Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire
Historical Description
Wakefield, a town, a township, a parish, a municipal and parliamentary borough, and a city, in W.R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Calder, at a convergence of railways, 9 miles SSE of Leeds; is supposed to date from the time of the Romans, was known at Domesday as Wachefeld, took that name probably from an early Saxon proprietor; was the head of an ancient manor, held by the Crown in both the Saxon and the Norman times, and extending several miles to the E and to the borders of the county on the W; adjoins the scene of a great battle between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians fought on 31 Dec. 1460, which is referred to in Shakespeare's "King Henry VI." The town suffered severely from military operations in the Civil Wars of Charles I. It numbers among its natives Bishop Henry de Wakefield of the 14th century, the scholar and vicar Robertson (1507-60), the Roman Catholic writer H. Cressey (1605-74), Dr John Radcliffe (1650-1714), Archbishop Potter (1674-1747), the theologian T. Robinson (1749-1813), the architect Harrison (1744-1829), the Christian antiquary Bingham (1668-1723), the ecclesiastical historian Dr J. Burton (1697-1771), and the theologian Dr T. Touch. Wakefield was made a parliamentary borough in 1832, and a municipal borough in 1848, is divided into seven wards, sends one member to Parliament, and is governed by a mayor, 8 aldermen, and 24 councillors; is the headquarters of the West Riding of Yorkshire County Council, a seat of petty sessions, quarter sessions, and county courts, and a polling place; contested with Leeds the claim of being constituted the assize town for the West Riding, publishes four weekly newspapers, presents a well-aligned, well-built, and handsome appearance, and has a head post office, two railway stations, four banks and four branches of the Yorkshire Penny Bank, and numerous good public buildings.
A nine-arched bridge spans the Calder, was built in the time of Edward III., and is surmounted by a beautiful chantry, 30 feet by 24, originally erected by Sir Robert Knolles in the same reign, and rebuilt by Edward IV. in memory of his father; long used as a factor's counting-house, &c., but restored in 1847 at a cost of about £3000, and now used each Sunday afternoon as a chapel of ease. A cross, in the Doric style, with a colonnade and a dome, which stood in the old market-place, and built about 1720, was pulled down under a public improvement scheme in 1866. The court-house is a handsome structure, with a tetrastyle Doric portico. The present town-hall was opened in 1880, about three years having been occupied in its construction. It is a fine, spacious stone building, and within it are concentrated all the municipal offices. In 1891 a Technical and Art School was established. A large, beautifully-located public park, on the south-western side of the borough, was opened in 1893. The moot hall was used for the courts of quarter sessions until the West Riding Court-house was erected, in Wood Street, in 1808. Until recent times there were courts baron, styled courts of the lord of the manor, and courts leet, called courts of our sovereign lady the Queen. In the Rolls Office are deposited the records of the manor; they date back to 1272. The Register Office for Deeds, in Kirkgate, is the oldest of the four English registries. The headquarters of the West Riding Probate Court are here, so likewise are those of the West Riding County Constabulary. Wakefield public baths, in Almshouse Lane, were originated by a private company, and taken over by the Corporation in 1884. Offices for the West Riding County Council were commenced near the Town Hall in June, 1894, and the entire work, external and internal, will, it is expected, be finished early in 1897. Architecturally, the structure will be stately and elaborate, and will be surmounted by a tower about 110 feet high. The contract is for £76,824, but it is thought that the entire cost of construction, equipment, &c., will be not far short of £120,000. The whole of the official offices of the West Riding, with the exception of the Registry of Deeds, will be located in this building. The Clayton Hospital was erected in 1854, at the expense of T. Clayton, Esq. About 1879 it was enlarged or practically rebuilt. It is a fine, imposing structure, and is the infirmary of the city. The Corn Exchange was built in 1837, and greatly enlarged in 1862, and is ornamental and commodious. The market-house, market-place, and slaughter-houses were erected at a cost of more than £20,000. The Mechanics' Institution contains a saloon or lecture-room, and a good library and newsroom. The Church Institution is a handsome Gothic edifice of 1861. In the autumn of 1894 a new opera house, erected on the site of the old theatre in Westgate, was opened. It is an ornate, commodious, thoroughly up-to-date structure. The county house of correction occupies a plot of nearly 20 acres; has been twice enlarged since 1820, at a cost of £120,000; is used as a gaol for the confinement of prisoners for periods up to two years, and also as a convict depot. The lunatic asylum was opened in 1818, and enlarged at several periods subsequently. It cost upwards of £100,000, and has accommodation for 1400 patients, with convalescent homes, ministrative quarters, workshops, complete farmstead, handsome church, &c.
There are in the city 29 places of worship, exclusive of Salvation Army and mission rooms, viz.:-Church of England (including chantry), 10; Wesleyan Methodists, 4; Primitive Methodists, 8; Free Methodist, 1; New Connexion, 1; Methodist Free Church, 2; Congregationalists, 3; Unitarian, 1; General Baptist, 1; Friends, 1; Christian Church, 1; Roman Catholic, 1. The original parish church was an Anglo-Norse structure. This was succeeded by another in 1329, and a third was erected on the same site about 1470. This third edifice, much renovated, is the present structure; and in 1888, when the diocese of Wakefield was established, it became the cathedral, the Right Rev. W. Walsham How, D.D., suffragan of Bedford, being enthroned the first bishop on 25 June in that year. During the past thirty years upwards of £30,000 have been expended in improving the general structure. The tower of the cathedral is surmounted by an octagonal spire, both having been restored under the direction of Sir G. Gilbert Scott between 1857 and 1862. Wakefield diocese includes part of the ecclesiastical parish of Harley Wood, in Lancashire, and the deaneries of Birstall, Dewsbury, Halifax (except part of Harley Wood, in Lancashire), Huddersfield, and Silkstone, in the W.R. Yorkshire. Population, 719,734. All Saints' Church is partly of The time of Henry III., and partly of the 18th century; measures 156 feet by 69, and has a tower and spire 237 feet high, restored in 1861 at a cost of £5000. St John's Church was built in 1791, at a cost of £10,000; St Andrew's, in 1846, at a cost of £3000; St Mary's, more recently, at a cost of £2150; Trinity, in 1839; St Michael's, in 1856. There are sixteen public schools in the city, all except two being of the voluntary or non-board kind. A School Board was formed here in 1871. In respect to the voluntary schools they have accommodation for 5600 scholars, the average attendance being 4500. At the Board schools there is accommodation for 1100 scholars, and the average attendance is 900. The old grammar school has been very considerably enlarged, and is now open as a day school in connection with the cathedral. The grammar-school was founded in 1592, has £335 from endowment, and several exhibitions and scholarships, and had Archbishop Potter, Dr Radcliffe, and Dr Bentley for pupils. An ultra-mural cemetery lies on the road to Heath village, and is very tastefully laid out.
A fair for Wakefield was granted originally to William, Earl Warren, by King John, in 1204. There are now a weekly market for corn, vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish, held on Friday; a weekly market for cattle (one of the greatest in the kingdom) and sheep every Wednesday; and fairs for cattle and sheep are held on 4 and 5 July, and on 11 and 12 Nov. The woollen trade was so extensive in the time of Henry VIII. that Leland describes the town as standing all by clothing, and that trade, though greatly fallen off, is still carried on. Making and brewing are very extensive; soap-making and artificial manure-making are also largely carried on; and there are several iron foundries, machine-making establishments, and very extensive corn-mills. The manor was given by Henry I. to the Wan-ens of Sandal Castle, reverted aftewards to the Crown, was then given by Edward III. first to his son Edmund de Langley, next to Richard Duke of York, father of Edward IV.; passed in 1554 to the duchy of Lancaster, went afterwards to the Earl of Holland, the Cliftons, and others, and belongs now to the Fox family. The rights of sokeage were leased by the late Sir T. Pilkington, Bart., and were purchased by the inhabitants in 1853 for £18,000. The commission of the peace for the borough was issued on 7 March, 1870, and the present number of borough magistrates is 24. The police force, in 1895, consisted of 1 chief constable, 2 inspectors, 5 sergeants, and 32 ordinary constables. Population of the municipal borough In 1861, 23,350; 1871, 28,069; 1881, 30,854; 1891, 33,146. The area of the city up to the beginning of November, 1895, was 1553 acres. Afterwards the boundaries were enlarged. The population of the Union (which consists of twenty-five townships) is about 103,000. In 1895 there were in the Union about 2000 outdoor paupers, and 260 of the indoor kind.
At Woodkirk, near Wakefield, the Widkirk or Townley miracle plays were formerly performed, and it is said that one of them, a Shepherd's play, may, apart from its religious close, be accounted the first English farce. In the neighbourhood and on the southern side of Wakefield there is Walton Hall, where Charles Waterton, the notable naturalist, was born, and where he resided for many years during the latter portion of his life. He died there in 1865, and was interred within the private grounds of the place. On the same side of Wakefield, but nearer than Walton Hall, are the ruins of Sandal Castle, a stronghold made by Earl Warren in or about 1250. During the Civil War in 1645, Sandal Castle surrendered to the Parliamentary troops, and in the following year it was dismantled by order of Parliament. The ruins are now very meagre.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Yorkshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Wakefield All Saints | |
Riding | West | |
Wapentake | Agbrigg |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Wakefield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wakefield (All Saints))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for the West Riding of Yorkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Wakefield are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following West Riding newspapers online: