Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for PENISTONE

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.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a township, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Penistone AP/CP       Penistone SubD       Wortley PLU/RegD       Yorkshire AncC
Place: Penistone

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