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The Town of Penistone
- Part One
By Frank A Wilson
 The settlement of Penistone was little more than a village until the early part of the 18th Century. From a wider perspective the ancient parish of Penistone with St John the Baptist’s Church dominating the local skyline, was comprised of the eight ancient townships of Gunthwaite, Langsett, Denby, Hunshelf, Ingbirchworth, Oxspring, Thurlstone and Penistone itself. The last six were mentioned in the Domesday Book.
By the 1890’s the Penistone parish extended to almost 23,000 acres and 9,500 people and the same local government structure had existed from Norman times until 1894 when the urban and rural district councils were created. At the beginning of the 20th century Penistone town was still very small with a population of around 3,000. Thurlstone with its early textile industry had long been a more populous place than Penistone (even though Millhouse Green was of relatively late development) and was still the larger “town” in 1891.
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 Apart from the parish church, the key historical features determining in substantial part the effective early establishment of Penistone as a genuine “town” were the Market, the Cloth Hall and the Grammar School. Some discussion of the history and of the present day Penistone Grammar School is found in a separate article in this issue and more will follow on St John the Baptist’s Church in the winter issue of Around Barnsley.
Thursday is market day in Penistone and the town takes on a different bustling character on that day. The Market in the town is of ancient origin. Although there is evidence of markets or fairs back into the middle-ages, the important year for Penistone was 1699 when after a well organised petitioning of those in London, responsible for permitting such things, agreement was reached for a market every Thursday and a three day fair in June. In the early days the main market was directly in front of and on the north side of the church. Although this may suggest an organised separate market-place this was not always the case as even as late as the very early years of the 20th century, cattle and sheep were sold in the main street and there were sheep pens in front of the Spread Eagle Public House. At this time and for many years previously through to the First World War after which there was so much social change, the market was also the place for the local “hirings” of young men and women to work on local farms and in farm houses. The hirings in Penistone were held in November close to the feast of Martinmas.
Such was the success of the market and the competition for space – as well as concerns for public health, that the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries specified that a new distinct site should be found. The relatively newly established Urban District Council eventually found a suitable place in what was known as Backfields and a partially covered livestock market was opened in 1910. There the market for cattle, sheep and pigs has stayed until its closure quite recently although there was a significant change in the 1950’s when the onset of tuberculin testing of dairy cattle resulted in the dairy cow trade being restricted to Holmfirth market. As in so many other places, Market Day in Penistone was an important social occasion especially for farmers and those associated directly with farming. Much business was done, contacts were made and maintained, gossip was passed around and the local public houses did a good trade.
 Gradually, the market became more diverse and the clientele less dominated by flat-capped ruddy cheeked farmers. Women used the market more and more as stall-holders began to offer their wares in the area adjacent to the main covered market. This gave the market a new important dimension and a wider social importance. At the present time the “market” is in effect confined to the non-livestock trade but with a wide range of goods for sale from meat and vegetables and dairy products to household requirements, clothing, footwear, hardware, gardening equipment and plants and much more. The wider trade in the town continues to benefit from the influx on Thursdays and in recent times the Women’s Institute Market and regular Farmers Markets have been grafted on to the old market day scene.
 Looking north from in front of the church tower in to what was once the main market area it is not too difficult to imagine the impact made by the construction of the Cloth Hall. On the southernmost edge of the West Riding textile area, Penistone parish nevertheless gave its name to a type of relatively cheap, heavy wearing woollen cloth made in the area that became well known in the trade as early as the mid 16th Century. For at least three hundred years before the building of the Cloth Hall, part time farmers and farm labourers had eked out an existence by weaving pieces that were locally traded. This applies to Thurlstone, Denby, Ingbirchworth, Hoylandswaine and many other parts of the old parish including of course Penistone “town”. As time went by the growth of the local trade led to the establishment of a cloth makers’ market operating alongside the sale of livestock and produce on market days in Penistone. For some years the upper room of the Grammar School was used for this purpose as this was immediately adjacent to the market but there was clearly the need for more space in which the trade could be carried out.
In 1763 the renowned South Yorkshire architect John Platt was commissioned to design a Market House and Cloth Hall. It remained as the main point for local trading of cloth pieces for the remainder of the 18th century after which there was a gradual change in its use as communications improved, weavers marketed further afield and closer to the main textile centres of Huddersfield, Halifax and Bradford and the weaving of cloth became increasingly mechanised. The Cloth Hall served a range of other (and mixed) purposes including Petty Sessions meetings of Barnsley magistrates and later as a printing office owned by JH Wood. The distinctive (once open) arches remain as a feature of the fine old building to this day and most Penistone people of recent times know the building best as being fronted by a well known chemist’s shop.
 The emergence of Penistone in the 20th Century as a commercial and residential centre for the local area owes a great deal to the success of the market, the early textile trade and the Grammar School. The later industrial development through the Yorkshire Steel and Iron Works in 1863 that came into the ownership of Sheffield steel-millers Charles Cammell and Company (later Cammell Laird) gave the town a great boost and established an industrial base. At its peak Cammell Laird employed close to 1500 men and it was little short of economic disaster when the company ceased operations in 1930. Fortunately the David Brown Company took over the site and continued to provide industrial employment through most of the remaining part of the 20th century. As communications by rail and road improved, more and more Penistone town dwellers worked in Sheffield, Barnsley or Huddersfield and the local economy gradually emerged into the more diversified pattern it has today.
The opening of the Woodhead Tunnel in 1845 saw the completion of the Sheffield –Manchester link, opened up great commercial opportunities for Penistone. These were further enhanced when in 1850 the connection through to Huddersfield was made possible by the opening of the spectacular twenty-nine arched viaduct. When the Barnsley rail link via Silkstone Common was opened in 1856, Penistone became in effect a junction providing rail access for coal from the local coalfield. The passenger service to the south that remains today (and that hopefully will continue to thrive) has depended directly on that later established link through Barnsley for the past thirty-five years after the line to Manchester was closed. Although the sturdily-built station buildings have long been converted to other uses and the platforms remain as some of the coldest in the north of England, the social, economic and environmental importance of the rail link should not be underestimated. Penistone cannot be sensibly described as a “railway town” but it is certainly one that can only benefit from maintaining rail connections with other parts of the region.
 The Victorian era saw the emergence of a small town of some substance. Amongst the new buildings that began to form the framework of the main part of town, the most outstanding ones are the Vicarage, the Midland (now HSBC) Bank building, the Police Station and the Liberal Club. The solid, somewhat formidable structure that made up the Penistone Poor Law Union Workhouse (Netherfield) was completed in 1860 and gas lighting came to town in 1869 with piped water to most parts of the town by 1880. The Wesleyans opened a new chapel in 1873 and the Methodists in 1901. St Johns National School was opened in 1876 and the Grammar School moved to its present site on the outskirts of town in 1893. The Town Hall was built in 1914 ten years after the Urban District Council was formed with the Carnegie Free Library opening the previous year.
The Penistone of 2005 is a welcome combination of new initiatives and well established tradition. The first Penistone Show was first held in 1854 and it has not only survived as a much valued Penistone event but especially in recent years it has gone from strength to strength. The Paramount Cinema and Theatre is the pride of Penistone and after surviving a rocky period some years ago when threatened with closure it has now become a lively and much appreciated part of the social life of the town and surrounding area. There will be more on this and the magnificent Compton Cinema Pipe Organ in the next issue of Around Barnsley when we will also discuss a number of the initiatives taking place under the auspices of the Penistone and District Partnership.
This introductory mainly historical piece has benefited greatly from the kindness of Professor David Hey who gave permission for use of some of the material from his book A History of Penistone and District. The next issue of Around Barnsley includes an article about David in the Editor Meets series.
Published Autumn 2005. All information correct at time of print
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