| Pontefract | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
  Pontefract Location withinWest Yorkshire | |
| Population | 30,881 (North+South Wards 2011) |
| OS grid reference | SE455215 |
| • London | 257 mi (414 km) |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | PONTEFRACT |
| Postcode district | WF8 |
| Dialling code | 01977 |
| Police | West Yorkshire |
| Fire | West Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| UK Parliament | |
| 53°41′28″N1°18′43″W / 53.691°N 1.312°W /53.691; -1.312 | |
Pontefract is a historic market town in theCity of Wakefield, ametropolitan district inWest Yorkshire, England. It lies to the east ofWakefield and south ofCastleford.Historically part of theWest Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wakefield district and had a population of 30,881 at the 2011 Census.[1][2]
Pontefract's motto isPost mortem patris pro filio,Latin for "After the death of the father, support the son", a reference to the town's Royalist sympathies in theEnglish Civil War.[3] Small villages and settlements in the immediate area includeStapleton.
At the end of the 11th century, the moderntownship of Pontefract consisted of two distinct localities, Tanshelf and Kirkby.[4] The 11th-century historian Orderic Vitalis recorded that, in 1069,William the Conqueror travelled across Yorkshire to put down an uprising which had sacked York.
On his journey to the town, he discovered that a crossing of theRiver Aire near what is modern-day Pontefract had been blockaded by localAnglo-Scandinavianinsurgents, who had broken the bridge and held the opposite bank in force.[5] Such a crossing point would have been important to the town, providing access to other settlements to the north and east, such as York.[6] Historians believe that it is this historical event which gives the township of Pontefract its modern name. The name "Pontefract" originates from the Latinpons for bridge andfractus meaning broken.[7] Pontefract was not recorded in the 1086Domesday Book, but it was noted as Pontefracto in 1090, four years after the Domesday survey.[8]
In 2007, an extension ofFerrybridge Henge – aNeolithichenge – was discovered near Pontefract during a survey in preparation for the construction of a row of houses. Once the survey was complete, construction continued.[9]
The modern town is situated near an oldRoman road (now the A639), described as the "Roman Ridge". This is believed to form part of an alternative route fromDoncaster to York via Castleford and Tadcaster, as a diversion of the major Roman roadErmine Street, which may have been used to avoid having to cross theRiver Humber nearNorth Ferriby during rough weather conditions over the Humber.
The period of Yorkshire's history between the demise of the Viking king, Eric Bloodaxe, in 954 and the arrival of the Normans in 1068 is known as the Anglo-Scandinavian age. The modern township of Pontefract consisted of two Anglo-Scandinavian settlements, Tanshelf and Kirkby. In Yorkshire, place-name locations often contain the distinctive Danish '-by' i.e. Kirkby and today, the major streets in Pontefract are designated by the Danish word 'gate' e.g. Bailygate.
The Anglo-Scandinavian township, Tanshelf, recorded asTateshale,Tateshalla,Tateshalle orTatessella in the 'Domesday Book' is today occupied by the town of Pontefract. TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle made a reference to Tanshelf in 947 when King Eadred of England met with the ruling council of Northumbria to accept its submission. King Eadred did not enjoy Northumbria's support for long, and a year later the kingdom voted Eric Bloodaxe King of York.[10]
When the Domesday survey was commissioned byWilliam the Conqueror in 1086, Tanshelf was a sizeable settlement. It had a priest, 60 petty burgesses, 16 cottagers, 16 villagers and 8 smallholders, amounting to 101 people. The size of the population might have been four or five times larger as the only people listed were landholders. Tanshelf had a church, a fishery and three mills. Archaeologists discovered the remains of a church on The Booths, off North Baileygate, below the castle. The oldest grave dates from around 690. The church may have been similar to the church atLedsham. The area of the town market place was the meeting place of theOsgoldcrosswapentake.[11] In the Anglo-Saxon period part of the modern town was known by the Anglo-Scandinavian name as Kirkby.
After theNorman conquest in 1066 almost all of Yorkshire came under the ownership of followers ofWilliam the Conqueror,[12] one of whom wasIlbert de Lacy who became the owner of Tateshale (Tanshelf) where he built a castle.[12]Pontefract Castle began as a woodenmotte and bailey castle before 1086 and was later rebuilt in stone. The de Lacys lived there for more than two centuries[13] and were holders of the castle and theHonour of Pontefract from 1067[14] until the death of Alice de Lacy in 1348.[15]
King Richard II was murdered at the castle in 1400.[16][17] Little is known of the nature of his demise; Shakespeare may have "adjusted" the facts for his own purposes.[18] At least three theories attempt to explain his death:[19] either he was starved to death by his keepers, he starved himself to death or he was murdered by Sir Piers (Peter) Exton on 14 February 1399 or 1400.[20]
In Elizabethan times the castle and the town were both referred to as "Pomfret".[16]William Shakespeare's playRichard III mentions the castle:
Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison,
Fatal and ominous to noble peers!
Within the guilty closure of thy walls
Richard the second here was hack'd to death;
And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,
We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.[16]
Pontefract suffered throughout theEnglish Civil War. In 1648–49 the castle was laid siege byOliver Cromwell, who said it was "... one of the strongest inland garrisons in the kingdom."[16] Three sieges by the Parliamentarians left the town "impoverished and depopulated".[21] In March 1649, after the third siege, Pontefract inhabitants, fearing a fourth, petitioned Parliament for the castle to beslighted.[21] The castle was a magnet for trouble,[21] and demolition began in April 1649.[21] The castle ruins are publicly accessible.Pontefract Priory, aCluniac priory founded in 1090 by Robert de Lacy dedicated toSt John the Evangelist wasdissolved by royal authority in 1539.[22] The priory maintained the Chartularies of St John, a collection of historic documents later discovered among family papers byThomas Levett, theHigh Sheriff of Rutland, a native of Yorkshire, who gave them toRoger Dodsworth, anantiquary.[23] They were published by theYorkshire Archaeological Society.[24]
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For local government purposes, the town lies in theCity of Wakefield and is administered byWakefield Council. It is divided into two electoral wards,Pontefract North andPontefract South. Pontefract South was represented by two Labour councillors and one Conservative councillor and North ward represented by three Labour councillors in 2022.[25]
From 1978 to 1997, ex-miner and formerNUM branch leaderGeoff Lofthouse (18 December 1925 – 1 November 2012) wasMember of Parliament (MP) for thePontefract and Castleford constituency. During this time, he became Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. When the general election of 1997 was called, he stood down. He was made a peer on 11 June 1997.
Yvette Cooper was elected as the MP for the Pontefract and Castleford constituency at the1997 general election. In her maiden speech to theHouse of Commons, Cooper said:
"It is true that my constituency is plagued by unemployment, but I represent hard-working people who are proud of their strong communities and who have fought hard across generations to defend them. They are proud of their socialist traditions, and have fought for a better future for their children and their grandchildren. In the Middle Ages, that early egalitarian, the realRobin Hood, lived, so we maintain, in theVale of Wentbridge to the south of Pontefract. It was a great base from which to hassle the travellingfat cats on theGreat North Road."
She held a number of positions in the Labour governments up to 2010 and Shadow Cabinet roles (most notablyShadow Home Secretary) after the election of that year, but returned to the back benches after theLabour leadership election of 2015. Pontefract and Castleford was merged with theNormanton constituency in a boundary change before the2010 general election.
The seat, which had a history of mining and industry, has returned Labour MPs atgeneral elections. Yvette Cooper polled 59.5% of the vote in the2017 general election and 48.1% of the vote in the2019 general election.
Pontefract has been amarket town since theMiddle Ages; market days are Wednesday and Saturday, with a small market on Fridays. The covered market is open all week except Sundays. It is said by some that Pontefract once held a record for being the town with the highest number of pubs per square mile in the UK,[26][27] but this is likely an urban legend, and the title is held by another town.[28]
The town has aliquorice-sweet industry; further, the famousPontefract cakes are produced, though the liquorice plant is no longer grown there. The town's two liquorice factories are owned byHaribo andValeo Confectionery (formerly Tangerine). A Liquorice festival is held annually.Poet laureateSir John Betjeman wrote a poem entitled "The Licorice Fields at Pontefract". In 2012, local farmer Robert Copley announced that he would be re-introducing a liquorice crop to Pontefract.[29][30]
Close by is the site of the former coal-firedFerrybridge power station, although the localcoal mines largely closed in the 1990s, which contributed to high unemployment in the local area. The final colliery,Prince of Wales Colliery, closed in August 2002.[31] It has since been redeveloped into a large housing estate named after the colliery.[32]
The secondary schools in the town areCarleton High School inCarleton and theKing's School on Mill Hill Lane, both for pupils aged 11–16. A sixth-form college,New College, Pontefract, is located on Park Lane.
The old Pontefract General Infirmary on Southgate (pictured) was a general hospital; it is the place at which serial killerHarold Shipman began to murder his elderly patients. Beneath this building is an oldhermitage, open to the public on certain days.Pontefract Museum, from which the hermitage schedule can be obtained, is in the town centre, housed in the formerCarnegie library.[33]
A new hospital was built on Friarwood Lane and opened in July 2010, with the new name ofPontefract Hospital; there is now a modern hospital building. Near to the hospital is Friarwood Valley Gardens, a rose garden, a sensory garden, a pinhole camera (formerly an aviary and earlier a Georgian gambling den) and an avenue of cherry trees.
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The local police force isWest Yorkshire Police, with the town's neighbourhood policing team situated at the new fire station on Stumpcross Lane. The original police station in Sessions House Yard has been demolished since the divisional headquarters for the Wakefield District opened in Normanton and the neighbouring magistrates' court has moved toLeeds, following the closure of the Wakefield and Pontefract courts.
Fire cover is provided byWest Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, with one pump (sometimes two) based at Pontefract Fire Station. Formerly located on Stuart Road in the town centre, the station has moved to a new site at Stumpcross Lane, by the A645 at the town's eastern edge. The new fire station provides cover for Knottingley; that town's fire station having been closed as part of the merging of fire cover for Pontefract and Knottingley.
Ambulance cover is provided byYorkshire Ambulance service, whose depot is situated in neighbouring town,Castleford.
The Territorial Army, Army Cadets and Air Training Corps all have a presence within the town and are based at the historicBarracks building on Wakefield Road. It now houses a Rifles Regiment Recruitment team.
Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC Yorkshire andITV Yorkshire. Television signals are received from theEmley Moor TV transmitter.[34]
Local radio stations areBBC Radio Leeds on 92.4 FM,Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire (formerlyRidings FM) on 106.8 FM,Heart Yorkshire on 106.2 FM,Hits Radio West Yorkshire (formerlyPulse 1) on 102.5 FM,Capital Yorkshire on 105.1 FM and 5 Towns FM, a community online radio station that broadcasts fromCastleford.[35]
The local newspaper is thePontefract and Castleford Express.
NovelistJack Vance, in the "Demon Princes" cycle has named the capital of Aloysius, the main planet in the Vega system, after Pontefract. The hero of the series, Kirth Gersen, has his residence there.
Pontefract made local and national newspapers in April 2020, with a range of art which lay tribute to the key workers and NHS during the coronavirus outbreak. The art was painted by a local mural artist, Rachel List.[36]
The town is home to many sports including rugby, football and squash. Prominent squash playersLee Beachill andJames Willstrop both train at Pontefract Squash Club. Notable institutions are horse racing atPontefract Racecourse andFeatherstone Rovers, the area's professional rugby league club.
Pontefract Racecourse is the longest continuous horse racing circuit in Europe at 2 miles 125 yards (3,333 m; 16.57 furlongs).[37] It stages flat racing between the end of March and the end of October. A new sports centre is located at Pontefract Park which opened on 12 April 2021, which replaces the old swimming pool located on Stuart Road.[38] Two-time European Masters Champion weightlifter Martyn Riley is from Pontefract.[39]
Pontefract has its own non-league football club,Pontefract Collieries F.C., which was founded in 1958 and plays adjacent to the former Prince of Wales Colliery off Beechnut Lane. The team, known locally as "Ponte Colls" play in theNorthern Premier League Division One North West (correct as of the 2021–22 season). Pontefract is also home to the Pontefract Knights rugby league football club.
Pontefract RUFC is based at Moor Lane,Carleton.[40] It runs three senior sides as well as a number of junior and girls teams.[41] Rugby Union has been played in the town since the 19th century when Pontefract won the Yorkshire Cup.
Pontefract used to boast two cricket clubs, Lakeside CC (based in Pontefract Park) and Pontefract CC (adjacent to Pontefract Collieries FC), but by 2002 neither of these clubs were still in existence, leaving the town without its own club despite giving its name to the Pontefract and District Cricket League. Nowadays cricketers must travel to clubs in neighbouring towns and villages, with the closest being Hundhill Hall Cricket Club based in the nearby villageEast Hardwick.
Pontefract lies in close proximity to theA1 and theM62. Access from the A1 is via a junction at the nearby village ofDarrington, while access from the M62 is via Junction 32 (also forCastleford) and Junction 33 (also forKnottingley).
Bus transport is provided byArriva Yorkshire, operating fromPontefract bus station as the town's main hub.
There are three railway stations in the town.[42]Pontefract Baghill is on theDearne Valley Line, which connectsYork andSheffield.Pontefract Monkhill andPontefract Tanshelf connect withLeeds,Wakefield Westgate andWakefield Kirkgate. There are rail services fromBradford Interchange to London that stop atPontefract Monkhill.
The closest airport isLeeds Bradford.
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It has been said that Pontefract once held a world record for having the highest number of pubs per square mile.
it is believed that the town now has the highest concentration of pubs in the whole of the UK.
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