South Yorkshire Times, June 23, 1951

Barnburgh Church

Against the light, Barnburgh’s lovely Parish Church offers this delightful scene for the second in our summertime series of picture – stories.

Warm evening sunlight was washing the stonework and painting gold into the leaf greenery in a scene which will be familiar to so many who pass this way on their daily round and who visit Barnburgh on their week-end walks.

Barnburgh, of course, is famous for the legend of the Cat and Man.

In St Peter’s Church you will find the tomb of Percival Cresacre, a Knight who, according to the Barnburgh legend, was killed by a wild cat and in the act of dying, fell on and killed the cat. That was in 1477, during the reign of Henry VI.

Two other charming features of this church are the gravestones is the chancel which tell not merely the names and ages of worshippers long since gone, but much about their lives and thoughts, mid the memorial to the four men of Barnburgh who gate their lies in the 1939-45 war.

It reads—”and in gratitude for the safe return of those whose lives were spared.”