PENISTONE, a parish in the wapentake of STAINCROSS,
West riding of the county of YORK, comprising the
market-town of Penistone, the chapelry of Denby, and
the townships of Gunthwaite, Hunshelf, Ingbirchworth,
Langsett, Oxspring, and Thurlestone, and containing
5042 inhabitants, of which number, 645 are in the town of
Penistone, 8 miles (W. S. w.) from Barnesley, and 177 (N.
N. W.) from London. The town is situated on the southern
bank of the river Don, and consists of four streets,
which intersect each other at right angles: it is in general
well built. The only branch of manufacture is that of.
linen, which is not very extensive. The market is on
Thursday, principally for cattle. The living is a discharged
vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of
York, rated in the king's books at £ 16. 14. 2. Major-
General G. Bosville was patron in 1809. The church is
dedicated to St. John the Baptist. There are places of
worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, and
Wesleyan Methodists. A free grammar school was
founded in 1604, and endowed by sundry persons
with houses, lands, and rent-charges, now producing
an income of about £110 per annum, which till lately
was applied for teaching the classics, but at present the
children are only taught English. There is also a free
school for girls, erected in 1821 by subscription, to
which the National School Society also contributed: it
is endowed with £420 four per cents., producing
£16. 16. per annum; one hundred and twenty are instructed;
the mistress also receives £ 10 per annum,
the bequest of Josias Wordsworth, for which twenty
additional girls are taught. Dr, Nicholas Sanderson,
the celebrated blind Professor of Mathematics in the
University of Cambridge, was a native of this parish..