Ackworth
Ackworth maps (2 available)
Map of West Yorkshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of West Yorkshire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Ackworth books (13 available)
Whitby Photographic Memories
Hardback
Guisborough Photographic Memories
Paperback
- 4 photos on Ackworth appear in 1 Frith books - View photos of Ackworth
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Ackworth and West Yorkshire
Ackworth memories
Read and share memories of Ackworth and West Yorkshire inspired by Frith photos
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You can also read memories of nearby places in West Yorkshire below.
West Yorkshire memories
Featherstone
I was born in Featherstone in 1956 and lived there until 1962 when we moved to Hampshire. My dad was also born there. We lived at 46 Market Street and my grandparents lived at 64 Featherstone Lane, on the corner of Gordon Street. I believe my great-grandparents lived in Featherstone Lane too. My grandfather (Arthur Haigh) was a miner all his life. He played rugby for Featherstone Rovers, 1921-1929, and was one of the original senior team.
I only have the vaguest of memories of most of my life there, and of later visits, but then others are very vivid. Most seem to focus around food! I have recollections of a shop at the end of Market St., run ...read more here
A memory of Featherstone contributed by Carole Steele
Growing up in North Featherstone
I remember a happy childhood, playing in the streets with my best friends Joyce Dean, Linda Perry & Maureen Beaumont amongst many, we had quite a large gang,
playing rounders or sitting around telling ghost stories, we also used to take peoples babies for a walk and go to Pontefract Park.The school we attended was Gordon Street and my favourite teacher as I grew older was Mr Kearsley. I remember going to the Working Mens Club and having crisps and Pop and the annual trip to Scarborough or Bridlington. My favourite memory was bonfire night and my Dad would be buying crackers for weeks before hand and we would collect wood, my mam made toffee and hot peas and we baked ...read more here
A memory of Featherstone contributed by hilary hopton
You are dead right
It is Green lane but I remember this spot as Cressys Corner,my dad Bill Atkinson used to sit on the seat during the day Until the Green Lane Club opened ,Then after dark it was a favorate spot for us to gather,As IRecall lBill Major Colin Jaques Keith Bullock Carl Farington Pat Sutton to name but a few ,I live in Retford now and when I am it the area I always drive up Green lane ,and apart from once meeting Ian Dransfield I have never seen any one that I used to know.
A memory of Featherstone contributed by Brendan Atkinson
A Good Time To Be Living In Featherstone
I was 10 when Featherstone Rovers beat Wigan and Leigh in getting to the Wembley final. We lived in the school house immediately opposite the entrance on Post Office Road. What a wonderful period in history of the town.
I was born on Vicarage Lane and schooled at Regent Street and then George Street Junior School. Eventually Normanton Grammer school.
I have wonderful memories of the town despite it being a pretty grim place.
I still visit the town whenever I return to Yorkshire, but never recognise anyone despite the town being largely unchanged.
Neil Wilford. neil.wilford@tiscali.co.uk
A memory of Featherstone contributed by neil wilford
Extracts From Ackworth & West Yorkshire books
Just past the church, beside the nearby roundabout, is the site of the old Cross Roads Garage, now much rebuilt and
modernised but still selling cars. Out of picture on the right is the Catholic church of 1939, and behind the trees, left, is a
sign for the Beverley Arms.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".
This pastoral scene is on the Green in High Ackworth. To the left is the
church of St Cuthbert, built in 1582 on the site of a Saxon chapel from
AD 875. The lychgate, made of Norwegian oak, was built in 1878 in
memory of the Rev Kenworthy. The cross dates from the 15th century
(it was restored in 2003), while Mr Waller, head gardener at Ackworth
Park, built the shelter in the late 1930s. Opposite this view is the Mary
Lowther Endowed Hospital for the schoolmaster and six poor men.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".
Looking towards the Bull Ring from Union Street, we
see (right) the rebuilt Strafford Hotel and the former
shops, now a café bar. At the centre is the magnificent
Cloth Hall building at the head of Cross Street. The Bull
Ring is now partly pedestrianised, offering a relaxed
starting point for a walk to the cathedral.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".
The Market Place was renamed the Bull Ring in 1910, to recall the ‘sport’ of bull baiting a century before. In the centre of
the Market Place, a busy intersection even before cars were invented, was the Toll Booth (demolished 1857) and the Boy
and Barrel Inn (removed 1898). The dominant row of shops has been modernised, but the bus station (centre right), which
opened on September 1952, has now been moved a hundred yards to the east.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".
At the head of Cross Street the market
cross once stood, from 1707 to
1866. Cross Street is now traffic free
down to the cathedral and Kirkgate.
The magnificent Grand Clothing
Hall, left, remains. Designed in an
Italian Renaissance style by Percy
Robinson (1879-1950), it opened in
1906. Robinson also designed the old
Leeds Fire Station. Hartley Shaw’s
household furnishings emporium
(right) is now an optician’s, but
the Black Rock next door, its name
commemorating the coal industry,
is still a thriving pub. The café at the
end of the row is also flourishing.
An extract from from"Wakefield and the Five Towns Living Memories".