Penistone in Pictures

Our Town
Penistone a small place with a market place and a large recreational patch of grass off one side of the main shopping street, a parish church on the other side, a town hall/cinema/theatre and a great big swathe of houses surrounding most of the town. Penistone Grammar School is on the outskirts and has a very long history traceable to 1392. Major landmarks are Penistone Church, the railway viaduct and Hartcliff tower folly, with thirteen bright wind turbines not far away. We have a town of distinctive character which is an oasis of civilisation in an otherwise rural area. Our main street has shops, pubs and food take-aways. Penistone also has a railway station, police station, fire station and a post office. (Also see Penistone in Wikipedia).

The Tour
Welcome to the main part of this pictorial website. This is just a collection of pictures but the difficult part is to give an impression of the personality of our Yorkshire market town. Each section has thumbnail pictures which mostly link to larger pictures. Please note that due to space limitations on the old server and previous eyesight problems, some pictures are poorer than is desirable. My apologies for that.

I hope that you will find something of interest here. The aerial views give an impression of the size and setting of Penistone then there are some privileged views from the church tower and behind the scenes in the Town Hall. My thanks to Penistone people, who have always been helpful and supportive of this project.

A Vibrant Community
Penistone people are quirky and good-natured and a bit reserved until they get to know you. We have many comers-in from other parts of the UK, from the explosion in house-building in the last decade or so but the sense of community is strong. Various protests in recent years have made the point, almost by accident, that there is a good community spirit to be found in Penistone. If further evidence was necessary, I could assert that a good many people who I grew up with in Penistone are still here.

Where have you heard of Penistone? Was it our legendary ice-cold railway station or Sheffield Wednesday's football ground - on Penistone Road. Farmers know of the Penistone breed of Sheep. Or, perhaps it was Penistone Moors and Penistone Hill in the village of Howarth where the Bronte sisters lived (different etymology). In the old days, people wore 'penistones'. These were cheap but very warm jackets. Anyway, here is my humble effort to put us on the map. Read on:

	1	Aerial Penistone and in 1993
	2	The Church
	3	Views - from the top
	4	Pubs in Penistone
	5	Town Hall and Cinema Organ
	6	Market Street
	7	Houses & Streets
	8	Trans-Pennine Trail
	9	Fire Drill
	10	Milking time
	11	Library
	12	Viaduct
	13	Winter Views
	14	Penistone at Play
	15	Penistone FM
	16	Surrounding Area
	17	Miscellaneous

The red post box is one of the oldest in the area, 'VR' - Victoria Reign, and can be found in the wall of 'Waddies' shop on Green Road.

Branding
Barnsley council now brand new street signs with their coat of arms, right up to Falledge Lane in Ingbirchworth on the boundary with West Yorkshire (Kirklees). A camp and blousey glass-blower in flared trousers stands opposite a more serious-looking miner, to commemorate Barnsley's old industries. The griffon appears to have taken a particular dislike to the camp glass-blower by sticking its tongue out. Unless it's a come-on. The Latin motto 'Spectemur Agendo' means 'Judge Us by Our Actions'.

The Barnsley coat of arms has crossed pick-axes like the old USSR hammer and sickle. I don't know what the doorknobs or roulette wheel are all about but I can understand the piece of old rope that the griffon stands on. The cigar tubes are symbolic of a luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by well-paid council bosses. The roulette wheel did not appear in the pre-1974 version before local government re-organisation. I'm not sure about the 90 degree set-square.

OK. so I'm poking fun as usual. Read the official Barnsley coat of arms story. The roulette wheel is properly called an 'escarbuncle', of the same word root as 'carbuncle'. People say that a Clarel coat of arms would be better for local street signs, as it more or less Penistone's coat of arms.

Religion in Penistone
Christian worship is long established in our area and still going strong. I start with what is properly called...

Penistone Parish Church (C of E). A fine medieval building and landmark for the town. It is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and has a tower of about 500 years old. The church has now been refurbished, with toilets installed in 2007. Community activities in the church are expanding to encourage more interest.

St. Andrew's modern church was built on the site of the old traditional and woodwormed St. Paul's Methodist chapel. It has coffee mornings and organ concerts. Its congregation combined with that of the old Netherfield Congregational Church, which closed and was sold off. Some of the graveyard at Netherfield has been paved over and the remainder is neglected.

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church enjoys popular support (even if the cross behind the church is skewhiff). Thurlstone has a very old Methodist chapel but the Dissenters' Chapel of Bullhouse is one of the very oldest chapels in this country. 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. There is also a Spring Vale chapel opposite the new junior school.

Further Info
Historical references
Miscellaneous Penistone Information
Penistone Facts and figures

Local Books
Robinson's News near the church has a good range of local publications for sale. Any out-of-stock books can be ordered for you. The card shop also has a small collection of local books. Cawthorne Garden Centre has quite a wide range of local books. The picture here is Penistone's very old 'lock-up' or jail.