Wakefield Museums and Castles

Pontefract's past: image bank

Explore how the Pontefract has changed over the 1800s and 1900s through a range of photographs.

Browse a selection of highlights, and download our full resource packs for more:

These resources are for KS2 upwards.

Buttercross and St. Giles Church, Pontefract Marketplace, around 1900

  

Black and white photograph of a street leading up to Wakefield Cathedral in the early twentieth century

Market Place, Pontefract from the top of the Assembly Rooms (1965)

  

View of Pontefract Market Place from the top of the Assembly Rooms, looking down towards Georgian buildings

Beastfair (1900 - 1910)

  

Postcard of Beast Fair in Pontefract, a wide motorised street with shops either side, and a group of four children playing in the road.

Pupils at Miss Rennard’s school, Tanshelf (around 1886)

  

A group of 20 children of different ages, probably between 5 and 11, posing for a group photo outside a school house. An adult, presumably Miss Rennard, is stood at the back holding a small dog.

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