BARNSTAPLE, or BLACK BARNSTAPLE, a town in the parish of Silkstone, of the wapentake of Staincross, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 171 miles from London. It formerly had considerable manufactures in iron, but it has of late years become the seat of extensive factories of linen and other cloth. The trade has been greatly increased in consequence of the extension of canal navigation, which connects the town with Wakefield, and the other canals and navigable rivers which unite at that place. There is a large market every Wednesday for cattle and corn. Pop. in 1851, 13,437.