Qualla: Wakefield https://qualla.com/wakefield en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:23 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/c/wakefield-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Wakefield https://qualla.com/wakefield Wakefield: Introduction https://qualla.com/wakefield/ Photo credit Abcdef123456 at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0. They call it the Merrie City. The phrase goes back to medieval times, when John Leland's 1538 description noted that a right honest man could fare well in Wakefield for tuppence a meal. The town is also the capital of the Rhubarb Triangle, the small patch of Yorkshire countryside where rhubarb is forced to grow in dark warm sheds, producing the slender pink stalks that travel to Borough Market in London by night. And in 1460 it was where Richard, Duke of York rode out of Sandal Castle and into a battle that lost him his head. Wakefield has been a quiet contender for English consequence for nine centuries.

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Image: Abcdef123456 at English Wikipedia | CC BY 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/c/wakefield-wp/gcwc-wakefield-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Wakefield: Waca's Field https://qualla.com/wakefield/ Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. The name is probably either Waca's field, the open land belonging to a Saxon called Waca, or a derivative of the Old English wacu meaning a watch or wake, with feld for the open ground where the festival was held. The Domesday Book records it as Wachefeld. Flint tools at Lee Moor...

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Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/c/wakefield-wp/gcwc-wakefield-wacas-field.mp3 0:06 2 full Wakefield: Market, Battle, and Bridge https://qualla.com/wakefield/ Photo credit Dave Pickersgill, CC BY-SA 2.0. After the Norman Conquest the manor was granted to William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey. His descendants the Earls Warenne built Sandal Castle on the south side of the river in the early 12th century, and another smaller castle called Lawe Hill on the north side, which was late...

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Image: Dave Pickersgill | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/c/wakefield-wp/gcwc-wakefield-market-battle-and-bridge.mp3 0:06 3 full Wakefield: The Coal Capital and the County Town https://qualla.com/wakefield/ Photo credit KRC58 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wakefield was a Royalist stronghold in the Civil War until Sir Thomas Fairfax stormed it in May 1643. The Aire and Calder Navigation, authorised by Parliament in 1699, gave the town access to the North Sea and made it an inland port at scale. By 1885 more malt was made here than ...

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Image: KRC58 at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/c/wakefield-wp/gcwc-wakefield-the-coal-capital-and-the-county-town.mp3 0:06 4 full Wakefield: Hepworth and Rhubarb https://qualla.com/wakefield/ Photo credit Tim Green from Bradford, CC BY 2.0. Barbara Hepworth was born in Wakefield in 1903. The Hepworth Wakefield gallery, which opened on the south bank of the Calder in May 2011, is thought to be the largest purpose-built gallery to open in the UK since 1968 and brought 500,000 visitors in its first year, adding about £...

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Image: Tim Green from Bradford | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/c/wakefield-wp/gcwc-wakefield-hepworth-and-rhubarb.mp3 0:06 5 full