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Top Attractions in Barnsley

Penistone

Penistone is a market town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, in South Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 10,101 at the 2001 census. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies 8 miles west of the town of Barnsley 17 miles north-east of Glossop, 14.2 miles north-west of Sheffield, the nearest city and 29 miles east of Manchester in the foothills of the Pennines. The highest point in the surrounding area is at Hartcliffe Tower at 1,194 ft above sea level, which 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 centre. 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.

Cawthorne

Cawthorne is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The village was once the centre of a localised iron and coal mining industry, though today it is the centre of a very affluent commuter belt, west of Barnsley. At the 2001 census it had a population of 1,108. The village has a choral society, a brass band,[1] a museum, a stately home , and a Young Farmers Club. The local charitable club, Cawthorne wives holds meetings and raises money for local and national charities. Young people are catered for by the Grass Roots drama club which produces an annual play ranging from comedy to Shakespeare. Every four years the village produces a Community Drama in the grounds of Cannon Hall involving the band, choral society and 100 actors from the village. In 2000 this was One Breath and in 2004 Time and Chance.[2] The village pub, the Spencer Arms is named from the village's association with the Spencer-Stanhope family who once owned large swathes of the local area. Their family home was Cannon Hall, the park of which borders the village. Cannon Hall is now a museum run by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. Nearby visitor attractions include Cannon Hall Farm. Two earlier residences in Cawthorne were Barnby Hall, home of the Barnby family, and Banks Hall, the seat of the Misses Spencer-Stanhope and of a branch of the Greene family. Cawthorne is frequented by ramblers as many excellent walking routes start from the village. The village museum contains a boot worn by a man struck by lightning, native American smoking devices and a twin headed cow. The museum was built to commemorate a visit by Queen Victoria. All Saints Church overlooks the village, and there is a Methodist church on Darton Road. All Saints contains memorials to the Barnby and Spencer families, among others.

Thurgoland Tunnel

Thurgoland Tunnel is a double-bore abandoned railway tunnel between Penistone and Wortley. Its total length is 924 feet . The original tunnel, a single bore carrying two tracks, was opened in 1845 on the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway between Manchester Store Street and Sheffield. It is characterised by a curve of 60 chains radius on a falling gradient of 1 in 131. Due to the difficulties in laying the original tunnel out, it consists of a series of straight sections in a series of erratic curves varying in radius from 100 to 20 chains . Maximum clearance was only obtained by reducing the normal six-foot spacing between the tracks. Because of the clearance problems the original construction caused for the planned LNER electrification, and because opening-out was deemed too expensive, in 1948 a second single-line tunnel was built for the up line and the old tunnel was converted to carry only the down line. As this project was begun in 1947 just before railway nationalisation , each of the up tunnel portals host twin dates, with "LNER 1947" inscribed in the central parapet panel at the top of the portals and "BR 1948" below in the keystone. Due to the anticipated interim period of steam working before Woodhead New Tunnel was completed, a cast-iron smokeplate lined the roof of the tunnel to protect the concrete lining. Electric working commenced in 1954 and ceased in 1981. The tunnels ceased to carry trains in 1983 when the local Sheffield–Huddersfield train service was diverted via Barnsley. The up tunnel, being much newer, has been re-utilised for a walking trail, whilst the down bore has been blocked off.

Wentworth Castle

A similarly named country house in Yorkshire is Wentworth Woodhouse. Wentworth Castle is a grade I listed country house, the former seat of the Earls of Strafford, at Stainborough, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is now home to the Northern College for Residential and Community Education. An older house existed on the estate, then called Stainborough, when it was purchased by Thomas Wentworth, Baron Raby, in 1711. It was still called Stainborough in Jan Kips engraved birds-eye view of parterres and avenues, 1714, and in the first edition of Vitruvius Britannicus, 1715 . The name was changed in 1731. The original name survives in the form of Stainborough Castle, a sham ruin constructed as a garden folly on the estate. The Estate has been in the care of the Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust since 2001 and is open to the public year round 7 days a week. The castles gardens were restored in the early 21st century, and are also open to visitors.

Elsecar Heritage Railway

The Elsecar Heritage Railway is located on the southern part of the former South Yorkshire Railway freight-only branch which ran from Elsecar Junction on its Mexborough to Barnsley line. The line was built to serve Earl Fitzwilliams collieries and ironworks, which he leased out to local ironmasters. The Elsecar Heritage Railway operates trains on a 1 mile section of the branch with using steam and diesel locomotives currently running between Rockingham station and Hemingfield Basin. The railway is operated using a variety of different preserved rolling stock. The EHR plans to eventually extend the line up into Cortonwood, with a new halt at Hemingfield. On 16 May 2011, the permanent way materials for the level crossing arrived and a donation scheme had been set up for the remainder of the money needed. Funds raised through this scheme have since been used to purchase barriers and traffic signals for the crossing ready for installation. In August 2012, trial holes were dug to locate services under the road surface ready for the crossing installation to take place. On 21 June of the same year, the ground was cleared and levelled for ballast and track alterations in anticipation for constructing the station at Hemingfield, currently the end of the line. On 19 April 2013, the EHR finally completed resurrecting the Level-Crossing on Tingle Bridge Lane and are now looking onto extending up into Cortonwood, as the step of the Project. Mid-June 2014, saw the laying of rails and onwards to Cortonwood, Commence. As of July 2015, the whole track has now been laid upto and has reached Cortonwood.

Barnsley Town Hall

Barnsley Town Hall is the seat of local government in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley. The Borough's local government was last reorganised in 1986 when the South Yorkshire County Council was abolished. The former County Council was located in offices on Kendray Street, the main part of which is due for demolition as part of a major redevelopment programme. The foundation stone of Barnsley Town Hall was laid on 21 April 1932 and was opened by His Royal Highness Edward, Prince of Wales on 14 December 1933. The cost of construction of the town hall and of furnishing the new seat of local government was £188,037 12/10d. George Orwell in his book The Road to Wigan Pier was highly critical of this expenditure and claimed that the council should have spent the money on improving the housing and living conditions of the local miners. " Orwell spent a number of days in the town living in the houses of the working class miners while researching for the book. Every evening blue fluorescent lights are turned on in the room in the spire, leading to the Barnsley rumour that the mayor has a sunbed. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the Parliament Buildings of Northern Ireland, Stormont, and, like Stormont, its façade is sculpted in Portland stone. In front of the Town Hall, the soldier of the war memorial looks down Regent Street, the financial heart of Barnsley. The cenotaph was built before the Town Hall. Since the abolition of the County Council, only a small number of council departments are based in the town hall, most of the offices having been distributed around the town centre. In 2006 the Council are building new offices on Westgate to the West of the Town Hall to accommodate 700 staff. The structure can be seen from the M1, to the west of Barnsley.

Elsecar Heritage Centre

Elsecar Heritage Centre is a Living History centre in Elsecar, South Yorkshire. It also comprises various shops, galleries, art studios and an exhibition hall. It runs craft workshops, special events, and a monthly antiques fair. The buildings were originally used for various industries including ironworks and forges, a distillery, and engineering workshops. These fell into decline when the coal mines in the village closed. It also has its own Elsecar goods station on the Elsecar Steam Railway, with a running shed behind the main centre. During some special events, trips are run to Hemingfield Basin. There are plans to extend the line to Cortonwood and build two stations . The railways depot is home to a selection of steam locomotives as well as a diesel locomotive.

Monk Bretton Priory

Originally a monastery under the Cluniac order, Monk Bretton Priory is located in the village of Lundwood, in the borough of Barnsley, England. It was founded in 1154 as the Priory of St. Mary Magdelene of Lund by Adam Fitswane, sited on the Lund, from Old Norse. In the course of time the priory took the name of the nearby village of Bretton to be commonly known as Monk Bretton Priory. The monastery closed on 30 November 1538 during the dissolution, and the site passed into the ownership of the Blithman family. In 1580 the land was again sold to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury who gave the estate to his fourth son Henry on his marriage to Elizabeth Rayner. The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and now in the care of English Heritage. Excavations concentrating on the church and cloister took place on the site in the 1920s which were published by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society and other largely unrecorded digging by the Ministry of Works took place during the 1950s. More recently the site has been the focus of a survey and excavation project run by the University of Sheffield.

Penistone Paramount Cinema

The Penistone Paramount Cinema is a community cinema and theatre in Penistone, near Barnsley, in the heart of the South Yorkshire Pennines. Besides the big film releases, there are live shows and monthly organ concerts. The cinema is also home to one of the few working theatre organs in the country. The Paramount Compton Organ has been recently rebuilt, and was the reason why the cinema was renamed from the Metro Cinema. The Compton Organ was built in 1937 by the John Compton Organ Company in London, especially for the Paramount Theatre in Birmingham. The organ was removed from there in 1988 when the cinema was refurbished and made into a multiplex. It was then moved to the Regal in Oswestry, where it stayed until the cinema closed in 1994. In 2000 The Penistone Cinema Organ Trust purchased the organ, and all of the 1000 pipes were cleaned out as part of the organ restoration. The trust then made an agreement with the council for the organ to be based there. The cinema was then renamed as the Paramount in honour of the new resident. The building itself remains the property of Barnsley Metropolitan District Council, and is leased back to Penistone Town Council to keep it open as a cinema. The cinema was featured on the BBC Politics Show as an example of how a small provincial community cinema can survive.

Silkstone glassworks

Silkstone glassworks is a historic former industrial site in Silkstone, South Yorkshire, England. A glass works was established at Silkstone around 1659 by John Pilmey, who had emigrated from France some years earlier. The glassworks had two furnaces, one for green glass and the other for white. Pilmey married Abigail Scott at Silkstone in 1658. Later she was one of the signatories who successfully petitioned Parliament against the Glass Tax in 1696. Her death is recorded on William Scott’s gravestone in the North Aisle of Silkstone Church. In 1718, John Warburton, when preparing his map of Yorkshire, noted as he passed Silkstone Church "pass a rill at the bottom the glass house on the right." The remains of the glassworks and pottery were excavated by English Heritage in 2003, and the site was subsequently protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

St Michael and All Angels Church

St Michael and All Angels Church is the parish church of Great Houghton in South Yorkshire. The church is dedicated to St Michael, and was originally a private chapel and was built by Sir Edward Rodes, the High Sheriff of Yorkshire, who was a conspicuous Parliamentarian. It was built about 1650 and used for worship by his family and the tenants of his land. Sir Edward was a great friend of Oliver Cromwell, when he was the Lord Protector of England. He served in Cromwell’s Privy Council and was also the Colonel of his Cavalry. Cromwell visited the church on its completion and approved of its simple design. Sir Edward died on 19 February 1666 and is buried in Darfield Church. His Coat of Arms appeared in stone on the east gable of the church. This mysteriously disappeared over the years but the space where it lay still remains. The first religious ceremony in the chapel was the baptism of one of the younger sons of Sir Edward by Mr Edward Bowles of York, one of the most eminent Presbyterian clergy of his day. Richard Taylor was the first officiating minister as Chaplain to the Rodes family. He had been prevented from exercising his ministry in public by the Act of Uniformity. The Rodes family were great patrons of nonconformity. The chapel at Great Houghton must have been well known throughout the country as a haven for persecuted clergy of the period. The chapel had a succession of non-conforming ministers who existed under Rode’s protection. The chapel remained private for many years and it was not until 1849 that it became ‘Episcopally licensed’ for worship. It only became part of the Church of England in 1906 and the first Anglican service was a Holy Communion which took place on 24 November 1908.

Hartcliff Folly

The Hartcliff Folly near Penistone, South Yorkshire, England was built in 1856 by a linen merchant called Henry Richardson. At this time the Linen works were Barnsley’s largest industry. Richardson also built Hartcliffe Lodge before becoming the first Mayor of the borough of Barnsley. The tower looks as though it’s a Folly but it has stairs running through the middle of it and some believe that it was used as a viewing platform for game shooting. Other ideas are that it was used as a look out for Mr. Richardson returning from Manchester on business. The furthest landmark visible from the tower is Hawkstone Park in Shropshire . In ancient time, folk would rest by the tower. The Folly was in disrepair but was restored in 1999/2000 by Mr. Jeff Pears on whose land it is sited on. He re-built it with his own money as a gift to the community of Penistone. It has since occasionally been open to the public, such as on 1 August 2006 when Penistone hosted the ‘Yorkshire Day’ celebrations.
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