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Wakefield
Historical and geographical information
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Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
Headlines are in brown.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Contextual history is in purple.
This
webpage about the Wakefield has the
following section headings:
- Farndale
family history and Wakefield
- Wakefield,
overview
- Timeline of Wakefield
history
- Links, texts
and books
The Farndales of Wakefield
The
Wakefield 1 Line are the
descendants of Thomas Farndale (FAR00344) 1839
to 1919 who was an innkeeper in Wakefield (Smith's Arms) and also the
descendants of Robert Farndale (FAR00606).
Thomas Farndale’s son Joseph Farndale CBE
KPM (FAR00463) became
Chief Constable of Margate, York and later of Bradford.
Wakefield
Wakefield is a cathedral city in West
Yorkshire on the River Calder and the eastern edge of
the Pennines, which had a population of 99,251 at the 2011 census. The name Wakefield may derive from "Waca's field"
– the open land belonging to someone named "Waca" or could 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.
Wakefield Timeline
Prehistoric
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.
43 CE
This part of Yorkshire was home to the Brigantes until the Roman occupation in 43 CE. 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.
Fifth century
Wakefield was probably occupied again,
this time by the Angles, in the 5th or 6th century.
876 CE
After 876 CE Wakefield 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.
1066
Before 1066 the manor of Wakefield
belonged to Edward the Confessor and it passed to William the Conqueror after
the Battle of Hastings.
1069
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.
1086
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 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.
Twelfth century
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.
1203
In 1203 William de Warenne,
5th Earl of Surrey received a grant for a market in the town.
1204
In 1204 King John granted the rights for
a fair at the feast of All Saints, 1 November.
1258
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.
1460
The Battle of Wakefield took place in
the Wars of the Roses.
The battle took place in Sandal Magna on 30
December 1460. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The opposing
forces were an army led by nobles loyal to the captive King Henry VI of the
House of Lancaster and his Queen Margaret of Anjou on one side, and the army of
Richard, Duke of York, the rival claimant to the throne, on the other. For
several years before the battle, the Duke of York had become increasingly
opposed to the weak King Henry's court. After open warfare broke out between
the factions and Henry became his prisoner, he laid claim to the throne, but
lacked sufficient support. Instead, in an agreement known as the Act of Accord,
he was made Henry's heir to the throne, displacing from the succession Henry's
and Margaret's 7-year-old son Edward, Prince of Wales. Margaret of Anjou and
several prominent nobles were irreconcilably opposed to this accord, and massed
their armies in the north. Richard of York marched north to deal with them, but
found he was outnumbered. Although he occupied Sandal Castle, York sortied from
the castle on 30 December. His reasons for doing so have been variously
ascribed to deception by the Lancastrian armies, or treachery by some nobles
and Lancastrian officers who York thought were his allies, or simple rashness
or miscalculation by York. He was killed and his army was destroyed. Many of
the prominent Yorkist leaders and their family members died in the battle or
were captured and executed.
1643
Wakefield was a Royalist stronghold in
the Civil War. The capture of Wakefield occurred in March 1643 during the
First English Civil War when a Parliamentarian force attacked the Royalist
garrison of Wakefield. The Parliamentarians were outnumbered, having around
1,500 men under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax, compared to the 3,000 led by
George Goring in Wakefield. Despite being outnumbered, Parliamentarians
successfully stormed the town, taking roughly 1,400 prisoners.
1699
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 Aire and Calder and Calder and
Hebble Navigations and the Barnsley Canal were instrumental in
the development of Wakefield as an important market for grain and more was sold
here than at any other market in the north.
Wakefield became an important market
town and centre for wool, exploiting its position on the navigable River
Calder to become an inland port.
Eighteenth century
In the eighteenth century, Wakefield traded
in corn, coal mining and textiles.
Nineteenth century
By the early nineteenth century Wakefield
was a wealthy market town and inland port trading in wool and grain.
Large warehouses were built on the river banks
to store grain
from Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire to
supply the fast-growing population in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
When cloth dealing declined, wool spinning mills
using steam power were built by the river. There was a glass works in Calder
Vale Road, several breweries including Melbourne's and Beverley's
Eagle Breweries, engineering works with strong links to the mining industry, soapworks and brickyards in Eastmoor, giving the town a
diverse economy. Boats and sloops were built at yards on the
Calder.
1810
The first civic building in Wood Street, the
court house, was built in 1810.
1816
The West Riding Pauper ‘Lunatic’
Asylum was built at Stanley Royd, just outside the town on Aberford Road
in 1816.
During the 19th century, the Wakefield
Asylum played a central role in the development of British psychiatry,
with Henry Maudsley and James Crichton-Browne amongst its
medical staff. Most of it is now demolished.
1820
The Mechanics Institute containing an Assembly
Room, public library and newsroom supported by subscription was built in Wood
Street in 1820-1821 in the Classical
style with Ionic details.
Wakefield Literary Society ran there from 1827
until the 20th century and its Geological Society left artefacts to
Wakefield Museum.
1831
On the outskirts of the town, coal had been dug
since the 15th century and 300 men were employed in the town's coal pits
in 1831.
1837
Up to 1837 Wakefield relied on wells and springs
for its water supply; water from the River Calder was polluted, and various
water supply schemes were unsuccessful until reservoirs on the
Rishworth Moors and a service reservoir at Ardsley were built providing clean
water from 1888.
1840
The railways arrived in Wakefield in 1840
when Kirkgate station was built on the Manchester and Leeds
Railway.
1847
The old House of Correction of 1595 was rebuilt
as Wakefield Prison in 1847.
1853
Wakefield Union workhouse was built on Park
Lodge Lane, Eastmoor in 1853
1854
Clayton Hospital was built in 1854 after a
donation from Alderman Thomas Clayton .
1857
1869
During the 19th century more mines were
sunk so that there were 46 small mines in Wakefield and the surrounding
area by 1869. The National Coal Board eventually became
Wakefield's largest employer with Manor Colliery on Cross Lane and Park Hill
colliery at Eastmoor surviving until 1982.
Between 1870-1885 improvements were made on the
north side of town around St John's Church now a conservation area.
1885
Great quantities of barley were grown in the
neighbourhood and in 1885 more malt was
made in Wakefield "than in any district of equal extent in the kingdom".
The market developed in the streets around the
Bull Ring, and the cattle market between George Street and Ings Road grew to be
one of the biggest in the country.
Road transport using turnpiked roads
was important. Regular mail coaches departed
to Leeds, London,
Manchester, York and Sheffield and the 'Strafford Arms' was
an important coaching inn.
By 1885 the streets of the town were paved and
flagged and lit with gas supplied by a company incorporated in 1822.
1888
In 1888 Wakefield’s parish church
acquired cathedral status.
1889
Wakefield became the county town of
the West Riding of Yorkshire and was the seat of the West Riding County
Council from 1889 until 1974, when the county and council were abolished,
and of the West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council from 1974 until
its dissolution in 1986
1906
On 2 June 1906, Andrew Carnegie opened
a new Wakefield Library on Drury Lane which had been built with a grant of
£8,000 from the Carnegie Trust.
Links, texts and books