Penistone

Penistone (ˈpɛnᵻstən ) is a market town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 22,909 at the 2011 census. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is west of Barnsley, north-east of Glossop, north-west of Sheffield, south-west of Leeds and east of Manchester in the foothills of the Pennines. The town is frequently noted on lists of unusual place names. The highest point, Hartcliffe Tower, is above sea level and has views over the Woodhead bypass and the Dark Peak. The surrounding countryside is predominantly rural with farming on rich well-watered soil on mainly gentle slopes rising to the bleak moorland to the west of the town. Dry stone walls, small hamlets and farms surrounded by fields and livestock are synonymous with the area. The area is known for its rugged breed of sheep, the Whitefaced Woodland. The market town itself stands at its highest point around St Johns Church at around above sea level. However, the surrounding land rises well over towards Cubley and Thurlstone Moors and out towards smaller hamlets at Carlecotes, Victoria, Dunford and Crow Edge, elevated at points above . There are several vantage points around Penistone that afford panoramic views of the surrounding areas of West Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. 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. In 1066, the township was owned by Ailric.