Welcome to Castleton Historical Society’s website

Future Events

Next Meeting
The programme of meetings for 2026 will now available to view here. Our first talk of 2026 will be given by Tim Knebel about “The Lives of the Leadswingers”, creators of the First World War trench magazine of the 3rd West Riding Field Ambulance Service, 1915-1919. ‘Faithful in Difficulties’ (In Arduis Fidelis) was their regimental motto.

In between saving lives on the First World War battlefields of Flanders, including at the bloody battles of the Somme and Passchendaele, a small band of young Royal Army Medical Corps servicemen from Sheffield, with shared artistic and literary interests, came together to produce a trench magazine chronicling “the lighter side of war”.

Delightfully illustrated, ‘The Leadswinger’ was packed with humorous articles, witty cartoons, imaginative short stories and poems but the contributors hid behind pen names, concealing their true identities. We unmask the men behind the magazine and reveal the remarkable characters at its heart, including the dashing doctor and VC hero whose post-war life would later be blighted by opium addiction, and the eccentric violinist turned cartoonist who would go on to inspire and mentor a young Quentin Blake and help change the face of illustration as we know it.

  • The Stones
  • Wrays Store
  • Waterside
  • Sydgate
  • Hancocks Stores, Cross St.

Closure of Castleton Museum
With great sadness, CHS announces the closure of Castleton Museum, which has been housed within Castleton Visitor Centre for over 20 years.  The space occupied by the Museum’s displays will become available for commercial use next year. A small area will be reserved for wall-mounted displays.  Some of the archive of documents, photographs and artefacts will continue to be stored on site for establishing and renewing the new display area but much of the collection will be dispersed.
More details of this development can be seen here.

The Village of Castleton
Castleton developed as a settlement in the 12th century when the Norman fortress of Peveril Castle was built there. Articles on the history of Castleton can be found here and some photos from our collection are shown below.

Castleton Historical Society
Castleton Historical Society is a voluntary group who promote the history of the Village with a programme of talks, events, displays and local history research. CHS is responsible for establishing and continuing to curate The Castleton Museum.

In recent years, the Society has participated in a number of ongoing archaeological digs. More information about our meetings, research and archaeological activities, publications and events are described on this website. New members are always welcome.