Penistone, Yorkshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1829.

PENISTONE:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1829.

"PENISTONE, a small market town, in the parish of its name, wapentake of Staincross, and in the liberty of the honour of Pontefract, west siding, is 177 miles from London, 14 from Wakefield, 13 from Huddersfield and Sheffield, and 7 from Barnsley. This town is situated on the right bank of the river Don, and consists of four neat streets, crossing each other at right angles. The public buildings are the parish church, a chapel each for the Calvinists, Methodists and Quakers, a grammar school, and two others for girls and one fur boys, free to the whole parish. The church is a handsome structure, dedicated to St. John the living is a vicarage in the patronage of Lord Macdonald, and incumbency of the Rev. Joseph Martin Naylor, whose curate is the Rev. John Day Hurst. Woollen cloth is manufactured here, but not to much extent; and the general trade of the place is of a very confined nature. The environs of the town have a dreary and barren appearance, especially to the westward; but there are some points from which the views obtained are picturesque and the country variegated by patches of fertile land. In this parish was born the celebrated blind mathematician, Dr. Nicholas Sanderson, who, although deprived of sight in his infancy became a profound scholar and perfect master of the dead languages. This parish comprehends eight distinct hamlets or townships, and, by the census of 1821, a population of 5,042 persons of, which number 645 were inhabitants of the township of Penistone."

[Transcribed from Pigot's National Commericial Directory for 1828-29 ]
by Colin Hinson ©2007