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The Village of Thurlstone
By Frank A Wilson
 To the driver in a hurry seeking to leave Penistone for the Woodhead Road over to Lancashire, Thurlstone may hardly be noticeable.
Despite the roadside signs making it clear that you are entering a distinct community, it is all too easy to see it as an extension of Penistone – especially if you think that all there is to Thurlstone is what is directly visible from the main road. But there is much more to Thurlstone and it most certainly deserves to be recognised as a place in its own right.
Thurlstone, with a name that demonstrates its Anglo-Saxon and Danish Viking roots, is the most southerly of the old West Riding textile villages. For many years it was a more important centre than Penistone itself largely because of the early textile activities. Like other West Riding mill town and villages the mills were in the valley bottoms utilising the water power and the weavers cottages were clustered together on the sides of the hills. In Thurlstone’s case most of the weavers cottages were built in the early years of the nineteenth century at a time when although the mills had begun to turn out vast quantities of yarn, weaving was still an un-mechanised process carried out in the local cottages. While women and children tended the new machines in the mills, the menfolk worked at home on their looms.
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 Tenter Hill has a fine example of a row of weavers cottages – the name tenter deriving from the frames in the rear gardens of the houses where cloth was stretched back to its original size by the use of stone weights fastened to tenter-hooks once it had come back from fulling. If you have ever been on tenter-hooks not sure what the final outcome will be then you get some idea of the uncertainties attached to this part of the cloth making process.
The settlement owes its existence to the River Don. For those of us in South Yorkshire the parrot learning (from north to south) of the main rivers of Yorkshire – Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe, Aire and Calder only had personal significance when we added the Don to the list. Not by any means the most imposing and lacking much of the grandeur of the more northerly rivers it has nevertheless been of great economic significance – not least to Thurlstone. The first water-powered mills were for corn milling with Thurlstone or Hornthwaite Mill already operating in the 15th century with a major reconstruction in 1761. Not without disputes over access to water for the wheels, milling continued on this site until the middle of the 20th century when it was demolished so that the road could be widened at what was long known as Corn Mill corner.
 As the key component of mills was a good, controlled flow of water for the wheels it is not surprising to find that the use to which they were put changed over time. Batty Mill was an early fulling mill that extended its operations into scribbling/slubbing and carding (all concerned with the preparation of the raw fleece for spinning). Carding, the process of untangling the short fibres preparatory to spinning was almost always done by child labour often by children working alongside their mothers or other women who were mainly responsible for spinning. This was almost certainly the case in the early Thurlstone textile mills. David Hey records that by 1816 the Batty Mill was known as the Tomasson Mill. Thomas Tomasson married Catherine Eyre of Plumpton in 1827 and Plumpton Mill as it was usually called thereafter became renowned for the production of livery cloth, covering for coach seats as well as spats and gaiters – a business that continued until the depression of the 1930’s after which the site was taken over for an extension to Durrans Black-Lead works. Durrans continued as a very successful enterprise providing much needed local employment to people in the valley.
In 1740 James and John Walton established an oil mill to the east of the village, initially concentrating on linseed crushing. Later converted to a cloth mill and in more recent times to other uses, the structure of the old buildings can still be clearly seen. James Walton also owned an Indigo Dye Mill alongside the Hornthwaite Corn Mill. This mill was tenanted by dyers supplying the needs of the local woollen industry. Alongside the dye works a steam-driven wool mill was set up by James Moorhouse in 1845, the site later being converted into the Spring Mills Joinery. Even further east is Copster or Nether Corn Mill as it was earlier called. Established in the early 17th century it was originally fed by a channel from Scout Dyke and later by a dam fed from the Don.
 The older parts of Thurlstone contain a substantial number of late 17th and early 18th century houses (and a few with Tudor origins) some with extensions to accommodate 19th century weavers windows. The oldest area still referred to by some as ‘the Top o’ the town’ could possibly have been the original settlement with the once predominantly rural Town Gate stretching out below towards what is now the main road out of Penistone towards Millhouse Green. In this area is the fine old Thurlstone House built by James Walton in the middle of the 18th century and now occupied by John Gledhill Smith a well-known member of a local business family.
A lively and extremely well informed octogenarian, John Smith knows much about the period from the early 1930’s at first hand and ca?n also draw on his family’s involvement in local trading for a period well beyond that. John’s grandfather was JT Smith who in 1873, established at Town End what in North America at the time would have been called a general store, supplying most of the household groceries but also extending into furniture, glass and chinaware, drapery and linens. A true believer in advertising, JT produced postcard sized promotional business cards (including quotations from Shakespeare) and painted the roof of one of his stores so as to make it clear to all on the other side of the valley that here was JT Smith Complete House Furnisher. Importantly for Thurlstone and Penistone the business continued to flourish – for much of the last half of the 20th century in John’s capable hands. Thurlstone House was bought by Arnold, John’s father in 1945 having been occupied by the military for much of the war period.
JT Smith was one of the prime movers behind the establishment of the Wesleyan Chapel that was opened on its Manchester road site in 1888. This was part of the strong non-conformist movement in Thurlstone and surrounding areas – once again typical of most West Riding textile settlements. In 1786 the Congregationalists had opened a chapel at Netherfield, David Hey noting in his History of Penistone and District that of the first seventeen trustees no less than fourteen were directly involved in textile production or tailoring. The first (Wesleyan) Methodist chapel was on Work Bank Lane in 1793 with the building being converted into a house when the new larger place of worship was opened almost a hundred years later. The Baptists first met in a workshop behind some cottages at the ‘Top o’ the Town’ in 1828 moving to the present chapel nearby in 1867. The Providence Particular Baptists, who once baptised new members in the River Don, still advertise outside the chapel that they have Sunday Services – God Willing – thereby displaying either a welcome sense of humour or a weekly recognition of their vulnerability! Against this kind of competition the Anglicans were very slow off the mark. In the 1880’s Church of England services were held at Town End School but St Saviour’s Church at the very west end of Thurlstone was not opened until 1905.
Thurlstone’s most famous personality from days gone by is Dr Nicholas Saunderson (1682-1739). Born in Towngate, against enormous odds he became a Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Blinded by small-pox as a child he was nevertheless educated at Penistone Grammar School and later at a Non-Conformist Academy in Attercliffe Sheffield before going up to Cambridge. Despite his disability he gave lectures on optics and although losing his close connections with Thurlstone, brought more than a little reflected glory to the village.
Reflecting the expansion of the village and the self-help initiatives of an independent minded local community, the Thurlstone Building Society was formed in 1799. From humble beginnings the small society grew in size and was incorporated into the Penistone and Thurlstone Society in 1867. Eventually it was absorbed by Leek and Westbourne before becoming part of the Britannia Building Society
The early development of a friendly-society type Building Society demonstrates a history of community involvement and the maintenance of long-standing clubs and associations. The Thurlstone Bell Orchestra can trace a history back to 1855 when organised hand-bell ringing first began in the village. The old 1786 schoolroom has long been the home of the orchestra and has been visited by enthusiasts from many parts of the world. Members of the group have travelled extensively especially in the USA and in their own way have helped to put Thurlstone on the map to many admirers of high quality hand-bell ringing far away from South Yorkshire.
 Other very good examples of Thurlstone ambassadors are the past and present members of the Thurlstone Brass Band. The band was first established in 1854 and apart from a period during the first and second World Wars has been making sweet music ever since. The band has always had a splendid reputation as a training band and has brought on much young talent over the years. There is always a mix of the experienced and less experienced with currently approximately one third of the band still in full-time education. Just over a year ago John Wilmot – another of those willing volunteers on whom community activities so depend- relinquished his position as Secretary of the Band after many years of service, with Richard Searby taking over. The Band has also had a recent change of Musical Director with the arrival of Graham Bates a highly accomplished percussionist with long experience of playing with and being bandmaster of Hade Edge Band. Graham was also responsible for the Scissett Brass Ensemble created from the Scissett Youth band – again demonstrating the continuing encouragement to young players that has long been a hallmark of the brass band world.
The Thurlstone of today is a place of active people –many of them involved in local enterprises and social activity in and around Thurlstone and Penistone. The community feel is enhanced – as in many other small villages by the local Primary School. With around 80 pupils, the school has had to fight hard at times to avoid closure but the medium term future seems to be secure. A recent OFSTED report shows considerable improvement in recent times. A caring environment has been enhanced, there is good leadership and an enthusiastic staff and parents are now more effectively involved.
The Thurlstone area has many attractive features for children. Nature and the open country is never far away, sports facilities are good and there is ample opportunity for involvement in local organisations.
People like to live in Thurlstone and most have great respect for its history. Just one example is Chris Goldthorpe, an old friend of the writer who spent many years working overseas in much warmer places than Thurlstone before settling once again in the area in an old part of the village. Chris is one of the many Goldthorpes in the Penistone area and part of the local family well known for its milling and animal feed business. He and his wife Rosa find Thurlstone peaceful and friendly and as Chris says “if you are aware of its special past there are many parts of the village where history still seems to be alive and little has changed”.
A good place to live and an interesting place to visit.
Published Spring 2006. All information correct at time of print
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