NARROW CLOSE
Situated between Middle Lane and England Lane, this one-acre plot is named for the nature of its shape and size.

NARROW LANE
c.f. Dark lane (supra)

NATIONAL SCHOOL The
The development of the national school movement from the late eighteenth century resulted in the purchase of a plot of land at Tenters Balk (lower Ropewalk) in September 1840 for the erection of a school to be under the trusteeship of the Vicar and five laymen and managed in accordance with the denominational principles of the National School Society.
Following the establishment of the parish of East Knottingley in 1848 the administration was transferred as the school was situated within the boundary of that parish.
As a denominated establishment the school experienced many vicissitudes and was even compelled to close during the period 1869-72 but reopened under the joint trusteeship of the two vicars and three members of each parish.
The schoolroom frequently served secular purposes and was a venue for the annual Town Meeting each March when the members of the Select Vestry and the town’s officers were elected.
As an educational establishment the school was incorporated into the central education system administered by the West Riding County Council, being commonly known within the town as the Church School.

NAVIGATION HOUSE
A stone built house situated on the canal bank between Kings Mills and Gaggs Bridge and originally at the northern foot of Butler Bridge. The house was built as a residence for the local manager of the Navigation Company and was in danger of demolition some years ago but was spared.

NEW HALL The
The name of a large storehouse and its appurtenances built on part of the Flatts by order of Henry VIII in 1527. The precise location is uncertain. The survey plan in the National Archives, Kew, suggests that the Hall was situated at the east end of the Flatts close to the Crown land at Pickhill Garth. However, both the Kings Houses and the Kings Ferry were situated at the west end of the Flatts on or near the site of the former religious house of the Cistercian Monks of Meaux, known as the Priory, which was later the site of the Waggon & Horses Inn. From the late Middle Ages the Priory site was the only property in the township which was not freehold.

NINE NOOKS CLOSE
Situated in the Middle Field, this six acre close was distinguished by having nine right-angle corners or nooks, hence the name.

NORFOLK HOUSE
End house of a limestone built, cement rendered terrace in Chapel Street which was used by the Salvation Army in the late nineteenth century and was latterly the headquarters of the Knottingley Womens’ Unionist Association and the local Conservative Party. The property was a popular venue for wedding receptions and other social gatherings until demolished in the 1960s. The origin of the name is not known.

OAKS CLOSE
An irregularly shaped field of six acres, shaped like an axe and lying in the great South Field at the edge of the boundary with Ferrybridge fields. Probably named from being near to oak trees which as well as acorns for feeding pigs, produced bark used in tanning leather.

OCEAN TERRACE
A row of houses at Marsh End, situated between Howards Field and the roadside. The property is one of a series of buildings constructed in the nineteenth century by mariners resident in the town. Others include Sarnia (the Roman name for Guernsey) in Cow Lane, L’Ancess (Guernsey Bay), Grove Cottage (Marsh End), Humber Cottages (Banks Lane - Weeland Road), Providence Row (The Ropewalk) and Ocean Cottages which stood in the Croft.
For a period of time one of the houses in Ocean Terrace served as the Congregational Church Manse.

OLD TOWN QUARRY
Situated behind Knottingley Workhouse and alongside Headlands Lane, this early quarry was used for the employment of able-bodied paupers on parish relief in the eighteenth century. It appears to have been worked out by the end of that century and was replaced by another site in the early nineteenth century.

ORCHARD The
Occupying an area between lower Aire Street and the Croft, this land, a little over an acre in extent, was originally named Cock Garth. By the mid nineteenth century the site contained houses and cottages in its upper part and fruit trees in the end nearest Cow Lane. The nature and name of the site was retained until the introduction of the Aire Street redevelopment scheme in the 1960s.

ORCHARD LANE
A lane opposite the old Bendles area which provided the site for Bagleys glassworks from the late nineteenth century. The lane was situated opposite the main entrance to the works and was later characterised by a single railway line running across Weeland Road along which Bagleys shire horses used to pull railway wagons containing white sand into the factory yard from the railway sidings opposite. Today the line of the Orchard Lane provides an entrance to the workshops opposite the factory but a little over a century ago led to land containing fruit trees. During the Second World War that part of the former orchard lying alongside Womersley Road provided a temporary home for a large circular water storage tank for use in wartime emergency.

PACKET HILL
Located part way along the east side of Glebe Lane, off Hill Top. A flight of stone steps which provided access for passengers using the fly-boats which plied between Leeds and Goole in the decade following the opening of the Aire & Calder Canal in 1826. The service was of short duration, being rendered uneconomical by the opening of the Wakefield-Goole railway line in 1848, although water conveyance to Goole and Hull was still possible in the late 1920s.

PALACE CINEMA The
The towns only cinema, purpose built in 1912 and opened in February 1913. The cinema closed on the 3rd December 1960 and stood derelict for 40 years before being partially demolished in 2001. The facade was retained to form the frontage of a pair of semi-detached dwellings and stands in lower Aire Street close to the junction with Cow Lane.

PARISH ROOMS The
St Botolphs Church parish rooms stand on part of the site of the former Town Quarry, first excavated in 1830. In August 1880 the Archbishop of York suggested filling up that part of the quarry lying alongside Chapel Street and occupying the area between the junction of Weeland Road and the Church. The Prelate’s suggestion was received with howls of laughter by members of the local Highway Board who considered the proposal impracticable if not altogether impossible. However, following the collapse of the quarry wall the following year the work of partial infilling of the site was begun. Funds were raised through Church fetes and in September 1894 the foundation stone of the Church Vestry and Parish Rooms was laid by Lady Beaumont of Carlton Towers and the rooms were opened shortly thereafter.

PARK BALK FARM
Situated at the top of Womersley Road overlooking the downlands, the name derives from the adjacency of the farm to the boundary of the former Cridling Park. Oral tradition claims that the building was an early inn but whilst such were frequently located alongside highways on the outskirts of towns no documentary evidence has yet been found to substantiate the claim. If an inn was ever located on the site it must have been well before the mid eighteenth century, the date of the extant documentation concerning Knottingley inns. As the farmhouse does not feature on maps before the second half of the nineteenth century the prospect of its use as an inn seems unlikely.

PARK GATE / BALK / BOTTOM
The East Field was bounded south and west by Cridling deer park and the above names are derived from their abutment to the park. Park Balk was a plot of land lying against the park rein, a rail-topped earthen embankment which surrounded the deer park in order to prevent the deer from roaming. Likewise, Park Gate is land close to the access point, while Park Bottom is land lying at the foot of the rein. Park Balk, which lay to the west of the Park at the east side of Racca Field Lane (Womersley Road), was donated by William Moorhouse as the site for a public cemetery in 1858. Following the excavation of the underlying limestone the graveyard was consecrated by the Archbishop of York the year following.

PEAR TREE COTTAGE
Situated off Weeland Road at Hill Top, this property is thought to be the original kitchen of the manor house of the Ingrams, the lords of the manor of Knottingley from the early seventeenth century. The building stood adjacent to, but separate from the manor house in accordance with architectural practice at that time which was probably a method of protecting the main hall against fire. Following the break up of the manor in the eighteenth century the kitchen was converted into the present cottage, an upper room being added. There is evidence to suggest that the new owner was a mariner. Today, the cottage is all that remains of the huge house and its hereditaments.
A detached cottage with the same name stands in Spawd Bone Lane.

PICKHILL GARTH
A pightel or pingel were terms used in the Middle Ages to denote a small piece pf land. The name Pig Hill Garth, frequently found in property deeds of the eighteenth and nineteenth century is obviously a linguistic distortion of the original name and this had developed into the name Pickhill Garth by last century. The land once formed part of the communal flats and with the reorganisation of the open fields was retained by the lord of the manor, ultimately passing to the Crown in 1377 when Henry, duke of Lancaster, became king of England. The site became associated with the nearby Kings Stonehouse or New Hall, affording mooring and repair facilities for vessels conveying goods and equipment. By the late eighteenth century the site had become a shipbuilding and repair yard.

PICKLING TANK The
Situated at the eastern side of the Depot Field near the junction with Womersley Road was a building erected by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company comprising workshops and offices. The building had a large metal tank on top into which wooden sleepers and fence posts were placed and submerged in a solution of creosote to make them weatherproof, the process being known as ‘pickling’, hence the name of the building.
By the advent of the Second World War the building was no longer in use but was utilised to provide a base for the lunch breaks of Italian prisoners of war who were employed in the nearby lime quarry. A number of POWs were adept at basket making, using thin strips of cane and were allowed to sell their products to local people by private negotiation.
For reasons of public safety the Pickling Tank was demolished shortly after the end of the war and the new road between Womersley Road and England lane was constructed across Depot Field with part of the land being integrated into the Knottingley High School campus.

PINDERS POND & PINFOLD
The Pinder was a villager appointed by the manorial court (later the Select Vestry) to round up stray livestock trespassing on the crops and pastures within the open fields of the township. Stray animals would be placed within an enclosure known as the pound and all impounded animals could only be released upon payment of a fine. The pond, for watering the livestock, together with the cottage of the Pinder were situated on Racca Green. The Enclosure Award lists land 1 rood 14 perches in extent, lying in the Upper Racca of the Low (East) Field to the Pinder of Knottingley. The Award Map reveals the grant to be a former strip or peasant holding within an unenclosed portion of the Racca Field close to the Green. The strip was probably awarded to provide grazing for the animals impounded by the Pinder. The office of Pinder continued until the 1880s when following the urban development of Racca Green the post became obsolete.

PINFOLD CLOSE
An enclosure, one acre in extent, created from the former communal strips of Racca Field and situated to the east of Racca Field Lane (Womersley Road) at its junction with Weeland Road. The site is now occupied by the houses known as Gillann Street.

PINFOLD HOUSE
A brick building standing at the top of Racca Green on the site of the former town pinfold. The premises were built by John Harker circa 1910 and used as a butcher’s shop by George Banks and later as a grocers shop. A fish and chip shop (Hobmans’) which was located in an old cottage cum shop next door transferred business to Pinfold House in the 1960s following which the former property was demolished and the present building erected upon the site.

PITTAGE UPPER / LOWER
A series of strips of land lying across the Middle Lane at its most southerly extent, the Upper Pittage lying to the west side of the path and the Lower Pittage on the eastern side. The origin of the name is uncertain but may derive from the stony nature of the arable land which is not unlike that part of the Waithwaite Field named Stoneylands.

PLOUGH SHOTT FLATT / CLOSE
A ploughland is another name for a caracute or ox-gang, being the amount of land a plough team of eight oxen was estimated to be capable of ploughing in one year. The term ‘shott’ is an alternative name for a selion of peasant strip and thus a ploughshott was a single strip of land lying in a furlong within one of the great fields. Plough Shott Flatt was located on the approximate site of Warren Avenue and Plough Shott Close now forms that past of the Simpsons Lane estate where the flats stand.

POINT END
The name for the spur of land created by construction of the canal junction between Trundles Lane and Bank Dole Lock to facilitate access to the River Aire. The point was originally the site of the Navigation Company’s branch office and also the residence of Edward Maude, the company agent.
In the late 1940s, the shipbuilding and carrying company, John Harker Ltd., constructed a slipway on the site for the repair and maintenance of vessels and Junction House, no longer a domestic residence, was used for storage purposes as well as a British waterways office.
The oil crisis of the mid 1970s and the subsequent decline of the shipbuilding and oil carrying trade resulted in the abandonment of the site. Junction House was demolished, the site being cleared soon after.

POLICE STATION The
Before the mid nineteenth century the law was enforced locally by the Parish Constable who is first recorded at Knottingley during the seventeenth century although the office dates back to the previous century.
The Parish Constable was elected at the annual Town Meeting held in March but in September 1836, John Hodgson was employed by the Select Vestry at a salary of £30 pa with two deputies who were paid £10 each per year. In 1838 a conflict arose between Hodgson and his deputy, Michael Bentley, a prominent Vestryman and the latter was supported by the Select Vestry resulting in the termination of Hodgson’s office. In May 1854 the Select Vestry revived their former policy and engaged Joseph Hey of Halifax as the township’s policeman at a salary of £1 per week plus uniform. Hey’s tenure was relatively short however, the Select Vestry dispensing with his services in October 1856.
From the following decade members of the County Police Force resided in the town, living in Farnhill’s Yard, which became known colloquially as Police Station Yard. Records show that the policeman’s house served as an office and jail until in 1896 the Police Station and constabulary housing was built next to the Board School at Weeland Road.
The presence of the County force did not, however, result in the immediate abandonment of the office of Parish Constable, the last recorded office-holder being David Tate who was elected at the annual Town Meeting in March 1884.

POPLARS The
Formerly known as Cherry Tree Quarry, this six acre site, adjacent to Racca Field Lane, (Womersley Road) in the Low Field, had the underlying limestone extracted in the mid nineteenth century and after being worked out became the site of an urban farmstead named as The Poplars from the row of poplar trees which were planted along the frontage of the quarry bottom. In the 1980s the site was sold to property developers who demolished the farmhouse and built the present estate of private dwellings, retaining the Poplars name, but not alas, the trees…

POPLARS HOUSE
A large detached cottage situated in Back Lane and also referred to as The Poplars, this property was occupied for most of the nineteenth century by the Misses Gaggs. Following their demise towards the century’s end, the property was sold and became the Knottingley Central Club, affectionately known as the Rat Trap. The building was demolished in the late 1960s and replaced by a modern building in the nearby Croft. The new clubhouse closed in consequence of the economic recession of the 1980s. The site is now occupied by the Riverside Residential Home.

POST OFFICE / YARD
On October 7th 1843, William Simpson Hepworth, a printer and stationer, issued a notice to the Knottingley public announcing his candidature for official appointment as the town’s Postmaster, the appointment being subject to a Town’s Meeting to be held on the 12th October.
At the subsequent meeting, Hepworth emerged as the successful candidate and shortly thereafter his business premises situated opposite the west end of the Flatts, became the official office for the collection and distribution of mail and other postal business.
The premises remained the main Post Office within the town for more than a century and the site became so closely identified with the service that the surrounding area became known as Hepworth’s Yard or Post Office Yard. As the town developed, sub post offices were established in various locations but when the business of the main Post Office was transferred in the mid twentieth century it was relocated at England House, upper Aire Street, under the proprietorship of the Barton family. Following the mass demolition of Aire Street in the late 1960s – early 1970s, new post office premises were built in Aire Street but are now located at the Arcade, Hill Top.

POT DICKS
An enclosure at the east end of Knottingley Common, formerly the site of the South Moor Pottery. The site is named after Richard Crossley, former proprietor of the pottery. In 1901 the boiler of a locomotive on the adjacent railway line blew up and the resultant hole this made filled up with natural spring water to make the defunct pottery site semi-marshland. The site was the haunt of myriad forms of wildlife which attracted generations of local children to it until it was destroyed by the construction of Kellingley Colliery in the 1960s.

POTTERY HILL
A former name for Ferrybridge Hill.

POTTERY LANE
A modern name for the former Stag Lane which connected Ferrybridge Road with the Holes.

PRIMROSE COTTAGE
A distinctive town cottage bearing the date 1805, situated to the left of Primrose Hill at the junction with Hollingworth Lane, once the home of Captain Joseph Arnold.

PRIMROSE VALE / HILL
The name is an indication of the picturesque nature of Knottingley township in the pre-industrial period. The name is self explanatory. The route along Primrose Hill ran from central Aire Street via Primrose Vale and between the area known as the Bendles and Racca Green and thence along Racca Field Lane (Womersley Road) to the open fields. The route later became one of several lime routes linking the quarries to the south of the town with the staithes on the Aire bank and (after 1826) the canal side in the Bendles.

PRISON The
The town’s prison is first recorded in 1838 when the former debtors’ prison at Hill Top was leased by the then owner of the property, Dr. William Bywater, to the Select Vestry for the accommodation of vagrants and petty criminals placed in the custody of the Parish Constable, with serious offenders being detained in the House of Correction at Wakefield. In 1838 the lease of the town’s prison was surrendered and the prison transferred to the site of the former Wildbore manor house at the lower end of Hill Top, being located in part of the premises belonging to Samuel maw Long. From 1830 Long had undertaken limestone excavation on the adjacent site and by the following decade the quarrying had extended so close to the manor house that the Select Vestry were concerned for the safety of prisoners and custodians and called upon Long to erect a fence and wall not less than five feet high to ensure the safety of the prison site. So lucrative was the trade in limestone, however, that the owner took the decision to demolish the manor house in order to obtain access to the underlying limestone and in October 1842 the building ceased to be used as a prison.
It was then decided to seek the sanction of the Justices at Wentbridge to permit the construction of a purpose built prison in the township. The proposal was, however, abandoned shortly thereafter and an agreement was reached for the lease of premises forming part of the former Ingram manor house, Hill Top, and this site was utilised until April 1857.
By the 1860s the enforcement of law and order was undertaken by the County Police Force and in the following decade a police station was established at the residence of the local constable in Aire Street. In 1896 the recently constituted West Riding County Council erected a police station at Weeland Road and this building continued to serve the town until its closure in 2006.

PUBLIC HOUSES The
As a developing inland port Knottingley had a number of inns from an early date although formal records only exist from the mid eighteenth century. The passing of the Beer Act (Wellington Act) of 1830 added to the number of outlets by facilitating the opening of numerous beerhouses, many of which subsequently closed but others thrived and ultimately acquired the status of fully licensed premises (e.g Anvil Inn, Bee Hive Inn, Potters Arms).
For more details about the town's public houses see our Gazetteer of Knottingley Pubs and Breweries circa 1750-1998.

PUDDING BANK
Like Mirey Butt, the name indicates a parcel of land on poorly drained soil and the soft, sticky nature of the surrounding soil which gave rise to the fanciful name. The site was on the boundary of the South Field, as the term ‘Bank’ indicates. Named as ‘Pudden Bank’ in the Enclosure Award Schedule, being an enclosure about an acre in extent, its somewhat irregular shape and location indicating it as an intake from the surrounding wasteland.

PUDDING BANK CLOSE
Lying next to Pudding Bank this close was a rectangular enclosure two acres in extent.

QUARRIES
Too numerous to list (eg Quarry Pieces, Closes, Flatts, Holes etc), indicating the extent of the extractive limestone industry which is recorded as early as the thirteenth century but began to pick up pace in the seventeenth, was widespread in the eighteenth century when the bulk of the stone in the town’s central area was extracted, and reached its apogee in the nineteenth century with large and small workings to the south side of the town, and declined to a state of non-existence during last century.
Used in the preparation of leather, plaster, building, road making, glass and as an agricultural fertiliser, lime was a valuable commodity which although consuming a large amount of fuel was relatively easy to produce.
As wood became scarcer and therefore more expensive for use as fuel, the limestone industry was one of the first to adapt to coal, particularly by the mid nineteenth century when the construction of the Aire & Calder canal and the development of local coal measures facilitated ease of supply and transport.
By the eighteenth century the purchase of land with underlying limestone strata by a group of wealthy local businessmen resulted in an increase of enclosed areas within the common fields and promoted the movement for general enclosure of the town fields at the end of that century.
The quarries, a source of considerable wealth to a coterie of local lime merchants whilst providing a livelihood for labouring men, have in effect robbed the town of much physical evidence concerning its past history.

QUARRY COTTAGE
Standing in a semi-isolated location at the bottom of the east side of the long defunct and partially in-filled Jacksons’ Quarry, this limestone built house was probably erected originally for use by a ‘watcher’ whose task was to undertake observation of the slow burning lime clamps during the hours when the site was non operational.
The property was purchased by Bagley & Co., Ltd., after the quarrying ceased and part of the site was used for tipping ashes and factory waste. During the fuel crisis which occurred in the severe winter of 1947, dozens of locals picked cinders from the tips, some to burn as fuel, others to sell for profit.
Between the mid 1930s and 1960s the cottage was tenanted by the Tucker family and continues to remain inhabited at this time.

QUARRY HOUSE
An imposing, detached house standing at the lower end of Hill Top and once the residence of J.S. Bentley, auctioneer and valuer, prominent in the administrative affairs of the township in the nineteenth century. The house has no particular historical significance beyond the Bentley family connection but because its deep foundations necessitated its being supported on a series of arches in order to save construction costs, the resultant ‘tunnels’ gave rise to the myth of a subterranean passage connecting with Pontefract Castle, a romantic fiction with no basis in fact.

RACCA CRABTREE
First listed in 1368 the name is derived from a wild apple tree situated within the area known as the Racca and forming a characteristic landmark as well as serving a useful function by providing crab apples for wine and animal food.

RACCA FIELD / LANE
The Racca Field was a furlong lying within the East Field and occupying the area lying approximately between the south side of Weeland Road and the railway crossing at Womersley Road and to the east as far as the footpath between the Broomhill and Springfields estates. Sub divisions of the Racca Field have resulted in a plethora of associated strip names (eg High / Low / Middle / Long / Short / Near / Far Racca / Racca Crabtree / Racca Field Close, etc., etc.,) The road known as Womersley Road was originally named Racca Field Lane, a name retained until the late nineteenth century and formed the boundary line between the Middle Field and the East Field. The land to the east of Racca Field Lane, lying beyond Broomhill was known as Upper Racca.

RACCA GREEN
A site of secondary settlement adjacent to the Racca Field and Spring Field to the south and Bendles Field to the west. The origin of the name ‘Racca’ is uncertain and several theories have been advanced as probable explanations, including the presence in the vicinity of racks for the drying and stretching of newly manufactured cloth. The most probable explanation, however, is that the name derives from the ancient dialect work ‘rack’ (derived from the racking gait of oxen and horses) for a lane or path described as a ‘rackerway’. Such a one lay to the south of Cow Lane and was the nucleus of Racca Green, and also the basis of the name of Racca Field (i.e. locations identified by proximity to the rackerway known as Racca Field Lane)
While an expanding settlement from its early beginnings, Racca Green retained a largely rural appearance and although as early as the 1830s it was proposed to fill in the Pinders Pond and make a road through the Green it was not until the closing decades of the nineteenth century that it was the subject of urban development with a metalled road cutting through the centre with houses and shops augmenting and eventually outnumbering the more ancient dwellings and features such as Pinders House, Pinders Pond and small farmsteads.

RACCA HOUSE
A large detached house standing at the top end of Racca Green. The residence of the Twaite family for over a century. In the second half of the last century the hipped roof was removed and the building was put to commercial use before bring renovated and converted as flats.

RADDINGS CLOSES
Two enclosures named respectively as Upper and Lower Raddings lying between Banks Garth and Spawd Bone Lane. The name may be derived from either or both of two elements of the Old Norse language indicating land in a nook or corner and land cleared by assart, both being applicable to a site close to a previous boundary of the common field system at Spawd Bone Lane. The land formed part of the manorial holdings belonging to David Poole, and was then owned by William Moorhouse before passing to William Jackson. The Upper Raddings, a little in excess of 8 acres, was bisected by the railway line constructed in the late 1840s. The Lower Raddings, slightly more than two acres, had a series of randomly placed buildings including a more substantial ‘L’ shaped structure erected on site sometime between 1842 and 1852, suggesting that a dwelling and homestead had been established by that time. By the late nineteenth century a second ‘L’ shaped structure had been added to the original one to form an imposing but unnamed dwelling house which may be the one referred to in the 1881 census return as ‘Bentley’s House’.
At some unknown later date the premises were sub-divided and now form two separate dwellings.

RAIL CLOSE
Named for the proximity of the land to the fence which stood on top of the rampart enclosing Cridling Park which abutted part of the boundary of the East Field.

RAILWAY STATION The
By the mid nineteenth century Knottingley Station, situated to the south of Hill Top on the edge of the former Waithwaite Field, was an important railway junction serving all parts of the country. The carriages of the Leeds and the York trains were linked here to form the London train in the 1860s but the importance of the towns rail link was somewhat diminished from thereafter as new routes were developed which bypassed the town. The station remained a quite substantial centre, however, with numerous platforms, buildings and public facilities, including a W.H. Smith’s newspaper and bookstall, and a large freight yard, until well into the following century. The resultant passenger traffic supported trade fro the three hotels in the vicinity of the station: The Commercial Hotel (1838), The Royal Albert Hotel (1840 – later renamed as the Railway Hotel) and the Lancashire & Yorkshire Hotel (1864).
In 1901 an approach to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Co., by the Urban District Council seeking the erection of a second railway station at the east end of the town was rejected by the Company which claimed it was owed money by the Council and although by the mid 1950s hope still remained that a sub-station might be constructed at the Depot Field, the plan never materialised.
The infamous Beeching review of the 1960s resulted in the severe curtailment of passenger services, presaging the demolition of Knottingley Station and reduction of its status to the present unmanned role of today.

RAMPART The
Known colloquially as ‘the ramper’ to later generations, the Rampart was the balk or rein which surrounded the Cridling (deer) Park which marked part of the eastern boundary of the great East Field of the manor of Knottingley. In common with the King’s Standard, the Rampart has been the subject of much speculation by later generations of local inhabitants, the most common regarding the name as an indication of an iron age or other prehistoric fortification.

RAWCROFT The / CLOSE
Part of the original arable land of the manorial vill, occupying the site between the Flatts and Marsh End later known as Pickhill Garth, the Rawcroft, also referred to as Rowcroft, was retained as Crown land in the post feudal era and was a centre for the building and repair of vessels as well as providing wharfage for the transhipment of goods and materials to and from the adjacent King’s Storehouse.

RED HOUSE
One of a pair of brick built nineteenth century dwelling houses so named because the brickwork was originally painted red. Situated at Marsh End next to Ocean Terrace. The house was the last residence of H.T.B. Worfolk, formerly of Skew Bridge House, the town’s Registrar of births and deaths in the late nineteenth – early twentieth century. Following Worfolk’s death in 1920 the house had a number of occupants and at one period was the home of successive commanders of the local Salvation Army Corps.

RIDGEWAY The
The strip land characteristic of the open field system of agriculture was rendered accessible by earthen balks between the cultivated furlongs, hence the name Ridgeway. The name is of great antiquity being based on the Old English ‘hrycg’ or the Norse ‘hryggr’. As with the wider headlands, there were innumerable ridgeways within the area of the manor but in common with the road known as the Headlands today it is the Ridgeway running off Spawd Bone Lane which alone perpetuates the former name.

ROPERS ARMS
A detached property standing close to the junction of Sunny Bank and Cow Lane which between the 1830s and 1971 was a public house established by the roper, Samuel Atkinson, and named as the Roper’s Arms. The premises were subsequently converted into flats.

ROPEWALK The
The name is a reminder of the fact that at one time there was no less than six locations in Knottingley which were associated with the manufacture of ropes. The absence of any detail other than the name of the site prevents positive identification of proprietorship. However, the Enclosure Award Schedule refers to a Ropery owned by John Thompson near Tenters Balk and although not featured in the Tithe Appointment of 1842, a conveyance of 1864 refers to “a private road, formerly a ropewalk” lying south of Cock Garth and this suggests that a Ropewalk occupied the site at an early date in the towns maritime history.
Connecting Weeland Road with Primrose Hill, a Census entry of 1841 refers to Ropery Walk as a residential site, a fact which reinforces the probability of the ropewalk’s existence and demise at a period before the nineteenth century. The fact that the Ropewalk is perpetuated by the definite article may be an indication that the ropery was the first of its kind within the town.
The Ropewalk was restricted to pedestrian use until well into the twentieth century.

ROPEWALK METHODIST CHAPEL
Members of the Methodist religion were recorded within the town in 1784 and by 1788 were using Dame Gawthorpe’s cottage on Low Green as a meeting place. The first chapel was erected in 1799 in Gaggs Yard, off Aire Street, but with seating for only 150 it proved too small and in 1816 a new 380 seat chapel was built on Primrose Hill. The chapel was partially demolished and extended in 1834 and again in 1839. Such was the popularity of Methodism that in December 1844 a plot of land in Tenters Balk (Ropewalk) was purchased and the following year John Carter laid the foundation stone of a new chapel which was opened in June 1846. Before April 1844, when a clock was installed in the tower of St. Botolph’s Church, the sole public building in Knottingley to have a public clock was the Ropewalk Methodist Chapel.
Early in the twentieth century a Sunday School was built adjacent to the chapel but following the decline in religious observation following the Second World War, the chapel was demolished in 1977 and the adjacent schoolroom adapted to serve as the place of worship. The chapel has a graveyard containing memorials to several former mariners and local dignitaries.

ROTHERY’S CROFT
Crofts or closes were small enclosures for tillage or pasture. Rothery’s Croft was a small area situated near the junction of the Croft and Cow Lane which whilst probably of ancient origin takes its name from the Rothery family, professional gardeners, who were resident at Cow Lane by the late eighteenth century.

ROUGH
A one acre site adjacent to Ferrybridge Potteries which may be an alternative name for the land belonging to the township known as the Swineholes.

ROUGHSTORTH
Identified as early as 1368, the name of this parcel of land is derived from the Old English ‘ruh’ = rough / ‘storo’ = plantation and is therefore rough land close to a plantation. The name had changed by the time of the Enclosure Award in the late eighteenth century and its disappearance prevents identification of its location but it may be the Swineholes site also known as Rough, which may be an abbreviation of Roughstorth.

ROUND ACRE
Neither round nor an acre, this three acre plus field was in fact square shaped being formed from former peasant strips within the Middle Field close to Waterfield Hill, near Middle Lane.

ROUND HOUSE The
The name derives from the beehive shaped ‘pot’ furnace which characterised the bottle house which feature in the engravings showing glass manufacture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Round House was of later origin, however, being established on a site at Low (Fernley) Green, adjacent to the canal bank, in February 1874 when a partnership of three glassblowers and a blacksmith began to manufacture flint glass containers. The site is now occupied by a modern glassworks known since the late nineteenth century as the Hope Glassworks and still associated in the public mind with the Gregg family who were the proprietors during most of last century.
The Round House was also the name given to one of the Warren Hill mills following its conversion as a dwelling house.

ROYDES. LOW / HIGH
From the Old English ‘rod’ meaning a clearing in a woodland, the name of the two sites known as Low and High Roydes, is an indication of the process of assarting which took place on the fringes of the open fields in the early Middle Ages. In this case the clearance was to extend the area of the East Field, a fact confirmed by the adjacency of Stocking Lane which provided access to the Roydes which lay to the south between Weeland Road and South Moor Lane at Kemp Bank.

SALT PIE HOUSES
Salt is an ancient necessity for the maintenance of life and it may be conjectured that this site is named for its use in the extraction of salt or as a storage place for the commodity. However, examples have been cited of such locations being named from comparison of their shape with the wooden salt boxes which were commonly attached to the walls of houses during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The houses stood at the junction of the Weeland Road and Morley Lane where Morley House now stands and were owned by Thomas Jackson in 1851 when the site was known as Marine Grove.

SANDHOLES The
A source of material for building and marling clay land, the Sandholes was a township holding located on the edge of the East Field, off Racca Field Lane, occupying a plot between what is now Knottingley Cemetery and the Poplars housing estate.

SALVATION ARMY CITADEL
Established within the town circa 1880, the Red Ribbon or Salvation Army worshipped in Norfolk House, Chapel Street, before building its first barracks at Carr Lane, in October 1883, an event marked by a parade round the town led by the band of the local Corps. By 1890 the Citadel was located in Saul’s Yard off Cow Lane, before being located at Racca Green where plans for a barracks were approved in 1926. The said barracks were replaced by new premises on the same site toward the end of the last century.

SCULPTURE HOUSE
A sub division of the Ingram manor house at Hill Top, from the mid eighteenth century. The name is derived from a remarkable sculpture stone fireplace, some 12 feet wide and 10 feet high, showing at its apex a figure of Pan holding a reed pipe. Below is a knightly coat of arms bearing the image of a winged dragon and to either side are nymphs as supporters with figures of a shepherd and a shepherdess at each respective side. The surround of the fireplace featured a bass relief of a pastoral scene.
The sculpture may have had symbolic significance for the Ingram family but more probably it reflected the Elizabethan penchant for pastoral imagery.
There is a lingering element of oral tradition which asserts that Queen Elizabeth slept in the room containing the fireplace but the mansion is one of the few places where Good Queen Bess didn’t sleep, being built after her reign.
During the process of demolition of the mansion in the early 1960s, the fireplace disappeared without trace and its whereabouts are still unknown.

SEATONS CROFT
The Seaton family were merchants, bankers and vessel owners, living in the locality in the early nineteenth century. William Seaton who lent money to the Select Vestry in the 1930s to enable local paupers to receive parish pay, owned this site. Located at the east end of the Croft, it was donated by his widow as the site for Christ Church in 1848.

SEBASTOPOL
The name given to a terrace of houses lying alongside the (now defunct) footpath leading from Jackson (Anvil) Bridge to the Greenhouse fields, at a point near Sleepy Valley. Also close to Sleepy Valley was the canalside shipyard of Edward Atkinson and lime staiths. It is claimed that limestone used as ballast in vessels built at the yard was ultimately used for the construction of roads in the Crimea during the war which may prove the connection with the name of the terrace which was demolished when the footpath was blocked in the late 1950s.

SETT COCKS
Situated in Longlands Field at a point close to the south of Leys Lane, the Sett Cocks were the name of a series of peasant strips which took the name from the period before the land was incorporated into the common field system. As wasteland the area was a habitat for game birds which were captured for their food value by nets known as setts. The woodcocks, pheasants and other birds so netted not only provided a source of fresh meat but reduced the damage from birds feeding on nearby crops.

SEWERAGE WORKS
As early as 1885 aspects of public health such as public water supply and drainage systems were being discussed by the Select Vestry but it was not until 1894 that the newly formed Urban District Council approved a water supply scheme. Two years later an agreement was reached with the Aire & Calder Navigation Co., concerning the laying of water and drainage pipes over canal bridges within the township but as the result of controversy and legal action it was not until early twentieth century that the plans came to fruition.
In May 1903 the drainage scheme was officially opened by the Chairman of the K.U.D.C., Cr. John Harker, on the site of the pumping station at Common Lane end. The occasion being celebrated by a civic dinner held at the Railway Hotel, Hill Top, afterward. The scheme comprised two plants, a sewerage treatment plant at Marsh Lane and the pumping station at Common Lane. The plants were identical in appearance, each having an impressive ornate brick chimney which served as local landmarks for more than a century. In addition, the Marsh Lane plant had a small public mortuary on site.
Advances in hydro technology rendered both works obsolete and in the 1960s the pumping station was demolished, followed some time later by the buildings at the Marsh Lane site, and also the Water Tower on Simpsons Hill later in the century.

SHILLING HILL / LANE
Lying alongside the Weeland Turnpike Road to the west of the Great North Road, Shilling Hill Lane progressed eastward up Shilling Hill to connect with Cattle Laith Lane and the South Field. The name derives from the medieval English ‘schele’ meaning a hut or shed as that which sheltered a shepherd. The location was later the site of a turnpike road toll booth.

SHIP GARTH The
The name occurs in a conveyance dated 1866 and refers to a close of land slightly in excess of 3 acres fronting the river and lying to the east of manor Farm. The details suggest that the Ship Garth was a later appellation for the land which was formerly the Manor Park lying behind the Ingram mansion.

SHIP LANE
Running alongside the site of the former Palace Cinema building and connecting Aire Street to the river with its shipyard and jetty, the lane also led in the nineteenth century to the Ship Inn which stood on the Palace site before the cinema was built in 1912.

SHOULDER OF MUTTON CLOSE
A curved enclosure situated in the Middle Field, this small parcel of land some 3 roods in extent, probably received its name from its imagined shape, which as in the case of the Kitchen Chair Closes, is not immediately apparent from a survey of the contemporary landscape.

SKEW BRIDGE HOUSE
A detached brick-built house located at the western side of Skew Bridge and owned by William Worfolk and his son Thomas, proprietors of the adjacent canalside shipyard which was later incorporated into the shipbuilding site of John Harker Ltd., when the yard was first leased, and later purchased in the mid 1930s.

SKIPTON CLOSE
Probably the plot referred to in the 1857 Knottingley Rate Book as Shipton Close, the name is probably an indication of a holding obtained originally by individual assart. At the time of the Enclosure Award, Skipton Close was a five acre holding in the former South Field, near Simpsons Lane.

SLEEPY VALLEY
An enclosure lying alongside the canal bank close to Jacksons (Anvil) Bridge. The site was originally part of the complex known as the Greenhouse fields but the underlying limestone was much deeper than that of the surrounding land, hence the Valley name to which the prefix ‘Sleepy’ was given as an ironic element, perhaps because the low lying ground evoked an image of Washington Irvine’s story of Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow? At the time the land was being excavated the area was identified as the shipyard lime quarry from its adjacency to the canalside shipyard. From the early twentieth century Sleepy Valley was utilised as a recreation ground by the Bagleys Glassworks football teams, the site being purchased by the firm, together with the Banks Garth cricket field about 1914.

SOUTH MOOR LANE
Self explanatory. The land leading to and from the wasteland or common known as South Moor which provided common grazing for the livestock of the inhabitants of the township and was shared with the neighbouring settlements of Cridling Stubbs, Beal, Kellington, Kellingley and Eggborough (Hut Green).

SOUTH MOOR POTTERY
The east end of the Common was the site of a pottery in the nineteenth century belonging to Richard Blackburn. Following Blackburn’s demise, the business was conducted by Richard and William Crossley who are recorded there in 1877. The site became known as Pot Dicks. It was on the railway adjacent to the site that a serious incident occurred in 1901 when a locomotive boiler exploded with two fatalities, the debris being scattered on the defunct pottery site which now forms part of the Kellingley Colliery complex.

SOUTH PARADE
The name of a group of houses which used to stand at the junction of Sunny Bank with Cow Lane.

SOWGATE LANE
Situated to the north west of the A1 on the western edge of Knottingley, this path was originally a byway on the north side of the Pontefract Road, running parallel to it before rejoining it east of Bondgate to provide access to the south gate of Pontefract Castle. The name is a linguistic corruption, (Southgate = Sou’gate = Sowgate).
The lane originally crossed the Great North Road and continued toward Hill Top, joining Weeland Road at a point opposite and a little west of Warren Avenue. The upgrading of the A1 and the increased volume of the traffic severed the line of Sowgate Lane, the eastern portion of which still exists but is now largely disused.

SPARROW CASTLE
Not strictly a Knottingley location but one belonging to Cridling Stubbs. The site was, however, frequented by generations of Knottingley youths, being an isolated and deserted dwelling house, the appellation being given to such properties quite frequently in the past.
A gym and boxing club located near the Congregational Church ion the Croft and associated with Tommy garner in the 1930s, was also known as Sparrow Castle.

SPAWD BONE LANE
From the middle English ‘spaldbone’ – shoulder bone – a name suggested by the contours of the lane. Spawd Bone Lane was originally the southern boundary of the early field system and following the extension of the South Field became a headland lying within that field.
With the establishment of the Weeland Turnpike Road Trust in 1745 the road formed part of the turnpike route through the town, connecting east Knottingley with Headlands Lane before rejoining Pontefract Road. The construction of the Wakefield – Goole railway in 1845 cut through the turnpike road, necessitating a slight diversion between Morley Lane and England Lane before turning right and resuming along Spawd Bone Lane.

SPIKING / DOUBLE SPIKING
Of ancient origin, being cited in documents dated 1368 and 1421. The location is unknown but the name suggests a sharply pointed piece of land or in the case of the Double Spiking, a dual pointed plot, suggesting the image of a large spike nail (c.f. Bull Horn Close supra)

SPRING FIELD / CLOSE
Land occupied today by the Springfields housing estate. Two centuries and more earlier it was open land, being one of the furlongs of the East Field. Spring Close was the location of a natural freshwater spring which gave rise to the name of the surrounding area.

SPURRIER HOUSE / HILL
Adjacent to the Great North Road, the name may derive from the need to spur on horses in order to meet the demands of Gallows Hill and the rising incline of the hill which led off from the road to allow access to the western extremity of the South Field.

STACKGARTH
Situated to the west of Green House Farm in Spawd Bone Lane, this enclosure was a little over an acre in size and contained several small buildings. Perhaps a homestead and croft but could have been an adjunct to the nearby farm.

ST BOTOLPHS CHURCH
Built in 1150 by Henry de Lacy, Lord of the Honour of Pontefract, to serve as a chapel of ease to save the manorial inhabitants the journey to their parish church, All Saints, Pontefract, to worship. The Church is dedicated to a Saxon missionary who reputedly brought Christianity to Knottingley in the seventh century.
Rebuilt three times prior to the eighteenth century, a petition was submitted to the Justices at Pontefract Quarter Sessions in 1751 preying for a new church as the existing one was dilapidated and too small. The church was therefore rebuilt with an enlarged nave.
In 1873 a tower of local limestone was added to which a clock was affixed in April 1884. The chancel was extended in 1887 and the bow pews removed.
The Churchyard was the township burial ground before the opening of Knottingley cemetery in 1859. A school had been established upon the site in 1679 and a schoolroom and schoolhouse were a feature of the churchyard until the tower was built. In 1882 land previously forming the eastern part of the Town Quarry was in-filled and the churchyard extended with a new entrance created near the junction with Weeland Road.

STAG LANE / CLOSE
Former name for Pottery Lane (c.f. supra) Stag Lane Close was situated near the junction of Pottery Hill and the Holes.

STOCKING CLOSE
Stocking is a term which indicates the clearance and intake of woodland or wasteland for the purpose of pasture or arable use. The name is therefore self-explanatory.

STOCKING LANE
The dirt track which runs parallel to the canal junction between Trundles Bridge and Bank Dole Lock and beyond is called Stocking Lane. The term stocking is an alternative name for ‘assarting which means the clearance of woodland, stocking being the tearing up of the tree stubs following the cutting down of the trees. The name indicates the process of extending the East Field as the manorial population expanded from the twelfth century. The term ‘stokying’ was first recorded with reference to Knottingley in 1341, indicating that enlargement of the common fields was already taking place by that date.

STRAWFOLD The
Originally a place of shelter into which creatures, particularly sheep, which were left to graze throughout the day were brought for nightly protection. The Strawfold occupied land between Aire Street and the Croft, and was located opposite the Island at the east end of the Flatts.
By the seventeenth century houses stood on the site which was named Strawfold Yard. In April 1935 six of the seven houses were demolished as part of a slum clearance project. The remaining house and other nearby dwellings of seventeenth century origin were left standing until well into the twentieth century.

SUNNY BANK
A south facing balk leading off Cow Lane and connecting with Fernley Green to the east. The term ‘bank’ indicates that this was an early field boundary. Following the construction of the canal between 1820-26, Sunny Bank became densely populated and formed a busy link between central Knottingley and the growing industrial and residential area to the east of the township which was to culminate in the establishment of the area as a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1848.

SWINEHOLES The
A part of the common or wasteland where the pigs were turned out to root and forage. The Swineholes was allotted to the township following the Enclosure Survey of 1793 and let out annually to the highest bidder as grazing land thereafter until sold off in 1874 by the Select Vestry for £60 to Sydney Woolf, proprietor of the Ferrybridge Pottery which adjoined the Swineholes.

SWINLEY GREEN
A greens settlement area known as Low Green and adjoining Fernley Green. The name derives from the adjacency of the Green to the common land which provided pannage for the swine belonging to the peasantry.

TANNERY The
Leather, together with wool and wood, was one of the three indispensable items in common usage and manufactured locally throughout the medieval and pre industrial eras. The production of leather was a lengthy process and required the use of much water and oak bark. The tannery at Knottingley was situated at the edge of the common, where wasteland trees and streams provided a natural resource for processing hide and in a location where the noxious smell of the process of manufacture would be at maximum distance from the local inhabitants.

TANNERS BAR CLOSE
A parcel of land in excess of two acres close to Low Green and located on the north side of South Moor Lane. The presence of nearby buildings, shown on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey Map, indicates a tannery abutting the entrance to the Common Lane situated on the site now occupied by Thistle ton farm. In the early nineteenth century the Tan Yard and croft were occupied by Charles Turner who leased the site from Philip Schofield.

TARRAN HOUSES
Prefabricated houses situated at Southfield Lane, Knottingley and Crewe Avenue, Ferrybridge. Built in response to the Temporary Housing Act immediately following the end of the Second World War, these pre-cast concrete, bolt together dwellings, described as the architectural equivalent of an instant dinner, were a temporary measure to alleviate the housing shortage of the period. Named after the designer, the dwellings were supposed to have a maximum utility of fifteen years but are still occupied almost sixty years later, many having been given a modernising facelift.

TEAZER TERRACE
Located in Marsh End, the name of this group of houses suggests a connection with the local glass industry for although the date, 1866, predates the establishment of the industry in Knottingley, it may reveal a connection with Ferrybridge Glassworks. A teaser prepared the ‘batch’ materials which provided the molten glass for working by the glassblower. The name ‘teazer’ arises from the function of the founder in skimming off the impurities from the molten metal which was achieved by dropping a turnip into the furnace which caused the impurities to rise to the surface for ease of removal.

TEMPERANCE HOUSE
A detached house situated in Womersley Road near the cemetery. Brick built in the late nineteenth century, the house is notable for the stone bearing a bass relief of the Temperance Movement badge situated above the door.

TEMPEST GARTH
Two acres of pastureland situated opposite Green House farm in Spawd Bone Lane.

TENTERS CLOSE / BALK
A reference to the area in which cloth-stretching frames were located, the cloth being hung on tenterhooks. Tenters Balk was situated on the south side of what is now the bottom end of Ropewalk, providing access to the said close. The site was subsequently occupied by the Methodist Chapel and the National School.

THORN BANK
An area of land slightly in excess of three acres on the edge of the South Field which probably takes its name from hawthorn trees on a balk or banking marking the field boundary and the adjacent rough land.

THORN TREE FLATTS
A series of single strip holdings of about 26-27 perches situated within the Middle Field and lying between middle Lane and Racca Field Lane. The area containing the Flatts was rich in limestone and extensively excavated from the mid nineteenth century. One strip, the ownership of which could not be identified, was left unexcavated and forms a ‘breasting’ or land barrier between the defuct Jacksons Quarry and the lime quarry formerly owned and worked by the late Mr. Jack Hargraves’ Knottingley Lime Co., until about 1962 and now the operational base for the Plasmor company.

THISTLETON CLOSE
The above site does not feature in the Enclosure Award Schedule but is listed in the town rate Books of the mid nineteenth century. It is probable that the close formed part of the holding situated at the Low Green end of Common Lane, known as Thistleton Farm. The close name is most likely based on the prevalence of thistles within or near its confines.

THROSTLE ROW
Not as may be thought named for the modern housing development but a reference to the medieval strips in part of Longlands Field in the great South Field close to its western extremity, hence the variant prefixes such as Near / Far / Little / Throstle Row. The name is derived from the Old English ‘ruh’ meaning rough arable or grassland and the bird element from the profusion of thrushes within the Longlands area. Following the abandonment of the open field system consolidation of elements of the common fields occurred and as a result the holding known today as Throstle Farm was established.

TITHE BARN / LANE
In the earliest period of Anglo-Christianity the church and clergy were maintained by offerings from the laity with one quarter being utilised for the personal support of the clergyman and the remainder used for the upkeep of the church fabric and alms for the poor. At an indeterminate date the system became regularised as a tithe which consisted of payment by all inhabitants of one tenth of all the produce of the land. Following the reorganisation of the parishes in the twelfth century each parish had its own vicar or curate to whom such annual offerings were made. In addition, the incumbent was allotted a series of strips within the open field system. To accommodate the fruits of the land and the profits of the labour of the peasantry, each parish had a tithe barn. In Knottingley the tithe barn was first located in a foldyard close to the site of the Wildbore Manor House, adjacent to the Church but at an unknown date it relocated to Primrose Vale, close to the site of the present Elim Church and is well remembered by the writer as a large limestone, cement rendered building, its size seeming disproportionate to the size of the township and its population in earlier times. At some point, probably during the eighteenth century, the barn and its accompanying holding was leased out and the site became an urban farmstead (tithes for the most part being commuted to money payment). With the widespread urban regeneration of the town from the late 1950s, the Tithe Barn area was scheduled for redevelopment and the barn and farm buildings were demolished.

TOWN HALL The
Built by a limited company of local inhabitants on a parcel of land at the top of the Ropewalk sold by Fanny and Emma Smallpage in 1865. The foundation stone was laid by Sydney Woolf on the 29th September 1865 and the building was opened on the 14th September 1866.
In 1902 the Town Hall was purchased by Mr. J.G. Lyon and donated to the township of Knottingley and served for many years as the social hub of the town as well as its administrative centre, being the offices of the Urban District Council before transfer to The Close in the 1960s.
Following the reorganisation of local government in 1974 the Town Hall was declared surplus to requirements by the new local authority and was in danger of eventual demolition. In 1976 a management committee of local citizens was formed and hard work and dedicated leadership has enabled many crises to be overcome and ensured that the Town Hall remains of value to the community to this day.

TRAMWAYS The
These were situated along the middle of Hill Top in the area between Forge Hill and Marine Villa Road.
As the limestone quarries lying to the immediate south of the Hill Top were developed it became necessary to convey the stone from the quarries to the river (and later canal) wharf at the north side of the road. Tunnels were excavated under the pillar of limestone left to support the highway and wagon tracks were laid to enable trucks to pass under the roadway.
One tramway, belonging to William Moorhouse, was located close to the Bay Horse Inn while a second was located slightly further east, serving the quarry site now occupied by Morrisons’ supermarket.
The tramways were operational for a limited period of time and as excavation progressed further away from the centre of the township recourse was made to transport by horse and cart and numerous lime routes between the quarries and the waterways bisected the length of the town.

TRUNDLES LANE / CLOSE
Lying between Marsh lane and Weeland Road, the name derives from ‘trendle’ describing something circular in shape such as the nearby bend in the river known as bank Dole Reach at the eastern extremity of Marsh lane. Trendles Lane, eventually becoming linguistically transformed as Trundles Lane, connected the fields and water meadows alongside the river with the common grazing land of South Moor.
Trundles Close was formerly known as Rye Royde, the name arising from the profusion of rye grass in that location, being a common indication of woodland clearance.

TOWN’S QUARRY
Originally the site of the manor house of the Wildbores, lords of the manor of Knottingley during the sixteenth century. The house was demolished in 1844 to facilitate the excavation of the underlying limestone. By 1871, when Forrest wrote his History of Knottingley, the site was described as “a green and stagnant pool”. Part of the site was infilled in the late nineteenth century to enable St. Botolph’s Churchyard to be extended and landscaped and thus provide a new entrance to the church yard and later, (1895) space for the erection of the parish rooms. The remaining part was used as a refuse tip for almost a century before being refurbished as St Botolphs Memorial Garden in the 1970s.
The origin of the name, Town’s Quarry, is obscure. In 1844 Michael Bentley, a limeburner, purchased the site which had formerly belonged to the Long family. Bentley was a prominent member of the Select Vestry and employed parish paupers in the quarrying of the limestone on the site and thus by occupational association, producing the name Town’s Quarry. Forrest states that the Aire & Calder Navigation Co., were the owners in 1871 and the township minute books reveal that the site became Church property about that time. Regardless of ownership, the site was identified as the Town’s Quarry for more than a century.

TURNERS ROPEWALK
Situated between Skew bridge and Kemp Bank and lying opposite the chemical works to the east of the town, the land was owned by Thomas Seaton and was the site of a ropewalk, shed and house worked by Hickson Turner and established there following the opening of the canal in 1826.

TURNPIKE CLOSE
Turnpike Close was an enclosure of a little over 3 acres situated on the south side of the Weeland Turnpike Road and took its name from its closeness to the toll bar which was located just west of the said enclosure.

TURNPIKE ROAD / TOLL BARS
The Weeland Road Turnpike Trust, which was established by an Act of Parliament in 1740, ran along the Pontefract Road and through Knottingley via the Headlands and Spawd Bone Lane before skirting Racca Green and the Low Green en route to Weeland near Snaith from 1745.
Tolls were payable at booths erected at Shilling Lane at the western extremity of the town and at a bar house located at the east of Low Green. Initially, tolls were granted for a period of 21 years but the entitlement was extended and only ceased to be levied officially in 1879. However, in practice, apart from an occasion in 1875 when 13 donkeys were passed through the Low End bar at a charge of one penny each, no tolls were collected there after 1858.
The decline in the collection of tolls was probably due to the increased use of the Hill Top – Banks Lane route after the construction of the canal between 1820-1826 which resulted in a gradual decrease in the use of the Turnpike route. The decline in the use of the Turnpike route was reinforced by the construction of the Wakefield – Goole railway in 1848 which cut through the line of the road close to the bottom of Spawd Bone Lane. The existence of the toll bars was increasingly regarded as an imposition and in 1877 when William Worfolk refused to pay a charge at the Shilling Hill barrier his action was endorsed by the presentation of a public petition seeking the closure of the toll bars and the winding up of the Turnpike Trust. As a result, the year following the trustees decided not to seek renewal of their franchise and the Trust ceased to exist in 1879.

TWISTLETON CLOSE
A five acre site situated at Common Lane end and named as Twistleton Close in the Enclosure Award Schedule, the site probably developed into the urban farmstead known as Thistleton farm during the second half of the nineteenth century.

URBAN FARMSTEADS
By the mid nineteenth century land consolidation had resulted in the existence of numerous homesteads within the more populated central area of Knottingley and the presence of large agricultural units in the peripheral areas of the township. As the pace of commercial and demographic development intensified and presaged the industrial development of the last quarter of the century, the former semi-rural homesteads were in effect transformed into small urban farmsteads. Varying in size from between 10 and 20 acres, compared with those in the still open areas of the town being from 80 to 120 acres in size, the small urban sites were increasingly unviable so that the owners of such units were generally compelled to combine farming activity with pursuance of a trade or occupation to attain sufficient livelihood. The pressure of urbanisation allied to national legislation and the agricultural depression of the final quarter of the nineteenth century resulted in the gradual decrease in local farmsteads from 17 in 1871 to 8 in 1901. Nevertheless, a few urban sites survived well into the last century and as late as the 1930s working farmsteads were in existence at Spawd Bone Lane, Racca Green and two sites at Low Green.

VALE HEAD HOUSE
A large detached house situated at the Weeland Road end of Dark (Narrow) Lane, Hill Top. In the late nineteenth century the house was the residence of Henry Seal, a wealthy lime merchant and quarry owner but by the second decade of the following century was in the possession of Mr. J. Harris who produced cinematograph shows, initially at the Town Hall and from about 1914, at the Palace Cinema, Knottingley. Vale Head House was subsequently the residence of numerous businessmen and is still in residential use today.

VICARAGES
The earliest of several parsonages in the parish of Knottingley stands in Chapel Street and is a substantial detached house built in 1809 with funds from Queen Anne’s Bounty and public subscription, of which Mrs brown, a former native of Knottingley, subsequently resident at York, donated half the sum.
The original vicarage was replaced in 1912 by the acquisition of Belmont House which stood at the corner of Chapel Street near the Town Hall, and the old vicarage was sold for £365 to Mr. J. Jackson, remaining in private occupation to this day.
In 1981 the decision was taken to demolish Belmont House and the following year a new, smaller vicarage was built on the same site.
When, in 1848, Knottingley East parish was created and a vicar appointed for the newly constructed Christ Church situated at Seatons Croft, it became necessary to obtain a suitable residence for the new incumbent. In 1852 a parsonage was built to the north of Weeland Road close by the junction with Racca Field Lane (Womersley Road). However, in 1871 the glassworks of Messrs Bagley, Wild & Co., was established on an adjacent site and expanded so rapidly over the following decades that the vicarage became surrounded by the factory. It was decided to obtain a more salubrious location for a parsonage and early in the twentieth century the existing vicarage was sold to Bagley & Co., and has been used as company offices ever since. Glebe House, situated at the south side of Hill Top, became the residence of the vicars of the East parish until the parish was united with the parish of St Botolph in 1940.

WAITHWAITE FIELD
One of the furlongs in the South Field, lying between the Weeland Road and Simpsons Lane on land now occupied by Knottingley Railway Station and its environs. The linguistic possibilities for the name are several. The Old English ‘hwaete’, means land on which corn grew well (although an adjacent area was known as Stoneylands and the whole area is littered with elements of limestone). The Old Norse ‘thwaite’ indicating an assarted clearing, meadow or paddock is also appropriate. Over the centuries various distortions of the original name occurred (e.g. Waithwaite / Wheat Withe / Warthwaite / Thwaite Wheat) arose but there is little doubt concerning the association of this land with the production of grain.

WALL CLOSES
Situated near England lane, the five acre Upper Wall Close and the adjacent eight acre Lower Wall Close, were formed by consolidation of peasant strips some of which were originally part of the South Field and others part of the Middle Field, indicating how the process of consolidation blurred former centuries old boundaries. The ‘Wall’ element of the name may indicate a latter day limestone construction or be a lingering reference to the former medieval field marker.

WAR MEMORIAL The
Stands at the junction of Weeland Road (Hill Top) and Chapel Street. Designed and erected by G. H. Fairbairn, a local builder, the monument is of grey granite topped by a figure representing Victory. The dedication on a panel near the base commemorates the fallen of two world wars in the twentieth century who are named individually on the four side panels above the dedication. The monument was unveiled by Colonel C.C. Moxon C.M.G., D.S.O., on Sunday 25th September 1921.
The base area of the monument was refurbished and a service of rededication took place on Sunday 24th June 2000.

WATCH HOUSE CLOSE
Situated in the South Field close to the site of the present Railway Hotel, the land probably takes its name from a look-out post or watch house which commanded an overview of the surrounding land in all directions. In the uncertain days of former centuries, it would have been well placed to observe movement along the Weeland and Ferrybridge roads and along the course of the River Aire.

WATERFIELD HILL / FLATT / LANE
The land lying in the Middle Field to the east of England Lane between the farmstead at Southfield Road end and Darrington Leys in a southerly direction, and Middle Lane to the east. Owing to substantial limestone excavation on the site during the nineteenth century the rise in the gradient of the remaining land is now so minimal as to be barely discernable making the appellation something of a misnomer.
Waterfield Flatt, a three acre enclosure formerly part of a furlong sited adjacent to Waterfield Hill.

WATER LANE
Located near the junction of Chapel Street and upper Aire Street, close to St. Botolphs Church. The short lane provided access to the riverside.

WATER TOWER The
As late as 1890 Knottingley township had no public water supply. Water was obtained from wells or pumps mainly located within the various yards and areas of settlement. Indeed, reports in 1875 and 1878 reveal that many inhabitants obtained water for domestic use from the River Aire or the canal. The bulk of the town’s water was of impure quality and as late as 1892 Dr. Percival, the town’s Medical Officer, stated that the well water in the town would not bear the test of scientific analysis.
By mid 1894 an agreement was reached whereby Pontefract Corporation would supply Knottingley with mains water from its Roall pumping station. Mains pipes were laid within the town and a water storage tower was built at the top of Simpsons Hill in the late 1890s. The tower served the town until the closing decade of the twentieth century when improved hydro technology made it redundant and it was demolished.

WARRENS The
Introduced into England by the Normans, the rabbit was a valuable supplementary source of fresh meat and was also useful for its fur. Rabbits were therefore bred in special warrens known as coneygarths or clappers. Such a range was situated on the edge of the South Field close to the road at Hill Top. In more recent times the site became known as Warren Avenue. From the last quarter of the eighteenth century Warren Hill was also the site of a windmill reputedly designed and erected by the celebrated engineer John Smeaton. The disused mill, serving as a domestic dwelling, stood on the site until it was demolished in the early 1960s as part of the Simpsons Lane housing development scheme.
By the early nineteenth century, a second windmill, known as Beevers Mill, had been built on an adjacent site but this was demolished later in the century.

WELL CLOSE
Situated at the west side of Middle Lane, this six acre enclosure in the Middle Field was underlined with limestone which was excavated in the nineteenth century. The natural subterranean spring which gave the site its name, flooded the worked out quarry and the resultant pool was used by several generations of local inhabitants who named it the ‘Swimming Quarry’. The quarry was filled up in the 1960s and the land was ultimately used as playing fields for Knottingley High School.

WESLEYAN SCHOOLROOMS The
Situated close to the junction of Longwoods Walk and Primrose Hill, this denominational school was established in 1846 as a mixed gender school with an infants’ department. The school was replaced in 1910 by the State sponsored Ropewalk School.

WEST RIDING POTTERY
Founded in 1882 on a site adjacent to the Australian Pottery by Thomas & Edwin Llewellyn Poulson. The family had existing connections with the local pottery trade for Walden Poulson had been the manager of the Australian Pottery and was succeeded in that post by Thomas in 1866. The large house at the end of Pottery Lane, later to become a fish and chip shop before being restored to domestic use, was originally the managers residence. By 1877 the Poulsons controlled all three adjacent potteries and continued in business until 1926 when for economic and family reasons the pottery closed.

WHEATSHEAF INN The
This large detached house was built as a private residence in the late eighteenth century or early in the nineteenth century. By 1848 it was a public house named the Wheatsheaf, owned by William Knapton. Between 1871-1891 Charles Knapton was the licensee and by 1878 had changed the name to the Sailors Home. In 1990 the premises were purchased, refurbished and re-opened as the Frog & Firkin Inn, but closed in 1997. After standing empty for some years the property was purchased and converted to domestic use.

WHITE COTTAGE The
Situated in Low Green, this much renovated property still retains an overall semblance of the original dwelling designed and built to fit the spatial confines of an individual peasant strip holding adjoining the Green. The name of the property is probably a recent appellation in keeping with its modernised image but there remains sufficient indication of the antiquity of the property which is one of the oldest remaining secular buildings in the town.

WILD GOOSE CLOSE
A rectangular plot of slightly over five acres situated in the Middle Field and perhaps named after the wild birds which frequented the site.

WILLOW CLOSE
A small enclosure of only 3 roods 35 perches situated in the Middle Field. The site probably takes its name from the presence of a willow tree on or near to the site.

WILLOW GARTH
Situated at the far eastern edge of the East Field and lying alongside Stocking Lane, this site is merely named as an allotment in the East Ings in the Enclosure Award Schedule of 1793. By the 1830s however, the site was occupied by Barnabas Rhodes and John Balance, basket makers, the moist swampy soil being ideal for the production of osiers used in the manufacture of baskets, hurdles, hampers, etc.

WILLOW ISLAND
An alternative name for Goose Island.

WOMENS
An ancient field name yet curiously unrecorded as such in the 1793 Enclosure Award Schedule but featured in the Tithe Award of 1842. The six acre pasture, adjacent to the Mill Bridge and opposite Goose Island, now forms the entrance to the portion of land lying between the Canal and the River Aire. The name probably arose from its womb like shape.

WORKHOUSE The
Situated at Hill Top near the junction of Headlands Lane and Ferrybridge Hill, the site containing three cottages was given to the township of Knottingley for use as a poor house by David Poole Esq. in the late eighteenth century.
Apart from housing the parish paupers the building provided residence for the Workhouse Master and his family and a committee room used by the Select Vestry for the conduct of the town’s business.
Following the establishment of the Pontefract Poor Law Union in 1862 and the building of the Workhouse at the Headlands Pontefract, the transfer of the Knottingley inmates took place in 1866. The old workhouse was purchased by William Jackson in 1868 and after a period of use as a storehouse for the towns street lamps etc., the building was eventually restored to its former use as cottages.
About 1960 the building was demolished and the site incorporated into the construction of the shopping Arcade, built by McLaughlan Ltd.

WORKINGMENS’ CLUBS
The club movement nationally had its roots in the late nineteenth century and arose in response to the skilful propaganda of the Temperance Movement, its basic aim being to present working men as sober minded, socially responsible beings.
In Knottingley, however, the movement had its beginnings in the middle class milieu of political activity which became increasingly polarised from the mid 1870s. At that time George William carter established the Conservative Club in premises in Aire Street and within a few years the Club had moved to the premises previously occupied by the Bowling Club near Gaggs Bridge. In response to Carter’s action a Liberal Club was established in property lying between Aire Street and Back Lane, previously known as Poplar House or The Poplars.
The reaction to the restrictive licensing laws of during the Great War resulted in the establishment of several genuine working class clubs within the town during the post war period. A workingmens’ club was founded at Greville House, Hill Top (Top Club) and the National Association of Discharged Soldiers & Sailors was established in Aire Street before relocating to new premises near Racca Green in the 1930s (Low Club). The Liberal Club was reorganised as the Central Club, known affectionately as the ‘Rat Trap’ while the former inn named the Jolly Sailor was registered as the Foundry Lane W.M. Club (The Jolly).
The period of post war economic prosperity following the Second World War resulted in the rebuilding of the Hill Top and Conservative Clubs and the influx of miners from Scotland and the North of England from the 1960s prompted the opening of new clubs such as the ‘Scottish, Yorkshire & Durham Miners’, (known as the SYD Club) and the Kellingley (Knottingley) Social Club. A severe downturn in trade and the collapse of the mining industry from the 1980s caused the closure of the Top Club and the Central Club and severely affected the trade and prosperity of the remaining ones.

WRIGHT’S HOUSE
A now demolished building which stood at the entrance to Smith’s Yard, Aire Street, and was built of local limestone in the year 1641 as the residence of Rubin Wright and his presumed wife Hanna (sic). Nothing is known of the couple other than their names which were featured on a limestone plaque built into the façade of the house which was knocked down in the late 1960s as part of the Aire Street ‘improvements’.
Mr. Ron Gosney informs me that the commemorative stone is in the possession of Mrs Yvonne Thickett of North Ferriby, a descendant of the Smith family who owned the property before its demolition.

YARDS
The demographic expansion of the township during the nineteenth century created a demand for housing which was met by private finance as local individuals of varying degrees of wealth sought to capitalise on the opportunity to obtain income from rented property by erecting dwellings in the spaces behind the existing buildings which lined the town’s thoroughfares, access usually being by footpaths and passage ways.
As the principal location, Aire Street was the main area of development but Hill Top, Cow Lane, Racca Green and Fernley Green and their environs, were increasingly utilised as sites of housing development.
While the term ‘Yard’ was a common appellation, variations such as ‘Cottages’, and ‘Houses’ were often used to identify such sites while names such as ‘Square’, ‘Place’, ‘Court, and ‘Grove’ were more elegant designations denoting what were often merely groups of houses in yards. Additional forms of housing stock identified by names such as ‘Buildings’, ‘Row’ , Terrace’ and ‘Parade’ are also listed here, for although some were linear developments, others were situated in the yards occupying the space to the rear of frontage properties.
The following list of dwellings and their locations gives dates by which the sites are known to have existed and not the date when they were founded.

PRE 1840: Anchor Yard, Baker Square, Beck Houses, Bells Yard, Brewers Houses, Bridge Court, Buck (Inn) Yard, Carpenter Yard, Darnbrooks Yard, Farnills Yard, Gaggas Yard, Hardys Yard, Island Court, Laidmans Yard, Millers Houses, Moorhouse Terrace, Pigeon Cote Houses, Rotherys Yard, Seatons Yard, Taylors Yard, Union Terrace / Row, Victoria Terrace.

1850: Absons Yard, Bone Mill Houses, Darnbrook Fold, East Parade, Gaol (Jail) Yard, Grove Terrace, Harkers Yard, Hills Yard, Hopwood Terrace, Kershaw Houses, Millers New Houses, Pottery Houses, Prospect Terrace, Providence Place / Row, Spring Terrace, Spurrs Yard, Spurriers Houses, Watch Houses, Windmill Houses.

1860: Albert Terrace, Bentleys Houses, Brick Yard Cottages, Carpenters Yard, Cliffs Yard, Fells Houses, Fewsters Yard, Horrocks Yard, Lees Houses, Lightowlers Yard, Longwoods Yard, Mariners Place, Moorhouse Buildings, Ocean Terrace, Pickhill Square, Ropery Walk, Sebastopol, Shepherds Bridge, South Parade / Square, Station Yard, Stillings Yard, Taskers Row, Tupmans Yard / Square, Woods Houses, Woodhalls Terrace.

1870: Aimwell Place, Barton Cottages, Cowards Yard, Green Head Cottages, Hepworths Yard, Johnsons Yard, Leander Buildings, Metcalfes Cottages, Morrills Yard / Square, Sauls Yard, Shaws Yard, Sunny Bank Yard, Tithe Barn Yard, Waggon & Horses (inn) Yard, Whitley Square, Wilcocks Yard, Woodhalls Square.

1880: Garden Cottages, Harkers Cottages, Moons Yard, Nantes Cottages, Plymouth Grove, Smiths Yard, Teazer Terrace.

1890: Armitages Yard, Adams Buildings, Bedford Place, Belle Vue Place, Beulah Place, Bridge Houses, Calder Cottages, Carters Square, Cawthornes Yard, Commercial (Inn) Yard, Cramptons Yard, Cromptons Buildings, Dickensons Yard, Dukes Buildings, East View, Elm Villas, Finneys Yard, Garlicks Cottages, Haikings Yard, Heys Row, Hopewell House, Howcroft Buildings, Manor Yard, Oak Cottages, Police Yard, Prospect Terrace, Ramsgate Place, Rising Sun (Inn) Yard, Robshaws Yard, Roydes Yard, Shays Yard, Steads Yard, Staffords Yard, Swales Yard, Thorpes Yard, Trees Yard, Union Place, Vale Head Cottages, Washend Yard, Wesley Terrace.

Terry Spencer