The Land ancestors were in Wakefield from the 1730s to the 1790s. Charles Land and his wife, Elizabeth Dunford, moved to Leeds, between 1789 and 1797. Their grandson, John Land, moved from Leeds back to Wakefield, where he lived from at least 1848 to 1853. He was listed at Westgate Common, Alverthorpe with Thornes, at the birth of his daughter, Elizabeth Ann in 1849. In the 1851 census he was listed at 106 Clayton Hill, in the Township of Alverthorpe Cum Thornes. I cannot find Clayton Hill on a current map of Wakefield. This area is an extension of Westgate.

Wakefield was a town*, a township, a parish, and a district in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The town is on the river Calder, nine miles south/ south/east of Leeds. The parish contained the townships of Horbury, Stanley-with-Wrenthorpe, and Alverthorpe-with Thornes. Note: * May 2011, Richard Lowther informs me that Wakefield became a city in 1888.

Wakefield is dated to Roman times and it was listed in the Doomsday Book. The woolen trade was active by the time of Henry VIII (1485-1509).

The priciple church, All Saints, was erected in the time of Henry III (1216-1272). However, with repeated repairs and alterations, little of the original 13th century church remains.

My ancestor, Charles Land, was baptized in Wakefield in 1767, the son of John Land. He married Elizabeth Dunford in Wakefield in 1787 and at least one son, James, was born in Wakefield in 1789. The family then moved to Leeds where a second known child, Charles Lewis Land, was born in 1797. Charles Lewis Land married Ann Dinsdell. They lived in Leeds where their son, John, was born in 1818. John Land and his family moved back to Wakefield where they were from circa 1847 to circa 1851.

Known addresses for John Land and family in Wakefield were:

• Botton of Back Lane, 1847

• Westcate Common 1849 and 1852

• Clayton Hill 1851

These addresses are in close proximity to one another.

With my designations.

The Lands lived in Westgate.

The bull ring or Market Place was once an open space where bull bating with dogs once took place.

The corn exchange was on upper Westgate

The Market Cross was built in 1707. It was pulled down sometime after 1866.

THE MARKET CROSS

Originally held on the streets of Wakefield it was moved to George Street in 1765. In the 1800s it was the biggest cattle market in Northern England. In 1868 the market for cattle was held on Wednesdays and there were livestock fairs July 4 and November 11 for cattle horses and sheep.

The St Mary the Virgin Chantry Chapel was built between 1342 and 1347. Chantries, built by bequests, were established as places where priests prayed for the soul of the deceased. The chapel underwent major renovations in 1848.

Not posted

Original Front of Chantry, Wakefield

The original facade of the Chantry is on the grounds of Kettlethrope Hall on the outskirts of the city. It is one a the few remaining examples of medieval bridge chapels.

See Bridge Chapels by Edward Green

Posted 1952

WAKEFIELD BRIDGE, drawn by N Whittock, engraved by J Rogers

The Chantry with All Saints steeple in the background.

WAKEFIELD FROM THE CLADER (Turner) 1798

This images shows the Chantry Bridge and the steeple of All Saints. In the background is the steeple of St. John's Chruch, which was consecrated in 1795.

The horse drawn wagon is approaching the town center and the church from the north.

In the mid 1700s the nobility lived in Northgate.

The present church was consecrated in 1329. The tower was build in the 15th century. However, in 1860-1

"the spire of the church was entirely rebuilt and provided with crockets (the immediately preceding spire having been without this feature) and raised to its present height, 247 feet, the tallest in Yorkshire."

The City of Wakefield, 1947

Note: A crocket is a decorative element of Gothic architecture.

The parish church became a cathedral in 1888 when William Walsham How became the first bishop of Wakefield.

Bread Street , 1853.

Bread Street was originally called Bread Booths. The only bakehouse in Wakefield was set up on Bread Street in 1306. Everyone who sold bread had to bake it in the oven in the Bread Street bakehouse.

1853 engraving by A.B.Higham

Posted 1906

Not posted

Posted 1903

Despite the modern look of the font, the guide book says it was installed in 1660.

On a wall of the tower buttress is this chain attached with a bolt. There used to be an iron collar (called a "joug") attached to it. Scolds, gossips, or others sentenced to church discipline in medievel times were subject to having the collar put around their neck.

"It is interesting to reflect that even at this late date the roads, footpaths and sanitary arrangements were of the most primitive type. Down the center of lower Kirkgate, indeed, from William Street to the bridge, flowed the Skitterick Beck, which was nothing else but an open drain, and it was only in 1771 that the passing of the Wakefield Paving Act provied the citizens with powers to put things in more seemingly condition."

The City of Wakefield, 1947

Six Chimneys was built in 1566 and collapsed in 1941 due to neglect and alterations in its internal structure.

Posted 1907

Printed on the front:

"Built about 1520 as a Noblemans Country residence or Hunting Seat. It originally stood in extensive private grounds and had six gables (instead of the three now showing) each with a stone chimney in centre- hence the name Six Chimneys. Two gables were demolished to make room for adjoining Hotel & the other gable stood at Legh Street end of buliding"

THE SIX CHIMNEYS

Reproduction of a 1905 postcard of Kirkgate Wakefield.

An Edwardian view, c. 1905, of the busy shopping street. All the buildings on the left were demolished in the road widening scheme."

Drawing by Henry Clarke - BACK LNE FROM WESTGATE - The south end of Wakefield prison can be seen at the end of the street.

Drawing by Henry Clarke - MILTON STREET, WESTGATE COMMON, WAKEFIELD