Pontefract: A Review of the Evidence for the Medieval Town

Abstract

The excavations carried out in the eastern part of Pontefract over the last quarter of a century have provided significant new information about the pre-Conquest settlement; the evidence providing a compelling case for Pontefract having been not only the site of the documented royal vill, but also that of an Anglo-Saxon minster. By comparison there is relatively little archaeological evidence for the twelfth-century borough and the later medieval town to the south-west of the castle, our understanding of which is still heavily reliant on documentary evidence.

Keywords:

• Anglo-Saxon
• minster
• medieval
• town
• development

The authors are indebted to John Blair for his insights and information in relation to a possible Anglo-Saxon minster at Pontefract. They are also grateful to Mike Shaw for his thoughts and comments on the evidence for tanning and tawing found at Jubilee Place.

The plans (Figs 1, 4 and 5) are by Jon Prudhoe, being based upon the 1800 Enclosure plan (West Yorkshire Archives Service QSI/139/4), whilst the extract from a copy of Paul Jollage’s 1742 town plan (Fig. 6) is reproduced with the permission of West Yorkshire Archives Service, Wakefield (Ref. C788). The photographs are predominantly from the excavation archives held by Archaeological Services WYAS and Wakefield Museums, the known photographers being Tony Wilmott (Fig. 2), Paul Gwilliam (Figs 3 and 9) and Torven Zeffert (Fig. 8). The authors are particularly grateful to Eric Houlder for his photograph of the medieval building in Swales Yard (Fig. 11).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Roberts

Ian Roberts is an archaeologist with a particular interest in medieval Pontefract, having excavated and reported on a number of sites in the town, most notably the castle. His interests also include church archaeology and the archaeology of Late Iron Age and Romano-British rural landscapes.

Christopher Whittick is an archivist with a particular interest in medieval crime and administration, and in the application of archival sources to the study of standing buildings and topography.