Saint John the Baptist Church, Penistone Parish Church, or Penistone Church is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in the

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

Penistone Penistone ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 13,270 at the 2021 census. Historic counties of England, Historically in ...

, near

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

, in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, England. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and is located in the centre of the town of Penistone.

History

There are records which show priests belonging to a church in Penistone from the year 1200. However, masonry work in the church indicates parts could be over 1000 years old. There are also remains of a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

cross building into the church walls, possibly indicating an even older Christian involvement in the area. A further cross base and stump lie in the churchyard. The tower is around 500 years old, having been erected around 1500. The

lychgate A lychgate (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...

entrance to the church yard was constructed in 1959 as a memorial to Rev. Canon William Turnbull, who was vicar at the church 1855–1915, while the

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

weathervane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an list of weather instruments, instrument used for showing the wind direction, direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ' ...

on top of the tower, in the shape of a fish, was a handmade gift from local resident; Arnold Lesley Smith (1916–1986), in 1975. The fish is an early Christian symbol and its stainless steel represents local industry. The church windows contain a large amount of

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

, much of it many hundreds of years old. New glass has been installed, most notably in 1992, to celebrate the 600th anniversary of

Penistone Grammar School Penistone Grammar School (PGS) is a large co-educational secondary school with a sixth form located in Penistone, South Yorkshire, England. Founded in 1392, it is amongst the List of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, oldest extant scho ...

. The church tower has two clockfaces – one on the west side, and another on the south side. The tower holds a total of 8 bells. In 2006 the church was the location of a service attended by Mayors and civic heads from across Yorkshire as part of the

Yorkshire Day Yorkshire Day is a yearly celebration on 1 August to promote the historic county of Yorkshire, in England. It was celebrated by the Yorkshire Ridings Society in 1975, initially in Beverley, as "a protest movement against the local governmen ...

celebrations being hosted in Penistone. The same year saw the creation of a new Heritage and Sensory Gardens (St Johns Gardens) in the lower end of the church yard, including millstones with historical local dates and a memorial to

Nicholas Saunderson Nicholas Saunderson (20 January 1682 – 19 April 1739) was a blind English scientist and mathematician. According to one historian of statistics, he may have been the earliest discoverer of Bayes' theorem. He worked as Lucasian Professor o ...

, who was

Lucasian Professor of Mathematics The Lucasian Chair of Mathematics () is a mathematics professorship in the University of Cambridge, England; its holder is known as the Lucasian Professor. The post was founded in 1663 by Henry Lucas (politician), Henry Lucas, who was Cambridge U ...

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. The church was subject to interior work in 2006, with the creation of new community facilities, under the auspices of Revd David J. Hopkin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John The Baptist Church, Penistone Penistone Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley Penistone, Saint John the Baptist Church Penistone, Saint John the Baptist Church History of South Yorkshire Churches dedicated to John the Baptist in England Anglican churches dedicated to John the Baptist

History

See also

References