Wakefield HLC
Covering an area of 130 square miles, the Wakefield district comprises the main towns of Wakefield, Castleford, Crofton, Featherstone, Hemsworth, Horbury, Knottingley, Normanton, Ossett, Pontefract, South Elmsall and South Kirkby. The Historic Landscape Project has provided opportunity to explore the changes across the region over time, including how industry and commerce has driven settlement.
The maps below illustrate these changes – to switch between the maps use the scroll bar at the bottom.
The maps above focus upon the key land use areas of:
- Commercial (e.g. business parks, warehousing, retail parks and shopping centres);
- Communications (e.g. rail infrastructure, major roads, canals and airports);
- Enclosed Land (e.g. agglomerated fields, piecemeal enclosures and surveyed enclosures);
- Extractive (e.g. quarries, mines, clay pits and landfill);
- Horticulture;
- Industrial (e.g. textile mills, utility works and food processing);
- Institutional (e.g. barracks, religious place of worship, cemeteries, schools and hospitals);
- Open Land (e.g. moorland, commons/greens and wetlands);
- Parkland and Recreational (e.g. parks, playing fields, golf courses and allotments);
- Residential;
- Water (e.g. lakes and reservoirs);
- Woodland.
The Wakefield Historic Landscape Characterisation Project Report
Changes in society (e.g. wealth distribution and reforms) and developments in technology have contributed to the changes in our landscape. The Wakefield Historic Landscape Characterisation Project Report details such changes from 1066 to 2015.
To download a copy of the report, please click on the link below.