Penistone, United Kingdom

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 18th century, home weavers in the area brought their products to town for sale in an annual cloth fair, but a Cloth Hall (or "piece hall") was built by subscription to facilitate regular sales to wool merchants in 1768.

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.

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.

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 line to Huddersfield was opened on 1 July 1850; Penistone became a railway junction, with a depot for engineering trains. There were frequent railway services to Barnsley, Manchester London Road, Sheffield Victoria 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, 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 country to be electrified, but its once-pioneering 1500V DC system soon became non-standard.

Although the Beeching Report recommended the closure of the Hope Valley Line and the retention of Woodhead services, the government chose to implement the opposite; Woodhead line passenger services beyond Hadfield ended on 5 January 1970. Goods trains (mainly coal) continued to travel through the station for a further 1 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.