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The Village of Whiston
 During the floods of last year (2007) much of Whiston village had to be evacuated. The initial reason for this was not the danger from Ulley Reservoir, lingering high above Whiston, but that Whiston Brook, which meanders its way through the valley in which the old centre of Whiston has been built, burst its banks.
As in Treeton and other places, houses in the village were flooded. The village resides in a hollow with narrow lanes and alleyways, and flights of steps which are celebrated in a poem wrought in a tapestry on an end wall of the Manorial Barn.
It is easy to see why Whiston is so vulnerable. Pleasley Road slopes downwards from the traffic lights at the crossroads and then makes an abrupt uphill climb as it emerges out of the village. Water always finds the lowest levels and the area in the bottom around the Sitwell Arms is naturally low-lying. The Brook wanders very close to houses and it is now quite soothing to lean on the quaint little bridge, watching the less-torrent like waters passing underneath, amid the peaceful setting on Turner Lane. The area has been grassed and there are a variety of plants and it looks well tended, and standing over it is the colourful Whiston village sign.
Turner Lane winds up past the Golden Ball pub and eventually leads to St. Mary Magdalene church, Whiston Parish Church. This is an old church, the tower base goes back to the 13th Century, but a lot of the build is 15th Century, as are the bells. Previous to this building the monks of the Norman Abbey of St. Wandrille claimed a chapel here as one of theirs. During the early 19th Century there were some ill-judged improvements leading to a partial rebuild later on in the century, initiated by the then rector, Rev. William Howard, the third son of the first Earl of Effingham. He did not live to see his plans come to fruition, however the endeavour was funded in great measure by his sister, Lady Charlotte Howard. Several fine stained glass windows were also inserted around this time when the church was known as the 'Parish Church of St. James', but Canon Raine, an eminent historian of the time, stated that this was a modern ascription and that the original dedication was to St. Mary Magdalene, and so it has been ever since.
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 A plate glass plaque in the church was unveiled in 1920 in memory of those who lost their lives in World War One. At the entrance to the church there is also a lychgate which was dedicated on 30th September, 1919 as a war memorial.
Two bronze plaques within the lychgate commemorate those who belonged to Whiston and fell in the two World Wars. Standing just outside of the lychgate used to be the village stocks, erected in the 18th Century and last used by a William Tabby Jervis of Melrose Cottages, but unfortunately there is no record of his crime.
The stocks have now been removed for preservation purposes, but the intention is to resite and display them at some time in the future.
Reminiscent of Ravenfield church, St. Mary Magdalene sits high on a hill almost at the extremity of Whiston itself, surrounded by a well-kept and expansive cemetery. This looks out one way over a cricket field, complete with traditional pavilion, and there are views to the hills, from behind which comes the constant waterfall-like noise of traffic on the M1. The neat rows of gravestones are irregularly interrupted by tall, old trees, some of whose roots are showing, possibly because of soil erosion due to last year's torrential rains. Over the other side of the cemetery there is a steep hill descending to the village. Houses cling precariously to the hillside, both old and new, but care has been taken that the more recent additions blend in with what has gone before.
The name Whiston can be traced back to the Domesday Book where it was variously referred to as Widestan, Widestham or Witestan.
The latter is made up of two words, wite meaning white and stan meaning stone. The name could derive from stone which came out of a nearby quarry, or it could be from one of the standing stones which used to indicate ancient footpaths and tracks used by packmen and drovers. These tracks were eventually improved into roads around 1740 when turnpike trusts were allowed to take over certain highways. In order to cover costs, tollgates or turnpikes were set up.
Pleasley Road is an ancient highway, one of six major ones to appear in Thomas Jeffrey's 1772 map of Yorkshire. It was turnpiked in 1764, administered by the Rotherham and Pleasley Trust, and the turnpike house was situated at the top of Pleasley Road at what is now known as Whiston Crossroads. North of the crossroads on Moorgate Road is a white mile post denoting 'Rotherham & Pleasley Road, Whiston' and is noted in the Listed Buildings register. The main purpose of turnpikes was to improve carriageways to allow wagons to move heavy or bulky materials as places expanded owing to industrialisation. An offshoot of this was population increase; Whiston in 1801 had 672 inhabitants, a hundred years later that had almost tripled to 1,982. Along with the population increase came the need for schools. A National School was established in 1838, then closed in 1961 when Whiston J & I was built in Saville Road. A second primary school followed in 1968, Whiston Worrygoose, and within walking distance now are two more, Sitwell J & I and Whiston Grange.
 Between the 1200s and 1801 Whiston did not grow anywhere as near as rapidly as between 1801 and 1901. The population at the turn of the 13th Century was a mere 200, but it must have been a prosperous village as 128 of these were liable for the infamous Poll Tax. The inhabitants included a cook, two tailors, a carpenter and two smiths; presumably they had quite a bit of work fixing wagons and shoeing horses on the main drover track that went through the village and was the main route from Rotherham to the rest of the West Riding.
During these Middle Ages the ownership of Whiston passed through a number of aristocratic hands. Originally part of Robert, Count of Mortain's estates, half-brother of WIlliam the Conqueror, Whiston passed on to the Norman families Pagenal and Luteral who then gave way to the Furnivals, Lords of Hallam, after which Furnival Way, Whiston is named. Eventually lacking sons, daughters carried the estates on; Maud, grand-daughter of the last Furnival, married John Talbot, the first Earl of Shrewsbury. The sixth Earl married the famous Bess of Hardwick, but his son from the first marriage was the last Earl. One of his daughters, Althea, took the estate into the Howard family, who were Dukes of Norfolk. In a last transfer Whiston was sold in 1823 to Sir George Sitwell, which family still has interests in the area.
 At the same time as the Norfolks and the Sitwells were negotiating the future of the village, the Methodists were building. A small chapel was constructed and then replaced 40 years later with the present church. This clings to the edge of High Street showing off its unique crazy-paving type facade. A beautiful blue clock is set in the tower, placed there in 1874; as the cost was defrayed by public subscription it is known as the parish clock. The church overlooks the parish hall, which was opened in May 1970 and where the parish council conducts its business.
Proudly displayed in the entrance of the hall is a certificate stating that Whiston Parish Council is a "Quality Parish Council." Its emergence as an effective voice in village affairs came not long after the arrival of the M1 made Whiston open to industrial development. The council fought two major battles, one with a developer and one with Rotherham Borough, before it got Green Belt recognition. A former councillor recalled, "All in all it lasted 3 or 4 years and involved two inquiries. We were able to organise a marvellous team from the village. Villagers acted as one and it gave Whiston a close-knit united atmosphere."
This united front soon focussed its energies on a new project, one which has given Whiston a unique feature in the North. Designated by English Heritage a Manorial Barn this 13th Century timber-framed building is probably the oldest agricultural building in Yorkshire. It was built for the Furnival family as a store for corn. It still has two intact threshing floors; two wide doors on either side would have been opened to allow the wind to take the chaff out as the threshers separated that from the grain. The road outside is aptly named Chaff Lane.
 The building itself is deceptive. Tucked away behind and between those two fine hostelries, the Chequers and the Sitwell Arms, it looks to be a low stone construct with a superb thatched roof. The day I was there a magpie trotted along the length of the roof, obviously on the lookout for something shiny in the thatch like a diamond. What I did not realise for the moment was how much of a diamond I had just found.
Entering through the Engine Room, the ceiling catches the eye first. This is held up by large, heavy, wooden beams which appear to slot into each other without the use of nails or bolts. (This is another deception, although not without charm.) This is a later addition to the Manorial Barn where the threshing machine was housed, which took the place of manual labour. As time passed and industrialisation spread and agriculture took a more subservient role, the Barn fell into disuse, disrepair and then became derelict. Its slate roof was stripped away and it was left open to the elements for many years.
Mrs. Neal, the caretaker, who kindly allowed me to look around, had nothing but praise for the parish council who, she said, had been highly commended for its preservation work. I did not have long to witness why they achieved that accolade. Mrs. Neal took me through the door into the Barn proper. Afterwards she told me, "I never say anything when I bring people in here for the first time. I like them to experience the Wow! factor." I did not say, "Wow!" But I certainly uttered the words, "Good grief!" I said that the Manorial Barn was outwardly deceptive, because the interior stunned me. It was long and wide and high. Tables were arranged between the wooden pillars around the outside of one of the threshing floors and it was easy to imagine earls, knights, lords and ladies enjoying a medieval banquet here. Of course, the Manorial Barn never had such a use originally, but nowadays it caters for many types of function including weddings. In addition it is made use of by scouts, cubs, guides and brownies, and holds the twice-weekly rehearsal by the much-praised Whiston Brass Band. Presumably, the acoustics in the 15th Century west wing of the Barn must be conducive to good music.
 Photographs show the building as it was twenty years ago and it is a tribute to the parish council and the villagers that such a remarkable transformation has taken place. Mrs. Neal, who is very solicitous of her charge, showed me one of the oldest oak pillars. This had been an acorn around 800 AD and was felled to become part of the Manorial Barn when it was over 300 years old. What stories it could tell, I thought, over 1,200 years worth. Finally, capping the whole Manorial Barn experience, there are four wonderful wall hangings depicting the geography, history and character of Whiston village.
As I reluctantly left this jewel in the village crown, I reflected that Whiston, with its small centre, its gradual expanson with new estates and its sister hamlet of Upper Whiston high on the wind-blown hill, has retained its independence and is a haven of tranquility in a turbulent world. It is a reminder of what rural communities used to be like and, with some effort, can still be.
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