Penistone, Yorkshire Family History Guide
Penistone is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Yorkshire.
Other places in the parish include: Dunford Bridge, Clays Green, Town, Thurlstone with Town, Lanes, Carlcoates and Ecklands, Thurlstone, Storrs, Roughbirch-worth, Oxspring, Langsett, Lanes, Ingbirchworth, Hunshelf, and Gunthwaite.
Alternative names:
Parish church: St. John the Baptist
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1644
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1600
Nonconformists include: Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Methodist, Methodist New Connexion, Particular Baptist, Presbyterian, Protestant Dissenters, Society of Friends/Quaker, Unitarian, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Thurgoland
- Cawthorne
- Bradfield
- Glossop Derbyshire
- Denby
- Holmfirth
- Wortley
- Silkstone
- Tintwistle Cheshire
- Midhope
- Bolsterstone
- King Sterndale Derbyshire
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
PENISTONE, a small town, a township, a parish, and a sub-district, in Wortley district, W. R. Yorkshire.
The town stands on the river Don, near the junction of the Manchester and Sheffield railway with lines to Huddersfield and to Barnsley, 13¼ miles N N W of Sheffield; consists of four streets, intersecting at right angles; and has a railway station with telegraph, a post-office under Sheffield, a weekly market on Thursday, and fairs on the Thursday before 28 Feb., the last Thursday of March, the Thursday before 12 May, the Thursday after 11 Oct., and the Tuesday before the first Saturday of Nov.
The township comprises 1,050 acres. Real property, £3,080, of which £44 are in gas-works. Pop., 860. Houses, 186. The manor belongs to F. W. T. Wentworth, Esq. A viaduct of 29 arches and 76 feet high, is here in thecourse of the Manchester and Sheffield railway.
The parish contains also the townships of Gunthwaite, Ingbirchworth, Thurlstone, Langsett, Oxspring, Hunshelf, and Denby. Acres, 21, 580. Real property, £28, 646, of which £885 are in mines, £748 in quarries, and £1, 600 in iron-works. Pop. in 1851, 6, 382; in 1861, 7, 149. Houses, 1, 428. The property is much subdivided. Much of the surface is moor and mountain. The woollen trade was formerly carried on at the town, but is now extinct there, yet is carried on at Denby. Dye-works, steel-wire works, collieries, and fire-brickworks are in various parts.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value, £147. Patron, G. W. B. Bosville, Esq. The church is ancient; was restored in 1862; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with lofty tower; and contains monuments to the Bosvilles and the Fentons. The p. curacy of Denby is a separate benefice.
There are three chapels for Wesleyans, two for Quakers, and one each for Independents, Primitive Methodists, New Connexion Methodists, and United Free Methodists. There are also an endowed grammar school with £140 a year, an endowed girls’ school with £20, other public schools, and charities £89. Sanderson, the blind professor, was a native.
The sub-district excludes Denby township, but includes a township of Silkstone. Acres, 20, 646. Pop., 6,025. Houses, 1, 189.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
PENISTONE (St. John the Baptist), a market town and parish, in the union of Wortley, wapentake of Staincross, W. riding of York; containing, with the chapelry of Denby, and the townships of Gunthwaite, Hunshelf, Ingbirchworth, Langsett, Oxspring, and Thurlestone, 5907 inhabitants, of whom 738 are in the township of Penistone, 8 miles (W. S. W.) from Barnsley, and 177 (N. N. W.) from London.
The town is situated on the south bank of the river Don, and consists of four streets diverging at right angles; the houses are in general well built. A few families are employed in the weaving of linen by hand-looms. Here is a station of the Manchester and Sheffield railway, 28 miles from Manchester; and 13 from Sheffield. The market is on Thursday, and principally for cattle and sheep; fairs take place on the Thursday before Feb. 28th, the last Thursday in March, May 12th, and the Thursday before October 10th.
The parish comprises by measurement 21,338 acres; about 2000 acres are moorland, 100 wood and plantations, and of the remainder about onethird is arable, and two-thirds are pasture. The substratum contains coal, which is wrought to a limited extent; and there are quarries of good stone, of which large quantities are sent to London, chiefly consisting of flags for pavements.
The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £16. 14. 2.; net income, £147, with a glebe-house; patron, Alexander W. R. Bosville, Esq. The church is a neat structure, with a tower, and from its elevated situation forms a conspicuous feature in the landscape. At Denby is a separate incumbency.
There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, and Wesleyans. The free grammar school was founded in 1604, and has been endowed by several benefactors with houses, lands, and rent-charges, now producing £100 per annum.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Yorkshire
- Civil Registration District: Wortley
- Probate Court: Exchequer and Prerogative Courts of the Archbishop of York
- Diocese: Post-1835 – Ripon, Pre-1836 – York
- Rural Deanery: Pontefract
- Poor Law Union: Penistone
- Hundred: Staincross
- Province: York