Toponymy The place-name
Penistone is first attested in the
Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as
Pengeston(e) and
Pangeston; later sources record it as
Peningston. It may mean "the farmstead at the hill called Penning", in reference to the high ridge immediately south of the town. This combines the Brittonic word
penn (meaning a head, end, or height) with the Old English suffix
ing and the word
tun (meaning a farmstead or village). Penistone has frequently been noted on lists of
unusual place-names because it contains the letter sequence "
penis"; however, those initial five letters are not pronounced like the name of the body part.
Medieval history Since the times of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria and at least Viking times Penistone was historically within the
Wapentake of Staincross, an area that almost corresponds with the present day Barnsley Metropolitan Borough. In 1066, the township was owned by Ailric. It was razed in 1069 in the
Harrying of the North following the
Norman Conquest; the Domesday Book described the settlement in 1086 as "waste". Sir Gyles Penyston (
fl. 13th century), whose family seat was in
Cornwall (perhaps at
Truro) before his time, and who is an ancestor of the
Penyston Baronets, was styled
of Penyston, denoting that he resided in Penistone.
Wool The town was renowned for its
Penistone cloth (or "forest white"), a rough, home-spun cloth. In a law passed in 1601 (
43 Eliz. 1 cap. 10) regulating the working of cloth, penalties were set out for weavers found to be making Penistone cloth of inferior quality. Until the eighteenth century, home weavers in the area brought their products to town for sale in an annual cloth fair but in 1768 a Cloth Hall (or "piece hall") was built by subscription to facilitate regular sales to wool merchants.
Sheep sales have been held in the town since before 1699, when the market received a royal charter and the area produced the now rare
Penistone sheep.
Buildings The town remained small until the coming of the railway in 1845, although several pre-19th century buildings survive. The oldest still standing is Penistone Church. This is the
Grade I listed medieval parish church,
St John the Baptist Church. The White Hart pub in the town dates from 1377. Penistone had a market for a long time before its royal charter was granted in 1699, although its historic livestock market was closed recently to make way for town centre re-development. A new landmark building has been built in Penistone for the Market Place. This is an oaken Cruck Barn and was built by Carpenter Oak of
Totnes,
Devon.
Railway The
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway opened on 15 July 1845, on a route via Penistone, Dunford Bridge and the three-mile long
Woodhead Tunnel. The Penistone to Huddersfield railway line opened on 1 July 1850. Penistone became a railway junction, with a depot for engineering trains.
Penistone station had frequent train services to Barnsley, Manchester, Sheffield and Huddersfield. The 29-arch
Penistone Viaduct was built in 1849 by Messrs. Ingham and Bower to a design by Sir
John Hawkshaw. Stone was obtained from Walk Mill Bank,
Oxspring, and was conveyed by a tramway on the side of the River Don. The second and third arches of Penistone Viaduct collapsed on 2 February 1916, when heavy rain weakened the foundations; the driver and fireman of a stationary goods locomotive were able to jump clear and survive the collapse. Cracks in the parapet had been observed some days earlier. The viaduct was repaired and was back in service in August of the same year. The town was served by the
Woodhead line between
Manchester London Road and
Sheffield Victoria. Following major investment, which started in 1935 but was delayed by the
Second World War, the
electrification of the railway was completed in 1954, and the line's power control centre was built adjacent to Penistone station. The building still stands and has been converted for commercial use. The Woodhead line was the first
main line railway in the UK to be electrified, but its once-pioneering 1500
V DC system became non-standard. Goods trains (mainly coal) continued to travel through the station for a further 11 years until the line was closed controversially between Penistone and Hadfield in July 1981; the track was lifted several years later. The route of the track is now used as part of the
Trans-Pennine Trail. ==Transport==