Visit Wakefield Places

Welcome to Visit Wakefield Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Wakefield

  

Wakefield Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Wakefield

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Wakefield history

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Toponymy

The name “Wakefield” may have evolved from the Old English word wacu, meaning “a watch or wake”, and feld, an open field in which a wake or festival was held . In the Domesday Book of 1086, it was written Wachefeld and also as Wachefelt .

Early history

Flint and stone tools and later bronze and iron implements have been found at Lee Moor and Lupset in the Wakefield area showing evidence of human activity since prehistoric times. This part of Yorkshire was home to the Brigantes until the Roman occupation in AD 43. A Roman road from Pontefract passing Streethouse, Heath Common, Ossett Street Side, through Kirklees and on to Manchester crossed the River Calder by a ford at Wakefield near the site of Wakefield Bridge. A large group of coin moulds, the Lingwell Gate coin moulds, representing Romano-British coin forgery were found at Lingwell Gate between 1697 and 1879. Wakefield was probably occupied again this time by the Angles in the 5th or 6th century and after AD 876 the area was controlled by the Vikings who founded twelve hamlets or thorpes around Wakefield. They divided the area into wapentakes and Wakefield was part of the Wapentake of Agbrigg. The settlement grew near a crossing place on the River Calder around three roads, Westgate, Northgate and Kirkgate. The “gate” suffix derives from Old Norse gata meaning road and kirk, from kirkja indicates there was a church. Before 1066 the manor of Wakefield belonged to Edward the Confessor and it passed to William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings. After the Conquest Wakefield was a victim of the Harrying of the North in 1069 when William the Conqueror took revenge on the local population for resistance to Norman rule. The settlement was recorded as Wachfeld in the Domesday Book of 1086, and covered a much greater area than present day Wakefield, much of which was described as “waste”. The manor was granted by the crown to William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey whose descendants, the Earls Warenne, inherited it after his death in 1088. The construction of Sandal Castle began early in the 12th century. A second castle, Wakefield Castle, was built at Lawe Hill on the north side of the Calder but was abandoned. Wakefield and its environs formed the caput of an extensive baronial holding by the Warennes that extended to Cheshire and Lancashire. The Warennes, and their feudal sublords, held the area until the 14th century, when it passed to their heirs. Norman tenants holding land in the region included the Lyvet family at Lupset. The Domesday Book recorded two churches, one in Wakefield and one in Sandal Magna. The Saxon church in Wakefield was rebuilt in about 1100 in stone in the Norman style and was continually enlarged until 1315 when the central tower collapsed. By 1420 the church was again rebuilt and was extended between 1458 and 1475. In 1203 William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey received a grant for a market in the town. In 1204 King John granted the rights for a fair at the feast of All Saints, 1 November, and in 1258 Henry III granted the right for fair on the feast of Saint John the Baptist, 24 June. The market was close to the Bull Ring and the church. The townsfolk of Wakefield amused themselves in games and sports, the chief sport in the 14th century was archery and the butts in Wakefield were at the Ings, near the river. Wakefield was dubbed the “Merrie City” in the Middle Ages During the Wars of the Roses, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York was killed on 30 December 1460 in the Battle of Wakefield near Sandal Castle. In medieval times Wakefield became an inland port on the Calder and centre for the woollen and tanning trades. In 1538 John Leland described Wakefield as, “a very quick market town and meately large; well served of fish and flesh both from sea and by rivers … so that all vitaile is very good and chepe there. A right honest man shall fare well for 2d. a meal. … There be plenti of se coal in the quarters about Wakefield”. As preparation for the impending invasion by the Spanish Armada in April 1558, 400 men from the wapentake of Morley and Agbrigg were summoned to Bruntcliffe near Morley with their weapons. Men from Kirkgate, Westgate, Northgate and Sandal were amongst them and all returned by August. At the time of the Civil War, Wakefield was a Royalist stronghold. An attack led by Sir Thomas Fairfax on 20 May 1643 captured the town for the Parliamentarians. Over 1500 troops were taken prisoner along with the Royalist commander, Lieutenant-General Goring. In 1699 an Act of Parliament was passed creating the Aire and Calder Navigation which provided the town with access to the North Sea. The first Registry of Deeds in the country opened in 1704 and in 1765 Wakefield’s cattle market was established and became the one of largest in the north of England. The town was a centre for cloth dealing, with its own piece hall, the Tammy Hall, built in 1766. In the late 1700s Georgian town houses and St John’s Church were built to the north of the town centre.

Industrial Revolution

At the start of 19th century Wakefield was a wealthy market town and inland port trading in wool and grain . More was sold in Wakefield than at any other market in the north . There was a glass works in Calder Vale Road, several breweries including Melbourne’s and Beverley’s Eagle Breweries, engineering works, soapworks and brickyards in Eastmoor .

20th century

There are seven ex-council estates in Wakefield which the council started to build after the First World War . The glass and textile industries closed in the 1970s and 1980s . The coal mines around Wakefield were amongst the first in Yorkshire to close under the government of Margaret Thatcher .

Wakefield culture & places

Wakefield’s two central libraries moved into Wakefield One in October 2012. Wakefield Museum was officially opened by Sir David Attenborough on 9 March 2013. Hepworth Wakefield gallery is thought to be the largest purpose-built gallery to open in the UK since 1968. The Wakefield Express was founded in 1852 and Wakefield Guardian was established in 2007.

Wakefield economy & business

Regeneration

Trinity Walk retail development includes a department store, a supermarket and shop units . Wakefield Westgate Station goods yard and land on Westgate and Balne Lane have been developed to create retail, residential and commercial space . The Hepworth Wakefield art gallery, named in honour of local sculptor, Barbara Hepworth, opened in May 2011 .

Wakefield landmarks

The most prominent landmark in Wakefield is Wakefield Cathedral, which at 247 feet (75 m) has the tallest spire in Yorkshire. Other landmarks in the Civic Quarter include the Grade II* Neoclassical Crown Court of 1810, Wakefield Town Hall designed by T.E. Collcutt and the County Hall of 1898 built in a Queen Anne Style.

Wakefield geography / climate

Wakefield is 9 miles (14 km) south-east of Leeds and 28 miles south-west of York on the eastern edge of the Pennines in the lower Calder Valley. The city centre is sited on a low hill on the north bank of the River Calder close to a crossing place where it is spanned by a 14th-century, nine-arched, stone bridge and a reinforced concrete bridge.

You can visit Wakefield places with Walkfo Wakefield to hear history at Wakefield’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Wakefield has 50 places to visit in our interactive Wakefield map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Wakefield, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Wakefield places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Wakefield & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 50 audio facts unique to Wakefield places in an interactive Wakefield map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Wakefield Places Map
50 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Wakefield historic spots	Wakefield tourist destinations	Wakefield plaques	Wakefield geographic features
Walkfo Wakefield tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Wakefield

  

Best Wakefield places to visit

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Wakefield has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Wakefield’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Wakefield’s information audio spots:

Outwood Grange Academies Trust Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) operates thirty-seven schools across northern England and the East Midlands. It is an exempt charity, regulated by the Department for Education. The trust operates using an “80:20” principle, where 80% of how its schools operate is standardised and 20% is open to local innovation.

Wakefield Museum Wakefield Museum is a local museum in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, north England. It covers the history of the city of Wakefield and the local area from prehistoric times onwards.

City of Wakefield The population of the City of Wakefield at the 2011 Census was 325,837. Wakefield is the district’s administrative centre. The district includes the Five Towns, Normanton, Pontefract, Featherstone, Castleford and Knottingley.

Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin, Wakefield The Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin, Wakefield, is a Grade I Listed building. It is located south of the city centre on the medieval bridge over the River Calder. The chapel is the oldest and most ornate of the surviving bridge chapels in England.

Heath Hall, Heath, West Yorkshire Heath Hall, Heath, Wakefield, West Yorkshire is a Grade I listed country house. Originally called Eshald House, the estate was purchased by John Smyth. His nephew engaged John Carr of York to reconstruct the house between 1754 and 1780.

Fieldhead Hospital Fieldhead Hospital is a psychiatric and learning disability hospital in Wakefield, England. It is managed by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Visit Wakefield plaques