Monday, May 27, 2013

Penistone Wagon and Wheel Works

As I've mentioned before I've made a couple of trips to the local DIY store recently to buy materials to construct the baseboard and back scene. The shop is housed in a small corner of an old works, and while many of the buildings have changed over the years and the access road has been tarmaced/concreted over there are still signs of its past, including what look like narrow gauge rail tracks (they are next to the cars in the first photo).

From an intial inspection they appear to simply start and stop at the ends of the passage shown in the photo, and so I don't think they are part of a railway as such. A quick look at some old maps though showed that the works was originally built as a wagon and wheel works.

The works first appears on a 1905 map showing just a single building accessed by five short tracks. Interestingly they are crossed at right angles by two lines, which don't seem to represent a road or anything. By 1931, when the second map was published, more buildings had been constructed and more track laid into the works but the same parallel lines are visible and it is now clear that they are in the same position as the rails left over today. By 1971, when the third map was published, the works was no longer associated with the railway and the tracks had been removed, but the two parallel lines remain.

Unfortunately I can't find any useful old photos of the works. In fact the only photo I've managed to find is this small corner section of an aerial photo taken on the 14th of July 1926. The photographer was actually focusing on the steel works, but you can at least see that there were a lot of wagons lined up by the works buildings.

Without any other information, I'm tempted to suggest that the rails might have been for some form of travelling crane which could have been moved to access any of the tracks passing through the works. If anyone has any other information or photos of the works please do leave a comment.

I find it interesting that Penistone used to have a wagon works and now most of the items I have for sale through Penistone Railway Works are wagons of one form or another. Coincidence?


  1. It's an amazing coincidence....sychronisity even.

  2. The more you burrow the more you find. You'll soon have a real treasure trove of local facts.

    1. Given the number of railway accidents, incidents and random related items in and around Penistone, I'm thinking that there might be a small local history book in there somewhere. I'd probably have to flesh the blog posts out further but they would make a useful starting point.