Wakefield
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 |
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
- Smith, A.H. The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire (English Place-Name Society, vols. XXX-XXXVII) (Cambridge, 1961-63), pt. II, pp. 163-64.
Useful
- Bell, Richard. Walks in Robin Hood's Yorkshire (Middlestown, Wakefield, 2010). Interesting and no doubt useful as a guide to walks in the Wakefield district, this pamphlet would have been even better if it had focused more on the plethora of Robin Hood-related place-names and localities and less on faux history.
Background
Also see
Notes
- ↑ Smith, A.H. The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire (English Place-Name Society, vols. XXX-XXXVII) (Cambridge, 1961-63), pt. II, pp. 163-64.
- ↑ Smith, op. cit.
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