90-645: Pontefract is a historic market town in the City of Wakefield , a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire , England. It lies to the east of Wakefield and south of Castleford . Historically part of the West 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. Pontefract's motto is Post mortem patris pro filio , Latin for "After
180-590: A landskap (province), but since the government reform of 1634, län ("county") took over all administrative roles of the province. A härad functioned also as electoral district for one peasant representative during the Riksdag of the Estates (Swedish parliament 1436–1866). The häradsrätt ( assize court ) was the court of first instance in the countryside, abolished in 1971 and superseded by tingsrätt (modern district courts ). Today,
270-451: A Neolithic henge – was discovered near Pontefract during a survey in preparation for the construction of a row of houses. Once the survey was complete, construction continued. The modern town is situated near an old Roman road (now the A639), described as the "Roman Ridge". This is believed to form part of an alternative route from Doncaster to York via Castleford and Tadcaster, as
360-785: A county borough in 1913, taking it out of the jurisdiction of the West Riding County Council. The present boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 , when the County Borough of Wakefield merged with the West Riding municipal boroughs of Castleford , Ossett and Pontefract , the urban districts of Featherstone , Hemsworth , Horbury , Knottingley , Normanton and Stanley , along with Wakefield Rural District and parts of Hemsworth Rural District and Osgoldcross Rural District . The new metropolitan district 's city status
450-720: A better future for their children and their grandchildren. In the Middle Ages, that early egalitarian, the real Robin Hood , lived, so we maintain, in the Vale of Wentbridge to the south of Pontefract. It was a great base from which to hassle the travelling fat cats on the Great North Road ." She held a number of positions in the Labour governments up to 2010 and Shadow Cabinet roles (most notably Shadow Home Secretary ) after
540-466: A clerk and a knight were sent by the king to each county; they sat with the shire- reeve (or sheriff ), of the county and a select group of local knights. There would be two knights from each hundred. After it was determined what geld had to be paid, the bailiff and knights of the hundred were responsible for getting the money to the sheriff, and the sheriff for getting it to the Exchequer . Above
630-458: A commander. Eventually, that division was superseded by introducing the härad or Herred , which was the term in the rest of the Nordic countries . This word was either derived from Proto-Norse * harja-raiðō (warband) or Proto-Germanic * harja-raiða (war equipment, cf. wapentake) . Similar to skipreide , a part of the coast where the inhabitants were responsible for equipping and manning
720-812: A diversion of the major Roman road Ermine Street , which may have been used to avoid having to cross the River Humber near North 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
810-434: A fixed place; while in others, courts moved with each sitting to a different location. The main duty of the hundred court was the maintenance of the frankpledge system. The court was formed of twelve freeholders , or freemen. According to a 13th-century statute, freeholders did not have to attend their lord's manorial courts, thus any suits involving them would be heard in a hundred court. For especially serious crimes,
900-582: A foot". The legislation instead introduced the six-mile square township of the Public Land Survey System . In South Australia, land titles record in which hundred a parcel of land is located. Similar to the notion of the South Australian counties listed on the system of titles, hundreds are not generally used when referring to a district and are little known by the general population, except when transferring land title. When
990-443: A hide was the amount of land farmed by and required to support a peasant family, but by the eleventh century in many areas it supported four families. Alternatively the hundred may have been an area originally settled by one "hundred" men at arms, or the area liable to provide one "hundred" men under arms. In this early medieval use, the number term "hundred" can itself be unclear, meaning the "short" hundred (100) or in some contexts
SECTION 10
#17327767762471080-415: A hundred was the division of a shire for military and judicial purposes under the common law , which could have varying extent of common feudal ownership, from complete suzerainty to minor royal or ecclesiastical prerogatives and rights of ownership. Until the introduction of districts by the Local Government Act 1894 , hundreds were the only widely used assessment unit intermediate in size between
1170-459: A liquorice crop to Pontefract. Close by is the site of the former coal-fired Ferrybridge power station , although the local coal 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. has since been redeveloped into a large housing estate named after the colliery. The secondary schools in
1260-440: A local level in the feudal system . Of chief importance was their more regular use for taxation, and six centuries of taxation returns for the divisions survive to this day. Groupings of divisions, small shires , were used to define parliamentary constituencies from 1832 to 1885. On the redistribution of seats in 1885 a different county subdivision, the petty sessional division , was used. Hundreds were also used to administer
1350-577: A nature reserve." Two children's nursery rhymes with Wakefield connections are " Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush " which may have been sung by women inmates at Wakefield prison . and " The Grand Old Duke of York " which may allude to the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, referring to Richard Plantagenet , the 3rd Duke of York. The lyrics of the popular hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" were written at St Peter's Church in nearby Horbury. The area
1440-608: A pinhole camera (formerly an aviary and earlier a Georgian gambling den) and an avenue of cherry trees. The local police force is West 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
1530-594: A rural kihlakunta . In a rural hundred the lensmann (chief of local state authorities) was called nimismies ("appointed man"), or archaically vallesmanni (from Swedish). In the Swedish era (up to 1809), his main responsibilities were maintenance of stagecoach stations and coaching inns , supplying traveling government personnel with food and lodging, transport of criminal prisoners, police responsibilities, arranging district court proceedings ( tingsrätt ), collection of taxes, and sometimes arranging hunts to cull
1620-476: A similar subdivision of counties is referred to as a barony , and a hundred is a subdivision of a particularly large townland (most townlands are not divided into hundreds). The origin of the division of counties into hundreds is described by the Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) as "exceedingly obscure". It may once have referred to an area of 100 hides ; in early Anglo-Saxon England
1710-458: A war ship. Hundreds were not organized in Norrland , the northern sparsely populated part of Sweden. In Sweden, a countryside härad was typically divided in a few socken units (parish), where the ecclesiastical and worldly administrative units often coincided. This began losing its basic significance through the municipal reform of 1862 . A härad was originally a subdivision of
1800-652: Is Leeds Bradford . City of Wakefield Wakefield , also known as the City of Wakefield , is a local government district with city status and a metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire , England. Wakefield , the largest settlement, is the administrative centre of the district. The population of the City of Wakefield at the 2011 Census was 325,837. The district includes the Five Towns of Castleford , Featherstone , Knottingley , Normanton and Pontefract . Other towns include Hemsworth , Horbury , Ossett , South Elmsall and South Kirkby (also forms
1890-541: Is divided into two electoral wards, Pontefract North and Pontefract South . Pontefract South was represented by two Labour councillors and one Conservative councillor and North ward represented by three Labour councillors in 2022. From 1978 to 1997, ex-miner and former NUM branch leader Geoff Lofthouse (18 December 1925 – 1 November 2012) was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Pontefract and Castleford constituency . During this time he became Deputy Speaker of
SECTION 20
#17327767762471980-1120: Is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and in Cumberland County in the British Colony of New South Wales . It is still used in other places, including in Australia (in South Australia and the Northern Territory ). Other terms for the hundred in English and other languages include wapentake , herred (Danish and Bokmål Norwegian ), herad ( Nynorsk Norwegian ), härad or hundare (Swedish), Harde (German), hiird ( North Frisian ), kihlakunta (Finnish), and cantref (Welsh). In Ireland,
2070-437: Is mainly made out of old coal-mining towns, although other industries include wool , chemicals , machine tools , glass and other forms of manufacturing. Horbury is something of an anomaly in having had an iron works . When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 there were 21 pits in the district. By the time the 1984 Strike began this had decreased to 15, however it still had more collieries than any other district in
2160-573: Is served by BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire received from the Emley Moor TV transmitter. The radio stations that broadcast to the area are: The area is served by the local newspaper, Wakefield Express . A decision was made, in 2004, to transfer the district's extensive council housing to Wakefield and District Housing (WDH), an 'independent' housing association, who would be more efficient with repairs and maintaining decent accommodation; as council housing represented almost 30% of
2250-524: Is the Pontefract and Castleford Express . Novelist Jack 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
2340-621: Is the longest continuous horse racing circuit in Europe at 2 miles 125 yards (3,333 m; 16.57 furlongs). The ruins of Sandal Castle and its visitor centre are open to the public, overlooking the Pugneys Country Park . The National Coal Mining Museum for England (an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage ), the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Nostell Priory are within
2430-729: Is up for election at any one time. Exceptions include by-elections and ward boundary changes. The city district is home to three professional rugby league clubs, the Wakefield Trinity , Castleford Tigers who both play in the Super League and Featherstone Rovers who play in the Kingstone Press Championship . All three have had periods of success. The city also has several amateur rugby league clubs including Featherstone Lions and Normanton Knights . Current England rugby league internationals from
2520-718: The Domesday Book of 1086, the term is used instead of hundreds in Yorkshire , the Five Boroughs of Derby , Leicester , Lincoln , Nottingham and Stamford , and also sometimes in Northamptonshire. The laws in wapentakes were similar to those in hundreds with minor variations. According to the first-century historian Tacitus , in Scandinavia the wapentake referred to a vote passed at an assembly by
2610-405: The Emley Moor TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Leeds on 92.4 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire (formerly Ridings FM ) on 106.8 FM, Heart Yorkshire on 106.2 FM, Hits Radio West Yorkshire (formerly Pulse 1 ) on 102.5 FM, Capital Yorkshire on 105.1 FM and 5 Towns FM, a community online radio station that broadcasts from Castleford . The local newspaper
2700-911: The Northern 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 . It runs three senior sides as well as a number of junior and girls teams. 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
2790-671: The Osgoldcross wapentake . In the Anglo-Saxon period part of the modern town was known by the Anglo-Scandinavian name as Kirkby. After the Norman conquest in 1066 almost all of Yorkshire came under the ownership of followers of William the Conqueror , one of whom was Ilbert de Lacy who became the owner of Tateshale (Tanshelf) where he built a castle. Pontefract Castle began as a wooden motte and bailey castle before 1086 and
Pontefract - Misplaced Pages Continue
2880-508: The long hundred of 120. There was an equivalent traditional Germanic system. In Old High German a huntari is a division of a gau , but the OED believes that the link between the two is not established. From the 11th century in England, and to a lesser extent from the 16th century in Wales, and until the middle of the 19th century, the annual assemblies had varying degrees of power at
2970-582: The 16th century, and the holder ceased to gain any benefits during the 17th century. The position has since been used as a procedural device to allow resignation from the British House of Commons as a (formerly) remunerated office of the Crown. A wapentake, an Old Norse -derived term as common in Northern England , was the equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon hundred in the northern Danelaw . In
3060-524: The 17th century, following the English practice familiar to the colonists. They survive in Delaware (see List of hundreds of Delaware ), and were used as tax reporting and voting districts until the 1960s, but now serve no administrative role: their only official legal use is in real estate title descriptions. The hundred was also used as a division of the county in Maryland . Carroll County, Maryland
3150-610: The Chartularies of St John, a collection of historic documents later discovered among family papers by Thomas Levett , the High Sheriff of Rutland , a native of Yorkshire, who gave them to Roger Dodsworth , an antiquary . They were published by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society . For local government purposes the town lies in the City of Wakefield administered by Wakefield Council . It
3240-512: The Conqueror travelled across Yorkshire to put down an uprising which had sacked York. Upon his journey to the city, he discovered that a crossing of the River Aire near what is modern-day Pontefract had been blockaded by local Anglo-Scandinavian insurgents , who had broken the bridge and held the opposite bank in force. Such a crossing point would have been important to the town, providing access between Pontefract and other settlements to
3330-439: The Crown, but by its subjects. Where a hundred was under a lord, a steward , acting as a judge and the chief official of the lord of the manor , was appointed in place of a sheriff. The importance of the hundred courts declined from the 17th century, and most of their powers were extinguished with the establishment of county courts in 1867. The remaining duty of the inhabitants of a hundred to make good damages caused by riot
3420-773: 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 the 1997 general election . In her maiden speech to the House 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
3510-701: The M62 is via Junction 32 (also for Castleford ) and Junction 33 (also for Knottingley ). Bus transport is provided by Arriva Yorkshire , operating from Pontefract bus station as the town's main hub. There are three railway stations in the town. Pontefract Baghill is on the Dearne Valley Line , which connects York and Sheffield . Pontefract Monkhill and Pontefract Tanshelf connect with Leeds , Wakefield Westgate and Wakefield Kirkgate . There are rail services from Bradford Interchange to London that stop at Pontefract Monkhill . The closest airport
3600-523: The Wakefield metropolitan area, as is Walton Hall , a Georgian mansion set in what was the world's first nature reserve, created by the explorer Charles Waterton ; the house is now a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sir David Attenborough has stated that "Walton Hall is an extremely important site in the history of nature conservation worldwide. It is, arguably, the first tract of land anywhere in modern times to be protected, guarded and maintained as
3690-565: The York Diocese. In Wales an ancient Celtic system of division called cantrefi (a hundred farmsteads; singular cantref ) had existed for centuries and was of particular importance in the administration of the Welsh law . The antiquity of the cantrefi is demonstrated by the fact that they often mark the boundary between dialects . Some were originally kingdoms in their own right; others may have been artificial units created later. With
Pontefract - Misplaced Pages Continue
3780-650: The area include; Tom Briscoe , Rob Burrow , Zak Hardaker , and Brett Ferres . The district is also home to two clubs in the Northern Premier League : Ossett United and Pontefract Collieries . The district has a strong heritage of cricket with former Yorkshire and England captain Geoffrey Boycott born in Fitzwilliam and former Yorkshire and England cricketer Tim Bresnan from Pontefract . Pontefract Racecourse in Pontefract ,
3870-562: The brandishing of weapons. In some counties, such as Leicestershire, the wapentakes recorded at the time of Domesday Book later evolved into hundreds. In others, such as Lincolnshire , the term remained in use. Although no longer part of local government, there is some correspondence between the rural deanery and the former wapentake or hundred; especially in the East Midlands, the Buckingham Archdeaconry and
3960-530: The city from the sub-region – and a recognition of undeveloped assets. For instance Castleford , to the North East of Wakefield is seeing extensive development and investment because of the natural asset of its outlook on to the River Aire , its easy access to the national motorway network and the availability of former mining land for house-building. In Ossett, house prices have risen from an average of £50,000 in 1998 to £130,000 in 2003. Although unemployment
4050-545: The civil parish of South Kirkby and Moorthorpe ). The city and district are governed by Wakefield Council from the County Hall . In 2010, Wakefield was named as the UK's third most musical city by PRS for Music . The economic and physical condition of several of the former mining towns and villages in Wakefield District have started to improve due to the booming economy of Leeds – and an increase in numbers of commuters to
4140-407: The coming of Christianity, the llan (similar to the parish) based Celtic churches often took the borders of the older cantrefi, and the same happened when Norman 'hundreds' were enforced on the people of Wales. Each cantref had its own court, which was an assembly of the uchelwyr , the main landowners of the cantref . This would be presided over by the king if he happened to be present, or if he
4230-532: The country. At the time of privatization in November 1994, only two remained: the Prince of Wales at Pontefract, which closed in 2002, and Kellingley at Knottingley which closed in 2015 ending the industry that once dominated the district. Most of the district's pits had been very hardline during the 1984 strike. The former Borough of Wakefield was raised to city status by letters patent in 1888. It became
4320-468: The death of the father, support the son", a reference to the town's Royalist sympathies in the English Civil War . Small villages and settlements in the immediate area include Stapleton . At the end of the 11th century, the modern township of Pontefract consisted of two distinct localities, Tanshelf and Kirkby. The 11th-century historian Orderic Vitalis recorded that, in 1069, William
4410-408: The designation. The green belt was adopted in 1987, and in 2017 amounted to some 23,500 hectares (235 km ; 91 sq mi). The district is divided into 21 wards , each represented on Wakefield Metropolitan District Council by three councillors. Councillors are elected on a first past the post basis, usually for a four-year period which is staggered so that only one councillor per ward
4500-478: 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 as Tateshale , Tateshalla , Tateshalle or Tatessella in the 'Domesday Book' is today occupied by the town of Pontefract. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle made a reference to Tanshelf in 947 when King Eadred of England met with
4590-520: The district, this was the second-largest stock transfer in British history. WDH are investing over £700 million to regenerate the District and working with partners, such as WMDC, are investing in new housing within the District. 53°40′59″N 1°29′56″W / 53.683°N 1.499°W / 53.683; -1.499 Wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that
SECTION 50
#17327767762474680-530: The election of that year, but returned to the back benches after the Labour leadership election of 2015 . Pontefract and Castleford was merged with the Normanton constituency in a boundary change before the 2010 general election . The seat, which had a history of mining and industry, has returned Labour MPs at general elections . Yvette Cooper polled 59.5% of the vote in the 2017 general election and 48.1% of
4770-496: 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. Two-time European Masters Champion weightlifter Martyn Riley is from Pontefract. 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
4860-509: The first five national censuses from 1801 to 1841. The system of county divisions was not as stable as the system of counties being established at the time, and lists frequently differ on how many hundreds a county had. In many parts of the country, the Domesday Book contained a radically different set of divisions from that which later became established. The numbers of divisions in each county varied widely. Leicestershire had six (up from four at Domesday), whereas Devon , nearly three times
4950-487: The hundred was the shire , under the control of a sheriff. Hundred boundaries were independent of both parish and county boundaries, although often aligned, meaning that a hundred could be split between counties, or a parish could be split between hundreds. Exceptionally, in the counties of Kent and Sussex , there was a sub-division intermediate in size between the hundred and the shire: several hundreds were grouped together to form lathes in Kent and rapes in Sussex. At
5040-482: The hundred was under the jurisdiction of the Crown; the chief magistrate was a sheriff, and his circuit was called the sheriff's tourn . However, many hundreds came into private hands, with the lordship of the hundred being attached to the principal manor of the area and becoming hereditary. Helen Cam estimated that even before the Conquest, over 130 hundreds were in private hands; while an inquest of 1316 found that by that date 388 of 628 named hundreds were held, not by
5130-403: The hundreds added five more: Pitts Creek, Acquango, Queponco, Buckingham, and Worcester Hundreds. The original borders of Talbot County (founded at some point prior to 12 February 1661 ) contained nine hundreds: Treadhaven Hundred, Bolenbroke Hundred, Mill Hundred, Tuckahoe Hundred, Worrell Hundred, Bay Hundred, Island Hundred, Lower Kent Island Hundred, Chester Hundred. In 1669 Chester Hundred
5220-482: The hundreds serve no administrative role in Sweden, although some judicial district courts still bear the name (e.g. Attunda tingsrätt ) and the hundreds are occasionally used in expressions, e.g. Sjuhäradsbygden (district of seven hundreds). It is not entirely clear when hundreds were organised in the western part of Finland. The name of the province of Satakunta , roughly meaning hundred ( sata meaning "one hundred" in Finnish), hints at influences from
5310-654: The identity of outlying communities, encourage brownfield reuse, and preserve the countryside. It restricts inappropriate development within the designated areas and imposes stricter conditions on permitted building. Green belt surrounds the Wakefield built up area and stretches into the wider borough and outlying towns and villages. Walton , Netherton , Featherstone , South Kirkby , South Elmsall , Hemsworth , Castleford , Knottingley , and Pontefract are surrounded by it. Smaller villages, hamlets and rural areas such as Warmfield and Heath , Stanley Ferry , Newmillerdam , Snydale, Wintersett , and Chapelthorpe are included in
5400-422: The land in the region of the present Darwin, in the Northern Territory, was first surveyed, the territory was administered by South Australia, and the surveyed land was divided up into hundreds. The Cumberland County ( Sydney ) was also allocated hundreds in the nineteenth century, although these were later repealed. A hundred is traditionally one hundred square miles or 64,000 acres (26,000 ha), although this
5490-523: The merging of fire cover for Pontefract and Knottingley. Ambulance cover is provided by Yorkshire 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 historic Barracks building on Wakefield Road. It now houses a Rifles Regiment Recruitment team. Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire . Television signals are received from
SECTION 60
#17327767762475580-458: The name Bay Hundred, with state and local governments using the name in ways ranging from water trail guides to community pools, while local newspapers regularly use the name in reporting news. Following American independence, the term "hundred" fell out of favour and was replaced by "election district". However, the names of the old hundreds continue to show up in deeds for another 50 years. Some plantations in early colonial Virginia used
5670-509: The neighbouring magistrates' court has moved to Leeds , following the closure of the Wakefield and Pontefract courts. Fire cover is provided by West 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
5760-464: The north and east, such as York. Historians believe that it is this historical event which gives the township of Pontefract its modern name. The name "Pontefract" originates from the Latin for "broken bridge", formed of the elements pons (bridge) and fractus (broken). Pontefract was not recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book , but it was noted as Pontefracto in 1090, four years after the Domesday survey. In 2007 an extension of Ferrybridge Henge –
5850-416: The parish, with its various administrative functions, and the county, with its formal, ceremonial functions. The term "hundred" is first recorded in the laws of Edmund I (939–46) as a measure of land and the area served by a hundred court. In the Midlands , they often covered an area of about 100 hides , but this did not apply in the south; this may suggest that it was an ancient West Saxon measure that
5940-418: 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 at Ledsham . The area of the town market place was the meeting place of
6030-401: The public on certain days. Pontefract Museum , from which the hermitage schedule can be obtained, is in the town centre, housed in the former Carnegie library . A new hospital was built on Friarwood Lane and opened in July 2010, with the new name of Pontefract Hospital ; there is now a modern hospital building. Near to the hospital is Friarwood Valley Gardens, a rose garden, a sensory garden,
6120-418: 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. When the Domesday survey was commissioned by William 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
6210-425: 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. Pontefract suffered throughout the English Civil War . In 1648–49 the castle was laid siege by Oliver Cromwell , who said it was "... one of the strongest inland garrisons in the kingdom." Three sieges by the Parliamentarians left the town "impoverished and depopulated". In March 1649, after
6300-497: The size, had 32. By the end of the 19th century, several single-purpose subdivisions of counties, such as poor law unions , sanitary districts , and highway districts , had sprung up, which, together with the introduction of urban districts and rural districts in 1894, mostly replaced the role of the parishes, and to a lesser extent the less extensive role of hundreds. The division names gave their name to multiple modern local government districts . In south and western England,
6390-497: The term hundred in their names, such as Martin's Hundred , Flowerdew Hundred , and West and Shirley Hundred . Bermuda Hundred was the first incorporated town in the English colony of Virginia. It was founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1613, six years after Jamestown . While debating what became the Land Ordinance of 1785 , Thomas Jefferson 's committee wanted to divide the public lands in the west into "hundreds of ten geographical miles square, each mile containing 6086 and 4-10ths of
6480-466: The third siege, Pontefract inhabitants, fearing a fourth, petitioned Parliament for the castle to be slighted . The castle was a magnet for trouble, and in April 1649 demolition began. The castle ruins are publicly accessible. Pontefract Priory , a Cluniac priory founded in 1090 by Robert de Lacy dedicated to St John the Evangelist was dissolved by royal authority in 1539. The priory maintained
6570-451: The time of the Norman conquest of England , Kent was divided into seven lathes and Sussex into four rapes. Over time, the principal functions of the hundred became the administration of law and the keeping of the peace. By the 12th century, the hundred court was held twelve times a year. This was later increased to fortnightly, although an ordinance of 1234 reduced the frequency to once every three weeks. In some hundreds, courts were held at
6660-530: The times before the Northern Crusades , Christianization , and incorporation into Sweden. As kihlakunta , hundreds remained the fundamental administrative division for the state authorities until 2009. Each was subordinated to a lääni (province/county) and had its own police department, district court and prosecutors. Typically, cities would comprise an urban kihlakunta by themselves, but several rural municipalities would belong to
6750-498: The title is held by another town. The town has a liquorice-sweet industry; and the famous Pontefract cakes are produced, though the liquorice plant is no longer grown there. The town's two liquorice factories are owned by Haribo and Valeo Confectionery (formerly Tangerine). A Liquorice festival is held annually. Poet laureate Sir John Betjeman wrote a poem entitled "The Licorice Fields at Pontefract". In 2012, local farmer Robert Copley announced that he would be re-introducing
6840-533: The town are Carleton High School in Carleton and the King'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 killer Harold Shipman began to murder his elderly patients. Beneath this building is an old hermitage , open to
6930-573: 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 village East Hardwick . Pontefract lies in close proximity to the A1 and the M62 . Access from the A1 is via a junction at the nearby village of Darrington , while access from
7020-458: The vote in the 2019 general election . Pontefract has been a market town since the Middle 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, but this is likely an urban legend, and
7110-434: The wolf and bear population. Following the abolition of the provinces as an administrative unit in 2009, the territory for each authority could be demarcated separately, i.e. police districts need not equal court districts in number. The title "härad" survives in the honorary title of herastuomari (Finnish) or häradsdomare (Swedish), which can be given to lay judges after 8–10 years of service. The term herred or herad
7200-467: Was amongst the highest in the country for most of the 1980s, and 1990s, Wakefield District now has below-average unemployment. The "Wakefield East" ward had 4.7% unemployment in May 2005 (source: Office for National Statistics )—which was more than 1% higher than any other ward. The eastern half of the district remains considerably less prosperous than the western half, with several deprived wards The district
7290-415: Was applied rigidly when Mercia became part of the newly established English kingdom in the 10th century. The Hundred Ordinance , which dates to the middle of the century, provided that the court was to meet monthly, and thieves were to be pursued by all the leading men of the district. During Norman times, the hundred would pay geld based on the number of hides. To assess how much everyone had to pay,
7380-609: Was ended by the Riot (Damages) Act 1886 , when the cost was transferred to the county police rate. The jurisdiction of hundred courts was curtailed by the Administration of Justice Act 1977 . The steward of the Chiltern Hundreds is notable as a legal fiction , owing to a quirk of British Parliamentary law. A Crown Steward was appointed to maintain law and order in the area, but these duties ceased to be performed in
7470-503: Was formed in 1836 by taking the following hundreds from Baltimore County : North Hundred, Pipe Creek Hundred, Delaware Upper Hundred, Delaware Lower Hundred; and from Frederick County : Pipe Creek Hundred, Westminster Hundred, Unity Hundred, Burnt House Hundred, Piney Creek Hundred, and Taneytown Hundred. Maryland's Somerset County, which was established in 1666, was initially divided into six hundreds: Mattapony , Pocomoke, Boquetenorton, Wicomico, and Baltimore Hundreds; later subdivisions of
7560-504: Was given to Kent County. In 1707 Queen Anne's County was created from the northern parts of Talbot County, reducing the latter to seven hundreds (Lower Kent Island Hundred becoming a part of the former). Of these, only Bay Hundred legally remains in existence, as a District 5 in Talbot County. The geographic region, which includes several unincorporated communities and part of present-day Saint Michaels , continues to be known by
7650-475: Was later rebuilt in stone. The de Lacys lived there for more than two centuries and were holders of the castle and the Honour of Pontefract from 1067 until the death of Alice de Lacy in 1348. King Richard II was murdered at the castle in 1400. Little is known of the nature of his demise; Shakespeare may have "adjusted" the facts for his own purposes. At least three theories attempt to explain his death: either he
7740-497: Was not present, by his representative. Apart from the judges there would be a clerk, an usher and sometimes two professional pleaders. The cantref court dealt with crimes, the determination of boundaries, and inheritance. The term hundare ( hundred ) was used in Svealand and present-day Finland. The name is assumed to mean an area that should organise 100 men to crew four rowed war boats, which each had 12 pairs of oars and
7830-530: Was painted by a local mural artist, Rachel List. The town is home to many sports including rugby, football and squash. Prominent squash players Lee Beachill and James Willstrop both train at Pontefract Squash Club. Notable institutions are horse racing at Pontefract Racecourse and Featherstone 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). It stages flat racing between
7920-488: Was reconfirmed by letters patent in 1974. The Council's headquarters is County Hall , originally built for the West Riding County Council and acquired by Wakefield in 1989. The district is within a green belt region that extends into the surrounding counties that is in place to reduce urban sprawl , prevent the cities and towns in the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation from convergence, protect
8010-419: 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. In Elizabethan times the castle and the town were both referred to as "Pomfret". William Shakespeare 's play Richard III mentions the castle: Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison, Fatal and ominous to noble peers! Within the guilty closure of thy walls Richard
8100-548: Was used in Norway between 1863 and 1992 for rural municipalities, besides the term kommune (heradskommune). Today, only four municipalities in western Norway call themselves herad , as Ulvik and Kvam . Some Norwegian districts have the word herad in their name, of historical reasons - among them Krødsherad and Heradsbygd in eastern Norway. Counties in Delaware , New Jersey and Pennsylvania were divided into hundreds in
#246753