Wakefield

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Locality
Coordinates 53.683298, -1.505924
Adm. div. West Riding of Yorkshire
Vicinity 20 km SE of Bradford
Type Settlement
Interest Literary locale
Status Extant
First Record c. 1650
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Wakefield.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-08-07. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-05-08.

Wakefield is now the centre of the large metropolitan district known as the City of Wakefield, but in the late Middle Ages it was a small town or large village. It is first mentioned in Domesday Book (1086) where it occurs as Wachefeld.[1] The most likely etymology is "Waca's field", where "field" means "stretch of open country". Smith[2] at first suggests this etymology, but then decides that "wake" probably was from OE "wacu", meaning a "watch" or "wake", and that therefore the name referred to an annual feast or festival held at Wakefield. However, there is no evidence whatsoever for such a festival in the pre-Conquest period. As the first suggestion assumes less, I think it should be adopted.

The Pinder of Wakefield

Perhaps Wakefield's most famous citizen during the early modern period was the legendary Pinder, George à Greene, the hero of the ballad of the Jolly Pinder of Wakefield (Child 124). At least two localities in or near Wakefield have been connected with him: Pinders Fields and a pinfold near the Westgate. In addition, the allusion in Richard Braithwaite's Drunken Barnaby's Journal (1638) cited below, if taken at face value, strongly suggests there was a public house named after George à Greene at Wakefield.

Allusions

The symbol "Allusions (Wakefield)" was used in a place where it is not useful.

Sources

Useful

Background

Also see

Notes


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