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 for human activity since prehistoric times. This part of Yorkshire was home to the Brigantes until the Roman occupation in 43 AD. A Roman road from Pontefract passing Streethouse, Heath Common, Ossett Street Side, Kirklees and on to Manchester crossed the River Calder by a ford at Wakefield near the site of Wakefield Bridge. Wakefield was probably settled by the Angles

in the 5th or 6th century and after 867 the area was controlled by the Vikings who divided the area into wapentakes. Wakefield was part of the Wapentake of Agbrigg. The settlement grew up near a crossing place on the River Calder around three roads, Westgate, Northgate and Kirkgate.”Gate” 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, William the Conqueror’s revenge for resistance to Norman rule by the local population. It 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 of Wakefield, was granted by the crown to William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey whose descendants, the Earls Warenne, inherited it when he died in 1088. The building of Sandal Castle began early in the 12th century and it became the stronghold of the manor. A second 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, continued to hold the area until the 14th century, when it passed to Warenne heirs. Norman tenants holding land in the region included the Lyvet family at Lupset.

In 1086 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, 6th Earl of Surrey received a grant to have a market in Wakefield. In 1204 King John granted the rights for a fair to be held at the feast of All Saints, 1 November, and in 1258 Henry III granted another fair to be held on the feast of St. John the Baptist, 24 June. The market was situated close to the Bull Ring and the church. The townsfolk of Wakefield amused themselves in games and sports earning the title “Merrie Wakefield”, the chief sport in the 14th century was archery and the butts in Wakefield were at the Ings, near the river.

In 1460, during the Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was killed on 30 December 1460 in the Battle of Wakefield near Sandal Castle. 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 medieval times Wakefield had become a port on the River Calder and centre for the woollen and tanning trades. In 1699 an Act of Parliament was passed creating the Aire and Calder Navigation which provided Wakefield with access to the North Sea.^[23] 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. The town was a centre for cloth dealing with its own piece hall, the Tammy Hall, built in 1766. In the late 1700s Georgian