Penistone Street Views

A few Views
Penistone's streets were named and houses were numbered in November 1881. The house numbering system was logical, being always odd on one side of the road and even on the other side. The numbers start from the house nearest to the town centre. Some houses will also have names. From the 1970s, a unique postcode was given to each group of about six houses. Those in our area used to begin with 'S30' but this was later changed to 'S36'.

'Neighbourhood Watch' signs might fade but Penistone people will know most of their neighbours and miss nothing of what's happening on their street. This is England's centre of twitching curtains. Cyber-travellers might like to compare their streets with those of my home town. Here are some streets for you to look at:

• Park Ave and High Street
• Sheffield Road, Wentworth Road and Talbot Road
• Ward Street, Green Road and near Spring Vale
• Victoria Street
• Church Street
• Town Centre and Market Street

Penistone houses are made of red brick or Yorkshire stone. None are wooden these days but there are still a few very old shed-like buildings. There are two in Thurlstone on the main road and one of them was the doctor's surgery many years ago.

Most telephone cables and all utilities (water, gas, electricity and sewage) are placed under pavements and roads. There are still a few 'telegraph poles' around with overhead telephone wires. There are no electrical transformers on the houses and no external letter boxes, the only post boxes in the street are bright red pillar boxes or wall-mounted boxes (collection points for Royal Mail). Roads and street lights are council-maintained, although there are still a few 'unadopted roads', such as part of Talbot Road. Some housing is rented social housing but I estimate that most houses are owner-occupied.

I can offer inspiration for new road names based on notable local names, such as: Vicars (Turnbull), Schoolteachers (Andrews, Punt, Simms), Benefactors (Carnegie), Companies (Brown, Durrans, Gittus, Hoyland, Winterbottom), local features; (Arches, Windmills, Iron Bridge, Hartcliff View, Weathervane). Of course, we might now include, er, Penistone websites (Briggs, Gibbins, Hillman, Lavender, Mitchell).