Penistone Village, near Barnsley

As the autumn issue of Around Barnsley showed, there is much about the history of Penistone that explains the character of the old town and perhaps the local people.

The physical character of Penistone in Barnsley can of course be traced to those early days of church, school and market followed by the impact of the local steel and engineering industry and the associated importance of the railway links. As for the people of Penistone, this is less easy to argue especially in these days of greatly increased mobility. Penistone is a great mix of long-established families and family businesses and so called “newcomers” and in fairness to the latter it is probably fair to say that nowadays they far outweigh the former. It all depends of course on what your definition of a “newcomer” might be. It is not unknown for a whole generation to pass by before a newcomer comes to be regarded as a genuine Penistone “local”.

Whilst this no doubt applies to some extent to Penistone with its well-marked and much valued old traditions, there are clear signs of change. Change that is important to maintaining and developing the vitality of the town based on Penistone local initiatives. New people moving into the Penistone area – even those who appear at first or even second glance to have mainly “dormitory linkages” nevertheless bring new interests, abilities, skills and of course, expectations to the town.

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Penistone was little more than a village near Barnsley until the early part of the 18th Century.

Penistone, 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 near Barnsley 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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