The Official Opening of Penistone Market Place

The Market 'Cruck Barn'
The market place is central to a market town and its community. After the demise of the old livestock market and the arrival of a new food supermarket with its privately owned car park, Penistone's new market place has completed the re-development of Penistone Town Centre. The civic occasion of its official opening marked a historical point on Penistone's timeline.

Now Penistone can hold its markets and other community events in a large oaken barn structure. The 'Cruck Barn' had been a long time in gestation and was built in the poor weather conditions of a bad winter. It cost a huge amount of money but this fine structure is now fully established in its central location and is now in regular use for markets and public events. It has already been used for an open-air Easter service and a very successful Folk Festival which is likely to become an annual event. See the Market Area page for more about it and some pictures during construction. Also visit the Carpenter Oak website and especially their Penistone page.

It is a magnificent feat of construction but there have been problems in its use. The prevailing wind from Tesco car park and generally weak lighting have troubled the market traders and shoppers alike. Any Penistonian would know about our legendary climate, it's the comers-in who wouldn't have a clue. When it was a major railway junction, Penistone Station was long thought of as the bleakest in the country.

There have been continuing reports in newspapers. 'Look Local' is a freebie newspaper based on Stocksbridge and Deepcar. Its 4th August 2011 edition had the headline: Penistone Market 'too windy' and explained that traders had complained to the BBC about the wind problem. They appear to have purloined the article from the BBC page of 29th July 2011. It reported that Dr Anne Gosse of Barnsley Council said that they were looking for ways to 'rectify the problem' and that remedial work might be completed in October or November of 2011.

In fairness to the council, they wanted something big and impressive that would make Penistone people proud. The idea was astonishing and we should not condemn our council for their good intentions. But, as they say, the devil was in the detail. That is where the people in distant back offices or the accountants or the planners came along with their trusty quills to modify and dilute the scheme.

Carpenter Oak
This impressive and award-winning building was designed and built by Carpenter Oak of Devon. They were asked to build it a certain way and delivered what they had been asked for. Before the market barn idea had been thought of, the original plans showed the market place as an open area constrained by walls. The market barn plans had hedges and trees and these might have provided some protection from the wind but were later deleted. As regards the lighting problems, Carpenter Oak suggested the best way to illuminate the building based on their long experience but their advice was not used.

Official Opening
This was the launch of the new-look Penistone market place, at 1pm on Thursday 21st July 2011, originally set for October 2010. The atmosphere was easy-going and pleasant but the event did not amount to a big occasion. It was, in effect, the final act in the completion of Penistone Town Centre's redevelopment. It consisted of short yet worthy speeches from the mayors of Penistone and Barnsley and them jointly cutting a red ribbon. It was watched and applauded by a collection of councillors, two carpenters and a few others but traders and the public were not really involved in it.

The pictures below were entirely opportunistic. The first one shows Barnsley mayor Cllr Karen Dyson with a pleasant smile, standing proudly in her chains of office next to Cllr Ann Rusby (famous for her constant supply of Werther's Originals) and someone whose name does not come to mind. The second picture shows Penistone's current mayor Cllr Steve Webber also proudly wearing his chains of office with his wife Lynette smiling radiantly beside him in a nice shade of blue. The other lady making a point is not known.

Watching the occasion were people wearing Tesco badges, former mayor Carol Bradbury and Barnsley Chronicle reporter Katia Harston with a photographer. Katia is the Penistone reporter (see 'Penistone in Particular') in the third picture here wearing glasses. In the fourth picture, the red ribbon is being jointly cut by the two mayors flanked by their spouses. Lynette is almost off the picture (apologies for that) and the smart fellow on the right is Cllr Karen's husband Daniel Dyson.

On the second row of pictures, we see the eminent figures of Cllr Paul Hand-Davis, Cllr John Wilson and other members of the establishment. Cllr Andrew Millner adds to the line-up of the last picture. Also watching on were local councillors and former mayors Brenda and Roger Hinchliffe. Not shown here were two representatives of Carpenter Oak, Lead Carpenter Mick Danbridge and Adam Milton.

After the ceremony, councillors, dignitaries and a few others discreetly retired to a small tent away from the stallholders, for refreshments and to 'chew the rag'. In fact they seemed rather shy of traders and public.