Services, Barnsley Mayor Cllr Margaret Morgan cut the tape to open the extension.
The Bishop of Pontefract, Tony Robinson, attended to the consecration in accordance with established procedure. This was officially witnessed by the Registrar and a gathering of Penistone Mayor Cllr Nora Collett, George the local vicar, assorted councillors, Elizabeth Sedgewick the town clerk and a few local people. Local historian Neville Roebuck paid great attention to what was really a historic ceremony. The previous one in our area was around a hundred and thirty years earlier, in Stottercliff cemetery itself.
The Deed of Consecration was read out and the Bishop walked the boundary of the extension while scattering holy water before him. Welcome cups of tea and biscuits were laid on afterwards in the Community Centre.
War Graves
The picture pane below shows the huge difference between how we regard our wartime heroes compared with the Dutch people. Penistone's Stottercliff cemetery has eleven war graves in all; five of which stand alone and others which are in family plots. Over time they were falling into a poor condition with nobody to look after them.
Joe Pinguey raised some local interest in the condition of these war graves and volunteers were able to tidy them up, using building materials which had been very kindly donated by Naylor Myers (see their website article). By September 2010, the graves shown in the top row of this picture were now much tidier, as in the before and after pictures below the pane. The Barnsley Chronicle article below explains it all.
Alec Gillespie and Derek Whitworth are shown below at one of the renovated gravesafter a dedication ceremony there on Armistice Day 2010. My thanks to the Barnsley Chronicle for their kind permission to use scans of their picture and article below. The newspaper scan has fared badly here but the no doubt excellent original picture was taken by Wes Hobson.
CMGC Funding
The Commonwealth Graves Commission looks after war graves in foreign places but can also allocate a small sum towards the upkeep of war graves in this country. In the case of High Hoyland, it is only £7.50 for one grave. A modest sum could be raised from CMGC for the upkeep of these graves if a volunteer group would form a formal association in accordance with CMGC rules.
