Knottingley

{{Short description|Town in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England}}

{{Infobox UK place

| country = England

| coordinates = {{coord|53.705|-1.249|display=inline,title}}

| label_position = left

| official_name = Knottingley

| population = 13,710

| population_ref = (Ward. 2011)

| metropolitan_borough = City of Wakefield

| metropolitan_county = West Yorkshire

| region = Yorkshire and the Humber

| constituency_westminster = Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley

| post_town = KNOTTINGLEY

| postcode_district = WF11

| postcode_area = WF

| dial_code = 01977

| os_grid_reference = SE495235

| static_image_name = Knottingley Town Hall.jpg

| static_image_caption = Knottingley Town Hall

| london_distance =

}}

Knottingley is a town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire and the old A1 road before it was bypassed as the A1(M). Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 13,503,{{cite web|url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D8271.xls |publisher=Office for National Statistics |title=Census 2001 : Urban Areas : Table KS01 : Usual Resident Population |access-date=26 August 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20040723231324/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D8271.xls |archive-date=23 July 2004 }} increasing to 13,710 for the City of Wakefield ward at the 2011 Census.{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=13689952&c=Knottingley&d=14&e=62&g=6375002&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1456915228609&enc=1|title=City of Wakefield Ward population 2011|access-date=2 March 2016|publisher=Office for National Statistics|work=Neighbourhood Statistics}} It makes up the majority of the Knottingley ward represented on Wakefield Council.

Until 1699, it was an important inland river port but, in that year, the Aire was made navigable as far as Leeds, which soon surpassed it. Knottingley continued as a centre for boat building into the 20th century. In the late 19th century, it started glass manufacturing. The town is served by Knottingley railway station.

After 1870, the town became known for glass manufacturing.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20010427081947/http://www.knottingley.org/history/glass_industry.htm Glass manufacturing]}} In 1887, Bagley's Glassworks purchased the rights to the first bottle-making machine, invented by a Ferrybridge postmaster.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030812074020/http://www.knottingley.org/history/glassmakers.htm "Bottle making"]}}, Knottingley Website There is a Bagley's Glass gallery in Pontefract Museum.

Close to Knottingley is Ferrybridge Power Station, which had the largest cooling towers of their kind in Europe. Three of these towers collapsed in high winds in 1965. The remaining towers, which could be seen for miles around, were demolished between 2019 and 2022.

The town was the last in the United Kingdom to have a working deep coal mine, Kellingley Colliery, until it closed in December 2015.{{cite news | title = UK's last deep coal mine Kellingley Colliery capped off | publisher = BBC News Online | date = 14 March 2016 | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-35803048 | access-date = 6 December 2016 | quote = Kellingley Colliery in North Yorkshire closed in December, bringing to an end centuries of deep coal mining in Britain.}}

History

File:St Botolph's church, Knottingley- south side and tower (geograph 7255632).jpg]]

Knottingley means "the clearing of Cnotta's people", from the Old English personal name Cnotta meaning "knot", describing a small, round man and -ingas "people of" + leāh "wood, modern lee, not the same meaning as Leah (personal name)". The name was recorded as Cnotinesleahemm in 1128.{{cite book |last1=Ekwall |first1=Eilert |author-link=Eilert Ekwall |title=The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names |date=1960 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |oclc=1228215388 |page=282 |edition=4}}

During the three Sieges of Pontefract Castle, Oliver Cromwell took residence in the town of Knottingley, believed to be in Wildbore House. The house was later demolished when its land was mined as a quarry for the limestone underneath.{{cite web|title=Early History Official guide to Knottingley|url=http://www.knottingley.org/history/early_history.htm|website=www.knottingley.org|access-date=17 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161115070836/http://www.knottingley.org/history/early_history.htm|archive-date=15 November 2016|url-status=usurped}}

Knottingley, inextricably linked with Ferrybridge, is a West Yorkshire town whose history is tied to river travel and industry. It has managed to retain certain elements of that industrial history as thriving enterprises today, providing employment for many of its combined population of some 17,000. It was originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement, though the ancient monument of Ferrybridge Henge shows it had significant indigenous habitation long before then.{{cite web|title=Ferrybridge ritual landscape |url=http://www.arch.wyjs.org.uk/advsrv/Newsletters/News21pag5.pdf|first=Ian |last=Roberts |publisher=West Yorkshire Archaeological Services |access-date=4 July 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925015805/http://www.arch.wyjs.org.uk/AdvSrv/Newsletters/News21pag5.pdf |archive-date=25 September 2006 }}

File:Knottingley (27754375374).jpg

The crossing over the Aire at Ferrybridge was of importance for many centuries. A bridge was built there in 1198, and another to replace it two centuries later. Located on the Great North Road linking London with York and Edinburgh beyond that, the town became an important staging place for the coach traffic on that route.{{cite web|url=https://huddersfield.exposed/api/content/books/ocr/20027/|title= The Old Coaching Days in Yorkshire |year=1889|first= Tom|last= Bradley|page=182|publisher=The Yorkshire Post}}

Knottingley was an inland port of some note, long the last navigable point on the Aire until the Aire and Calder Navigation, built in 1704{{cite book|last1=Hadfield|first1=Charles|title=The canals of Yorkshire and North East England|date=1972|publisher=Vt.|location=Newton Abbot|isbn=9780715357194|pages=17–20|edition=1}} and widened in 1826, enabled barges to make it to Leeds.{{cite web|title=15.0 Archaeology and cultural heritage|url=http://www.peelenvironmental.co.uk/media/Peel%20Environmental/Southmoor/Planning%20June%202013/env/20953_ES_015_Archaeology_and_Cultural_Heritage.pdf|website=peelenvironmental.co.uk|access-date=17 March 2017|pages=363–364}} Its shipyards built and maintained both inland and seagoing vessels.{{cite web|title=Knottingley & Ferrybridge delivery plan 2012-2015|url=http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/Documents/planning/regeneration/knottingley-delivery-plan-2012-2015.pdf|website=wakefield.gov.uk|access-date=17 March 2017|page=21}} Pottery was a significant industry for the town from the 19th century until as late as the 1940s, when the Australian Pottery, opened to cater to that country's needs, finally closed.{{cite web|title=The History and Origins of Knottingley and Ferrybridge|url=http://www.knottingley.org/history/local_history.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010811232715/http://knottingley.org/history/local_history.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=11 August 2001|website=www.knottingley.org|access-date=17 March 2017}}

Glass manufacturing continues to be important. The town had Kellingley Colliery operating until December 2015. The demand for coal was helped by the huge power station at Ferrybridge.{{cite news|last1=Bounds|first1=Tom|title=Date set for closure of UK's last deep mine at Kellingley|url=https://www.ft.com/content/c3ab8fa0-9aa2-11e5-a5c1-ca5db4add713 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/c3ab8fa0-9aa2-11e5-a5c1-ca5db4add713 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription|access-date=17 March 2017|work=FT|date=11 December 2015}} Whilst most of the coal bound for Ferrybridge left by rail, some was transported up river using barges, the last of which was delivered in December 2002.{{cite news|last1=Ledger|first1=John|title=Closure of Ferrybridge fuels sense of missed opportunities|url=http://www.pontefractandcastlefordexpress.co.uk/news/politics/closure-of-ferrybridge-fuels-sense-of-missed-opportunities-1-7826496|access-date=17 March 2017|work=Pontefract and Castleford Express|date=31 March 2016|language=en}} The last miners, their families and many former miners marched from Knottingley Town Hall to the Social Club in December 2015.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35144942 |title=Thousands march through Yorkshire to mark end of deep coal mining at Kellingley |work= BBC News |publisher=BBC |date=20 December 2015 |access-date=28 August 2021}}

Sport

A short lived greyhound racing track existed from 1940 to 1946 and again during 1947. The racing was independent (not affiliated to the sports governing body the National Greyhound Racing Club) and was known as a flapping track, which was the nickname given to independent tracks. The venue could accommodate up to 3,000 people.{{cite book|last=Barnes|first=Julia|title=Daily Mirror Greyhound Fact File, page 417|year=1988|publisher=Ringpress Books|isbn=0-948955-15-5}}{{cite news|url=https://greyhoundracingtimes.co.uk/2019/05/06/knottingley/|title=Knottingley|newspaper=Greyhound Racing Times|access-date=9 May 2019}}

The town is home to a rugby union club, who meet on Marsh Lane.{{cite web|url=https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/knottingleyrufc/|title=Knottingley RUFC|website=www.pitchero.com|access-date=4 August 2020}}

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire. Television signals are received from the Emley Moor TV transmitter.{{cite web|url=https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Emley_Moor|title=Emley Moor (Kirklees, England) Full Freeview transmitter|date=1 May 2004|website=UK Free TV|accessdate=6 January 2024}} Local radio stations are BBC Radio Leeds on 92.4 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire (formerly Radio Aire and Ridings FM) on 96.3 and 106.8 FM, Hits Radio West Yorkshire on 102.5 FM, Heart Yorkshire on 106.2 FM, Capital Yorkshire on 105.1 and 105.8 FM and 5 Towns FM, a community radio station that broadcasts from Castleford.{{cite web|url=https://internetradiouk.com/5-towns-fm/|title=5 Towns FM Radio Online|website=Internetradiouk.com|accessdate=6 January 2024}} The town is served by the local newspapers, Wakefield Express and the Pontefract and Castleford Express.

Education

Knottingley has one high school, De Lacy Academy formerly called Knottingley High School and Sports College.

It has several primary schools: England Lane Academy, Willow Green Academy, Knottingley St Botolph's C of E Academy, The Vale Primary Academy and Simpson's Lane Academy.

Sixth-form colleges are located in nearby Pontefract, Wakefield and Selby.

Notable people

Ambrose Askin, rugby league footballer who played in the 1930s
Tom Askin, international rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s and 1930s
Percy Bentley, one of four soldiers to be awarded the Military Cross four times
Terry Cooper, former Leeds United and England footballer.
Rev Thomas Dealtry, born here in 1796
Wayne Godwin, Bradford rugby league footballer, and also played for Knottingley Rockware ARLFC{{cite news|url=https://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/godwin-is-stellar-signing-as-rams-begin-recruiting-2320128|title=Godwin is stellar signing as Rams begin recruiting|date=18 October 2013|work=Dewsbury Reporter|accessdate=13 July 2024}}
Tom Gordon, Member of Parliament for Harrogate and Knaresborough{{cite web | url=https://www.harrogate-news.co.uk/2024/06/30/5-questions-to-the-liberal-democrat-election-candidate-for-harrogate-knaresborough/ | title=5 questions to the Liberal Democrat election candidate for Harrogate & Knaresborough | accessdate=6 July 2024 | archivedate=6 July 2024 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240706191705/https://www.harrogate-news.co.uk/2024/06/30/5-questions-to-the-liberal-democrat-election-candidate-for-harrogate-knaresborough/ | url-status=live }}
Zak Hardaker, Leeds rugby league footballer, and also played for Knottingley Rockware ARLFC
Bill Horton rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s and 1930s for: Wakefield Trinity, Yorkshire, England and Great Britain
Simon Middleton, former rugby union and rugby league player and current England Rugby women's coach{{cite web|url=https://www.therugbyjournal.com/rugby-blog/simon-middleton|title=Simon Middleton|date=26 March 2022|work=Rugby Journal|access-date=29 April 2023}}
Dale Morton, Wakefield Trinity rugby league footballer, and also played for Knottingley Rockware ARLFC
Craig Moss, Keighley rugby league footballer, and also played for Knottingley Rockware ARLFC
William Sefton Moorhouse, a New Zealand politician
Graham Steadman, Former York, Featherstone Rovers, Castleford & Great Britain rugby league footballer
Professor Austin Tate, Professor of Knowledge-Based Systems at the University of Edinburgh
Ben Thompson, former Marshal of Austin, Texas; gambler and gunman in frontier Texas and Kansas of the United States
Billy Thompson, a gunman and gambler in the American West, and younger brother of Ben Thompson

References

{{NSEW|Sherburn in Elmet|Adwick le Street|Goole|Castleford|||||}}

Category:Towns in West Yorkshire

Category:Unparished areas in West Yorkshire

Category:Former civil parishes in West Yorkshire

Category:Geography of the City of Wakefield