forces, and one by the Royalists. After its capitulation to Lambert in March 1649 it was dismantled. Below the castle is All Saints church, which suffered severely during the siege of the castle, but still retains some work of the 12th century. In 1837 the tower and transepts were fitted up for divine service. The church of St Giles, formerly a chapel of ease to All Saints, but made parochial in the 18th century, is of Norman date, but most of the present structure is modern. The 17th-century spire was removed in 1707, and replaced by a square tower, which was rebuilt in 1797; the chancel was rebuilt in 1869. In Southgate is an ancient hermitage and oratory cut out of the solid rock, which dates from 1396. On St Thomas’s Hill, where Thomas, earl of Lancaster, was beheaded in 1322, a chantry was erected in 1373, the site of which is now occupied by a windmill built of its stones. At Monkhill there are the remains of a Tudor building called the Old Hall, probably constructed out of the old priory of St John’s. A grammar school of ancient foundation, renewed by Queen Elizabeth and by George III., is now in abeyance. The town-hall was built in 1796 on the site of one erected in 1656, which succeeded the old moot-hall, dating from Saxon times. Among other buildings are the court-house, the market-hall, the assembly rooms (a handsome building adjoining the town-hall), and the dispensary. The principal alms-house, that of St Nicholas, dates from Saxon times. Trinity Hospital was founded in the 14th century by the celebrated Sir Robert Knolles. There are extensive gardens and nurseries in the neighbourhood, and liquorice is largely grown for the manufacture of the celebrated Pomfret cakes. The town possesses iron foundries, sack and matting manufactories, tanneries, breweries, corn mills, and brick and terra-cotta works. The population of the municipal borough (extended in 1875) in 1871 was 6432, and in 1881 it was 8798, the population of the parliamentary borough (area 7316 acres) in the same years being 11,563 and 15,322. The increase is mainly due to the fact that Pontefract is now a military centre.

There are indications that the Romans were stationed near the I »resent town, which adjoins the Ermine Street. In Domesday it s called Tateshale, and is said previously to have been held by the king (Edward the Confessor). It then possessed a church and priest, one fishery, and three mills. Subsequently it is mentioned as Kirkby. Of the cause of the change of the name to Pontefract various unsatisfactory explanations are given. According to one account it was because when William advanced to the conquest of the north his passage was delayed by a broken bridge (but this was at Ferrybridge, 3 miles off); according to a second the name was bestowed on it by its Norman possessor from Pontfrete in Normandy (which, however, never existed); and according to a third the name perpetuates the remarkable preservation from drowning of those who fell into the river when the concourse of people made the bridge give way on the arrival of St William of Canterbury in 1153 (although all contemporary historians call the place Pontefract when Archbishop Thurstan died there in 1140). The town received a charter from Roger de Lacy in 1194, and was incorporated in the time of Richard III. As early as 1297 it returned two members to parliament; but there was a long discontinuance in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The practice was revived under James I. The “redistribution” measure of 1885 deprives it of one of its members. The municipal borough is divided into three wards, and is governed by six aidermen and eighteen councillors.