Wakefield

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Wakefield (disambiguation).


Wakefield
Image:dot4gb.svg
Statistics
Population: 79,885
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference: SE335205
Administration
Metropolitan Borough: City of Wakefield
Metropolitan county: West Yorkshire
Region: Yorkshire and the Humber
Constituent country: England
Sovereign state: United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county: West Yorkshire
Historic county: Yorkshire (West Riding)
Services
Police force: West Yorkshire Police
Fire and rescue service: {{{Fire}}}
Ambulance service: Yorkshire
Post office and telephone
Post town: WAKEFIELD
Postal district: WF* ***
Dialling code: 01924
Politics
UK Parliament: Wakefield (Mary Creagh) - Labour, 2005-)
European Parliament: Yorkshire and the Humber

Wakefield is a city in Yorkshire, south of Leeds, and by the River Calder. Its population was 76,886 in 2001, of which 1,657 were prisoners. Today it forms part of a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire named the City of Wakefield. The boundaries of the actual city are subject to a wide range of definitions[1], and it is not clear what definition the census was using in its calculations.

The town was a centre for cloth dealing and had its own Piece Hall. Coal-mining was historically a large employer, although it never dominated Wakefield in the way of nearby towns such as Castleford and Hemsworth. By the time of the 1984 Miners' Strike, all the pits in the city had already been closed, but there were 15 pits in the rest of the district and demonstrations in support of the strike frequently took place in the city. The city suffered a double blow through the closure of local pits and the abolition of West Yorkshire County Council, which had been based in Wakefield. It long remained a depressed area, but fortunes have risen recently and unemployment is now around the national average.

Wakefield Cathedral is a 14th century parish church, which was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 19th century. There is also a 14th century Chantry Chapel, one of only four remaining in England. The chapel tops a buttress on a bridge over the River Calder.

There are two train stations in the city centre -Wakefield Westgate (trains mainly to Leeds, Doncaster, Sheffield and stations on the East Coast Mainline, including the terminus at London King's Cross} and Wakefield Kirkgate (trains mainly to Barnsley and Castleford) - as well as the "Sandal & Agbrigg" station on the East Coast Mainline, just to the south of the main Westgate station. Wakefield Westgate station is maintained by Great North Eastern Railways (GNER), who operate the Leeds-London service, and is manned with facilities such as secure car parking, ticket office and shops. In contrast, Wakefield Kirkgate station is unmanned, and there is no ticket office or machine. Most of the windows at the front of the station are boarded-up, and the pub opposite, "The Wakefield Arms", has stood derelict for over twenty years. Kirkgate station is operated by Northern Rail

Wakefield has a very large range of cultural attractions: one of Europe's foremost sculpture parks, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, what was to have been the Duke of York's stronghold in the North, Sandal Castle, the nearby National Coal Mining Museum for England, a town-centre art gallery and a museum.

Wakefield is distinctive in having had an unusually high amount of council housing, and in 2004 when tenants voted overwhelmingly to transfer the entire housing stock to a new registered social landlord (called Wakefield District Housing) it became the second largest stock transfer in British history. The city of Wakefield itself contains seven council estates and was almost 50% council-rented, whilst the wider Wakefield district also includes nearby towns such as Pontefract, Castleford, Hemsworth, Horbury and Ossett. The city's largest estate is Lupset, in the west; the others are called Flanshaw, Plumpton, Peacock, Eastmoor, Portobello [known affectionately as "bella"] and Kettlethorpe.

Cheapside is the longest continuous street of woolstaplers' warehouses in England.

The area of Westgate was historically held to have the largest number of adjacent pubs in England. The famous Westgate Run or 'Pub Crawl' even has its own website, The Westgate Run.

The Wakefield Labour Club is housed in a distinctive wooden building on Vicarage Street South. The building is basically a shed, painted red, and so has become better known as "The Red Shed".

Wakefield is also known for the Wakefield Cycle, a collection of 32 mystery plays, dating from the 14th century, which were performed as part of the summertime religious festival of Corpus Christi and revived in recent times.

Wakefield
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Wakefield

The film, "This Sporting Life (1963)" is about Wakefield and the hard realities of the mines and Rugby League, directed by Lindsay Anderson, written by David Storey and starring Richard Harris.

Wakefield is also occasionally known as the capital of the Rhubarb Triangle, an area famous for its early forced Rhubarb. Wakefield is one of the points of the triangular area with the neighbouring towns of Morley and Rothwell at the other two, and is also home to the annual 8 day "Rhubarb Festival" which consists of various themed tours, talks, exhibitions and markets. In July 2005 a statue was erected to celebrate this facet of Wakefield

In June 2005 Wakefield was the scene of the television programme Most Haunted, who hosted a summer solstice special in various locations around the city, including Wakefield Opera House.

Wakefield has its own newspaper, the Wakefield Express, and radio station Ridings FM.

The Town Hall, Wood St.
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The Town Hall, Wood St.

Contents

[edit] History

Its name is often said to derive from "Wacca's field" -- the field belonging to Wacca. However, it is more likely to have evolved from Old English wacu, meaning "a watch or wake", and feld, an open field in which a wake was held (Reaney, 1964, p.161). In the Domesday Book in 1086, it was listed as Wachefeld (Mills, 1998, p. 361). It was dubbed the Merrie City in the Middle Ages.

In 1460, during the Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was defeated near this city (then a town) in the Battle of Wakefield. The ruins of Sandal Castle can still be visited. They are set in pleasant parkland near Pugneys Country Park, a popular walking spot for locals.

Wakefield was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1848 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.

Visit Wakefield Tourist Information Centre, located on The Bull Ring near Queen Victoria statue, for more information about the Wakefield District. Information is kept on all major events, festivals and attractions in the area.

Information about Wakefield’s Museums, Galleries and Castles can now be found on the website Museums Castles and Galleries

As well as everyday information such as opening hours of the District’s seven museums there is a What's On diary and links to help you carry out historical research on the web.

Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Sport Denise Jeffery said: “Our museums, castles and galleries provide so much heritage and enjoyment to everyone who visits and this can now be extended to them in their homes or libraries. “

The site has been produced with Label Media Web Design Studio in Leeds and complements the information already available on the Wakefield Council website.

Information is regularly added to the website including on-line exhibitions and catalogues of the museum collections.

Citizens can access the internet for free at Wakefield’s libraries if they do not have access at home. Library employees are only too willing to help people get on line for the first time.

[edit] Music

Indie groups The Cribs (official site) and The Research went to college in Wakefield. 70's rock band Be Bop deluxe's founder, Bill Nelson was born in Wakefield.

The Wakefield Cathedral Choir consists of boys, girls and men who perform at religious services, concerts and recitals at the cathedral. Choral Evensong with the boys is on Tuesdays and on Thursdays the boys are joined by the men. The girls perform Evensong on Friday evenings and Parish Eucharist on Sunday mornings. The boys and men also sing at Solemn Eucharist and Evensong on Sundays. The choir, directed by Jonathan Bielby assisted by Thomas Moore, is one of the most successful cathedral choirs in the UK. Recent tours to America, Sweden and Tuscany have enabled the magnificence of their music to be appreciated on the world stage. Recent appearances on BBC 1 'Songs of Praise' and Radio 3 'Choral Evensong' have cemented their position as one of the most acclaimed cathedral choirs in England.

Scott Wakefield of Cranbourne stemmed from the Wakefield bloodline

[edit] Famous people born in or near Wakefield

[edit] Famous songs regarding Wakefield

  • "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush" - about Wakefield Gaol
  • "The Grand Old Duke of York" - commonly attributed to be written about the battle of Wakefield, referring to Richard, the grand old duke.

[edit] Sport

Wakefield is known for its rugby league club, the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. Formed in 1873, the club has had a chequered history, with their glory period in the 1960s with Neil Fox, Derek 'Rocky' Turner, Keith Holliday and Harold Poynton under coach Ken Traill.

They now play in the elite Super League division on the sport.

Wakefield RFC were the city's rugby union club from 1901 to 2004 when the club ceased playing after relegation and lack of funding.

Wakefield FC play their football in the Unibond League First Division after their move from the village of Emley in 2001. They played at Belle Vue as tenants of the Wildcats until the end of the 2005/6 season following their relegation. They have moved to College Grove for the start of the 2006/7 season.

Cricket and amateur rugby league is played in many of the villages around the city.

One other notable team was skater hockey's Wakefield Warriors, which during their short life, were crowned British and European Champions.

[edit] Prisons

Wakefield is less celebrated but nevertheless well known for its prisons.

  • Wakefield Prison is a maximum security prison, one of the most secure in Britain, and has included many notorious inmates including Ian Huntley, Harold Shipman (Harold Shipman is the third serial killer to have been found hanging in his cell in the last decade) and Charles Bronson. Wakefield was originally built as a house of correction in 1594. The current prison was designated a dispersal prison in 1966 (longest of remaining original group). It is now a lifer main centre with the focus on serious sex offenders. The current governor is David R Thompson, Director-General elect of Her Majesty's Prison Service.
  • The nearby HMP New Hall is a multi-use prison for women, young female offenders and girls on Detention and Training Orders (DTOs).

[edit] Location Grid


North: Leeds
West: Dewsbury Wakefield East: Pontefract
South: Barnsley

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Mills, A.D. (1998). A dictionary of English place-names (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280074-4.
  • Reaney, P.H. (1964). The origin of English place-names (corrected 3rd pr.). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7100-2010-4.
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