Pontefract is a well-built town, situated near the confluence of the rivers Aire and Don. Pontefract Castle was supposed to be the strongest castle in the kingdom. It is said to have been originally built by Alric, a Saxon, before the Conquest; and afterwards enlarged by Ilbert de Lacy, to whom it was then given. It was here that Henry, Earl of Lancaster, who was lord of the castle, and whose ancestors had beautified, enlarged, and fortified it, was beheaded by his nephew Edward II. with three or four more of the English barons. Richard II. was cruelly murdered in this castle, and here Anthony Earl Rivers, and Sir Richard Gray, the uncle and brother-in-law of Edward V. were beheaded by Richard III. Pontefract Castle was the last that held out for Charles I. in the Civil Wars.

The houses here, mostly built of brick, are handsome, the streets open, spacious, and clean, as the town on every side is approached by a considerable ascent. Pontefract is surrounded by seats of nobles and opulent commoners, and the society is select. Here is at present only one church, in which divine service is performed: this in the reign of Henry I. was styled St. Mary de Foro, though for more than three hundred years past it has obtained the name of St. Giles. It has been enlarged both in length and in breadth, and its chancel has been recently ornamented with a fine painting by John Standish, a self-taught artist and native of the town. The subject is the Crucifixion, and all the figures resemble life. The magnificent church of All-Hallows received so much damage in the Civil Wars, that it was impossible to repair it, and it at present wears the appearance of a venerable ruin. Here were several other places devoted to religion; the chantry or church of St. Thomas was erected on the spot where Thomas Earl of Lancaster was beheaded in the reign of Edward II. A. D. 1322.—The priory of St. John was founded by Robert de Lacy in 1090, for monks of the Order of St. Benedict. The remains of this ancient building are among the possessions of Lord Harewood.—The Dominicans, or Black Friars, had a house nearly in the centre of the garden called Friar's Wood, on the west of the town. The Carmelites and Austin Friars had also houses in this place. At present, besides the parish church, the Dissenters, Methodists, the Friends, and the Roman Catholics have each a meetinghouse or chapel. The market on Saturday is well supplied with butchers’ meat, poultry, and fish, the corn market too is considerable. At the market-cross, formerly called Oswald’s cross, it is said, anciently none could be arrested, and a free way leading to it with about five yards round it, was long kept unpaved in memory of this privilege. In 1735 this old cross was pulled down, and a handsome dome, supported by Doric pillars, was erected in its stead. Fortnight fairs are held on the Saturdays after the fortnight fairs at York. The population of the town is 3200. From the gardens and nurseries about here, great quantities of garden stuff and seedlings are carried to distant parts. The liquorice cakes of Pontefract are well known not only throughout the British empire, but also in foreign countries.

Pontefract Castle, which has frequently made a figure in English history, having been held for Charles I. was reduced by the tremendous effects of artillery, and afterwards demolished by order of parliament. Excepting the solid mound on which it stood, and a a small round tower, little of this fortress remains, The environs of Pontefract are adorned with many elegant mansions, viz. Methley-park, the seat of the Earl of Mexborough; seven miles to the northwest, Nostel, the seat of —Williamson, Esq.; Hemsworth, Sir Francis Wood; Ackworth, the seat of Colonel Baldwin; Ackworth Moor-top, the Earl of Darlington; Ackworth villa, Charles Mortimer, Esq.; and Ackworth-park, J. H. Jessop, Esq.

A monument is erected near Pontefract, to commemorate that important event ever memorable in British annals, the Victory of Waterloo, which forms a pleasing object to the surrounding country.

Ferrybridge is a large and handsome hamlet in this parish, about a mile from Pontefract: the stone bridge, since rebuilt, consisted in Leland’s time "of seven arches, and the thoroughfare then no great thing but neatly builded." It is still one of the principal passes over the Aire.

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PONTEFRACT, the “Tateshale” of Domesday Book, is a parliamentary and municipal borough, polling-place for the Eastern division of the Riding, market and union and county court town, and is the centre of the Pontefract highway district. There are three railway stations; those at Pontefract and Tanshelf, and a third at Baghill, on the new line from Swinton to Knottingley, and about a furlong from the Tanshelf station on the Wakefield, Pontefract and Goole branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway. Pontefract is 173 miles from London, 3 south from Castleford and the Aire and Calder Canal, 13 from Leeds, 9 east from Wakefield, 14 from Doncaster, 43 ½ from Hull, 28 from Harrogate and 20 from York, in the liberty of the honor of Pontefract, upper division of Osgoldcross wapentake, Pontefract rural deanery, York archdeaconry and diocese, and is situated on a beautiful eminence, not very distant from the confluence of the rivers Aire and Calder, but approached on every side by a somewhat considerable ascent. The streets are spacious and clean, and the houses neat and well built. The town is lighted with gas, well drained, and has a good supply of water. Pontefract returns two members to Parliament, as it has done since 1297, and has been a corporate borough from the time of Richard III.; John Hill, first mayor, having been nominated by that sovereign, July 8th. 1484, although its earliest existing charter dates from 1194, when the town was governed by a praetor, or head borough. The town is divided into three wards, the corporation consisting of six aldermen and eighteen councillors, who elect the mayor. The municipal borough comprises the townships of Pontefract, Tanshelf and Monkhill; and the parliamentary borough includes in addition the townships of Carleton, Ferry Frystone, Knottingley, together with the Park district. The borough has an exclusive jurisdiction, with special petty quarter sessions and a special coroner. The borough magistrates hold their sittings in the Town Hall every Monday, or daily if necessary; and the borough quarter sessions are held there every three months. Pontefract has a recorder, with a special criminal jurisdiction independent of the Riding.

The parish formerly included, besides Pontefract, Knottingley, parts of Ferrybridge, Carlton, Tanshelf, East Hardwick and Monkhill; but Knottingley, Carlton and East Hardwick have been formed into separate ecclesiastical parishes, and Pontefract has been divided into two vicarages-those of St. Giles and All saints.

The church of St. Giles is an edifice of great antiquity: it was formerly a chapel of ease, but was rendered parochial by an Act of George III. and consists of chancel nave, and tower containing 8 bells, re-cast from the old bells (with the addition of 8 cwt. of metal) in 1835. In 1707 the spire was removed, leaving only a square tower, which in its turn was pulled down in 1790; the present tower is octagonal, and surmounted by a series of ribs, somewhat in form of a crown; the chancel was re-built and the interior of the church re-arranged and considerably improved in 1869: in the church is a memorial to Mrs. Ann Hurst of York, who in 1781 gave £50 to the Vicar and Recorder of Pontefract for the time being, to lend in sums of £25 to two inhabitants for seven years without interest: there are also memorial tablets to the Rev. Thomas Bissett, vicar of the church from 1865 to 1878; to Major Matthew Swinney (1766); Major Henry Beckley, of the 105th Light Infantry; Lieutenant Robert St. George Hamilton, of the 65th Regiment; John H. Hill esq. formerly Recorder of the Borough; Joshua Jefferson M.D.; Michael Mitton, and one to Thomas Blanco, of the 51st Kings Own Light Infantry, who served throughout the Peninsular campaign, and assisted in burying Sir John Moore on the ramparts of Corunna: there are besides, memorials to members of the Crewe and Rhodes families, and 3 stained windows: the font is a fine specimen of stone carving. The registers date from the year 1585, but have a chasm From 1645 to 1649, during the heat, of the civil war; they contain several interesting entries and are in good condition, but the parish accounts only extend back about a hundred years. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £300 with residence, in the gift of the Archbishop of York and held by the Rev. James John Christie M.A. of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

All saints is an ecclesiastical parish formed in 1838: the church, though still ruinous in part, retains much good Decorated and Perpendicular work: it consists of chancel, nave, transept and a fine tower containing 6 bells, hung there in 1863 in place of a former bell, the sole representative of a noble peal of 8 destroyed or stolen in the civil war, when this church suffered greatly during the siege of Pontefract Castle, and lay in ruins until 1838, when the transept was restored by Chantrell the architect: it was in this church that Archbishop Lee was dragged from his throne during the pilgrimage of Grace in 1536: there are three stained windows in the chancel and two in the transept; the interior was decorated and embellished in 1874, the old porch converted into a vestry in 1876, and the organ improved in 1877: there are tablets in memory of Henry Taylor esq. formerly recorder of the Borough, Richard Hepworth esq. the Rev. John Alkinson Christopher Mann Torre, and the Honourable Elizabeth Rudd. The register dates from the year 1838. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £200, in the gift of the Archbishop of York and held by the Rev. Joseph Hammond LL.B., B.A. of London University and Kings College, London.

In 1859 the Cemetery, covering a large space northwards of the town, was established; it contains two mortuary chapels.

The Kings Grammar school was founded in 1547 for the education of sons of burgesses; this school has the privilege of sending three candidates to compete for Lady Elizabeth Hastings’ Exhibitions at Queen’s College, Oxford, valued at £75 yearly and tenable for five years. The old school is now disused, and steps are being taken for the erection of a new one. Here are Sunday schools for the Church children, Wesleyans and Congregationalists. Besides the public schools there are several respectable private boarding schools, the pure air and healthy situation of the town offering inducements for their establishment.

The Wesleyans have a spacious place of worship in the Horsefair and a smaller one in Newgate, the Congregationalists in Northgate, the society of Friends in Southgate, and the Primitive Methodists in the Horsefair, erected in 1871.

The Town Hall, a handsome structure, erected at the joint expense of the county and the corporation, was built in 1785 on the site of a former building of the date of 1656, which again was on the site of the old Moot Hall, destroyed during the civil wars: a new Town Hall is now [1881] about to be erected at a cost, including site, of £7,400.

The Market. Hall is a stone building, erected in 1859 at a cost of £2,450. The market, which is held on Saturdays, is well supplied with meat, poultry, eggs and vegetables. The corn-market is likewise held on Saturdays, and is well attended by farmers, maltsters and millers; it is a pitched market, commencing at 11 a.m. and closing at 1 p.m. as indicated by the ringing of a bell; on the close of the market all must be cleared by 2 p.m. There is also a good market for sheep and cattle. There are fairs on the Saturday before Palm Sunday and on the first Saturday in December; the statute hiring fair is held on the first Thursday in November.

A Dispensary, situate in Southgate, has been erected (1880) at a cost of about £3,000, and is supported by voluntary contributions; there are also several hospitals or almshouses in the town for its indigent poor, viz. Trinity, St. Nicholas, Cowper’s, Thwaite's, Frank's two hospitals, the Bedehouse, Perfect’s, and Watkinson’s. Some of these are very ancient, that of St. Nicholas having existed before the Conquest, and the Trinity (or Knolles) Hospital bearing date from the time of Richard II.

Three newspapers are published here: the “Pontefract Advertiser,” established in 1852, which circulates extensively through the whole district; the “Pontefract Telegraph,” established in 1857, and the “Pontefract and Castleford Express,” established 1880, both of which have a good circulation in the town and some of the neighbouring villages.

The town is noted for its extensive gardens and nurseries for the growth of liquorice, largely used in the manufacture of Pontefract liquorice cake. A great quantity of vegetables are also sent from this place to the markets of Leeds and Wakefield. Malting is extensively carried on here by Messrs. Moxon, Robson, Hurst, Barker, Smith. swales and others. Here are maintained an iron-foundry, a brewery, a sack and matting manufactory, tannery, machine works, and corn mills; bricks, terra-cotta and sanitary tubes are also made.

The races, held in the park in April and July, are well attended. Statute fairs are held on the first Thursday in November. A fine subscription pack of foxhounds, called the Badsworth Hounds, are kept within three miles of the town, of which C. B. E. Wright esq. of south Kirkby, is the master.

Barracks were erected in 1871 for the West Riding Rifles, forming a spacious and handsome range of buildings, but they have since been superseded by an extensive erection for a double brigade, completed during 1878, and which accommodates the 7th and 8th Brigade depots of the Northern Military district; the depots of the dist, 65th. 84th and 105th foot; the 1st and 3rd West York Militia and the Pontefract Rifle Volunteers.

The Castle, demolished in 1649 and now in ruins, was evidently built upon a Saxon fortified mound; it stood on an elevated rock, commanding most extensive and picturesque views of the surrounding country; the north-west prospect takes in the beautiful vale through which flows the river Aire, ornamented with several seats, but the northeast prospect is more extensive-the towers of York Minster are distinctly seen, while the south and south-west comprise a variety of pleasing objects. The Castle was once the residence of the Earls of Lancaster, and after Henry, Duke of Lancaster, came to the throne as Henry IV. was alternately the abode of royalty and the scene of bloodshed and rebellion; Richard II. was murdered here: this was the seat of Aske’s insurrection in Henry VIII.’s time, and it was this Castle again that held out longest for the king during the civil war, at which time the fortress occupied a space of seven acres. The site of the Cluniac priory of St. John the Evangelist can be partially traced in Monkhill grange. In a garden in Southgate, now the site of the New Dispensary, is an ancient oratory, with hermitage, probably founded in 1386; it consists of an oratory, a chamber, and a flight of 65 steps, cut in the solid rock, leading down to a spring of water. Between the townships of Pontefract and Ferrybridge are the remains of the shaft of an ancient cross, considered to be of Roman workmanship and called stump Cross. On St. Thomas’ Hill, immediately adjoining, was formerly a church, erected on the spot where Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, was beheaded in 1322, being the first royal blood shed in the kingdom after the Conquest. Not far from the railway station at Monkhill, are the ruins of an old palatial residence, part of which is now converted into a farm-house, and occupied by Mr. Conder; it was probably constructed out of the remains of the old priory of St. John, pulled down in the sixteenth century, and belonged to the family of Shrewsbury, but is now generally known as the “Old Hall.” The area of the township is 2,381 acres; rateable value, £19,677: and of the parish 6,796 acres; the population in 1871 was:-township 5,372, parish 11,037; municipal borough 5,350 and of the parliamentary borough 11,653. There are 2,246 registered electors.

Places in the division are-Ackworth. Badsworth. Carleton, Castleford, Darrington, East Hardwick, Featherstone, Ferryfrystone, Foulby, including Huntwick & Nostell, Glass Houghton, Hessle, Hill Top, Kirk Smeaton, Knottingley, North Elmsall, Purston Jaglin, Skelbrook, South Elmsall, south Kirkby, Stapleton, Thorpe Audlin, Upton, West Hardwick.

Insurance Agents

County Fire & Provident Life, Foster & Raper, Ropergate.

General, C. T. Richards, Beek’s court.

Gresham Life, T. Barker, Northgate.

Hand in Hand, S. Lowden, Ropergate.

Lancashire, R. Holmes, Market place.

Liverpool & London & Globe, J. Walker, Market place.

London Assurance Corporation, Arundel & Son, Ropergte.

Manchester Fire, R. S. Blackburn, jun. Market place.

North British & Mercantile, W. J. Booth. Leeds & County bank.

Norwich Union Fire, J. Kaberry, Ropergate.

Phoenix Fire, A. Wordsworth. Market place.

Royal, C. C. Spink, Market, pl.; W. Vaughan, Northgate.

Scottish Equitable Life, W. J. Booth. Leeds & County Bank.

Scottish Union & National Fire & Life, T. Whiteoak, National schools; & J. Smith Scottish Widows’ Fund, W. R. Maud, Market place; J. A. Phillips, Elm grove.

Sun Fire, J. A. Phillips, Market place.

Westminster Fire, T. Barker, Northgate.

Yorkshire Fire & Life, W. & W. S. Wood, Corn market.

Military

Brigade Depots 7 & 8 (depots of 51st, 65th. 84th & 105th Foot Regiments).-Head-quarters, CoI. Frederick Hardy, commanding brigade depots; Capt. E. R. Bromhead, acting adjutant; Major G. Blurton, paymaster.

West York Militia (1st) (Rifles).-Head-quarters, Col. Alex. Aitken, lt.-col. commandant; Capt. J. L. Reid, instructor of musketry; Capt. N. Huskisson, adjutant; Henry Pangbourn, quartermaster; surg.-Major Henry Muscroft, medical officer.

West York Militia (3rd) (Light Infantry).-Headquarters, Col. Edward Prothero, lieut.-col. commandant; Captain J. R. Bottomley, instructor of musketry; Captain Arthur H. Luck, adjutant; Richard Southwell, quartermaster; surgeon-Major Henry Muscroft, medical officer.

Eighth (A. Company) West Riding Yorkshire Rifle Volunteers, Captain Walter B. Arundel; Rev. James J. Christie, acting chaplain.

Pontefract Union

The Union Workhouse was erected in 1864, at a cost of £11,000; it is situated on a declivity north of the town, & is a handsome & spacious building, capable of containing 200 inmates. The union comprises the following places, viz.: Ackton, Balne, Beal or Beaghal, Birkin, Bretherton, Burton Salmon, Byram-cum-Pool, Carleton, Castleford, Cridling Stubbs, Darrington, Eggborough, Fairbairn, Featherston, Ferry Fryston, Glass Houghton, East Hardwick, Heck, Hensall, Hillam, Kellington, Knottingley, Methley, Monk Fryston, Monkhill, Pontefract, Pontefract Park, Purston Jaglin, Snydale, Stapleton, Sutton, Tanshelf, Whitley, Whitwood & Wormsley; gross estimated rental, £253,036; rateable value, £215,873.

Board day, alternate Saturdays, 10 a.m. at the Board room at the workhouse.

Peaces of Worship:—

St. Giles’s Church, Market place, Rev. Jas. John Christie M.A. vicar; Rev. F. E. Egerton B.A. curate: hours of service, 10.30 a.m. 3 & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. & Fri. 11 a.m.

All saints Church, Rev. Joseph Hammond LL.B., B.A. vicar: 10.30 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 7.30 p.m.

Catholic Chapel, Tanshelf, Rev. Walter Clifford, priest: hours of service, 8 a.m. daily, except Sun.; Fri. 7.30 p.m.; Sun. 9 & 10 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

Congregational Chapel, Finkle street, Rev. Alfred George Nicholls, minister: 10.30 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 7.30 p.m.

Primitive Methodist Chapel, Horsetair, Rev. Richard Brook, minister: 10.30 a.m.& 6.30 p.m.; Thur. 7.30 p.m.

Friends’ Meeting House, Southgate: 10.30 a.m. & 6.30 p.m. Wed. 10.30 a.m.

Wesleyan Chapel, Horsefair, Rev. John Bramley & Rev. John C. Sowerbutts, ministers; 10.30 a.m. & 6.30 p.m; Tue. 7 p.m.; Fri. 7.30 p.m.

Wesleyan Chapel, Newgate, ministers various: 3 & 6.30 p.m.; Tue. 7 p.m.

Schools.—

National (girls), Miss Kate Rolleston, mistress.

National (boys), Nortligate, Titus Whiteoak, master.

Church of England Sunday school, Tanshelf.

Infants’, Tanshelf, Miss Emma Smith. mistress.

National (Infant), Northgate, Miss M. Gill, mistress.

St. Joseph's Catholic (mixed), Tanshelf, Miss Julia O’Connell, mistress; Miss Martha Gosling, infants’ mistress.

Wesleyan, Gillygate, Mr. Midgley, master.