Sandal Magna

The Ancient Parish of SANDAL MAGNA

[Transcribed information mainly from the early 1820s]

"SANDAL MAGNA, a parish-town, in Agbrigg-division of Agbrigg and Morley, liberty of Wakefield, 2 miles from Wakefield, 8 from Barnsley, 9 from Pontefract, 30 from York. Pop. 888. The Church is a vicarage, dedicated to St. Helen, in the deanry of Pontefract, value, ~£13. 7s. 8d. p.r. £122. 17s. 2d. Patron, the King.

The Castle here, was built by John, Earl of Warren, about the year 1320. In the reign of Edward III. Edward Baliol resided here, while an army was raising to establish him on the throne of Scotland. This Castle afterwards became the property of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who was slain in a great battle, fought near this place, in the year 1460. The last siege it sustained was in the civil wars of Charles I.; Col. Bonivant held it for the King, and surrendered to the arms of Parliament, in the month of October, 1645. In the following year it was dismantled, by the order of Parliament.

Thomas Zouch, D.D. a man of considerable erudition, was born here in 1737. A collection of his works, with a memoir by the Rev. Thomas Wrangham, was published in 1820.

Here is a Free School for eight Boys, founded by the late Rev. Doctor Zouch, who endowed it with £10. per annum, and a House and Garden."



Information on the following places in this Parish is contained on a supplementary page.

Bell Vue Boyn Hill Bull Cliff Chapel Thorpe Crigglestone Durkar Hall Green

Hill Top Hollingthorpe Kettlethorpe Hall Milnthorpe Netherton Newmiller Dam Painthorpe Pledwick

Sandal Three Houses Stand Bridge Upper Walton Walton Walton Hall West Bretton Woodthorpe