Women are often overlooked in economic history. We tend to think of women in the 19th century as working in factories or domestic service, but women ran all kinds of businesses in Victorian Britain. In fact, female entrepreneurs were more common then than they are now.  Pontefract was no exception. As today, setting up her own business gave a Victorian woman more control over where and when she worked. This made it easier to fit with their other 'traditional' responsibilities like childcare.  In our immersive and interactive exhibition Ladies who Launch: Celebrating Pontefrac ..read more

Do you know about Pontefract's saintly past?  Discover Pontefract's claim to not just one saint, but two, in this blog! Why were local saints important? Possession of a saint was considered to be of great importance in medieval England. Bequests and pilgrimages brought in a lot of money to the local priories.  This fascination with saintly bones was the subject of 'A Morbid Taste for Bones', the first Cadfael Chronicles book by Ellis Peters. Peters' medieval mystery novel gives an insight into the importance of the possession of such saintly relics.   To have a saint burie ..read more

Members of the Wakefield Word with Black Horse Poets writers' groups have kindly written this guest blog about their history.  Read on to discover 'how Wakefield's Black Horse learned to gallop'! Members of the Black Horse Poets and Wakefield Word Group with their new patron, Councillor Jack Hemingway, in January 2024. Left to right: Susan McCartney, William Thirsk-Gaskill, Jasmine King, Cllr Jack Hemingway, Angie de Courcy Bower, Lindsey Marie, Stefan Grieve Michael Yates had been a newspaper journalist for a number of years, starting with the Wakefield Express series. After ..read more

2023 marks both 100 years since Wakefield Museum first opened, and the start of a century of collecting objects!  To celebrate, our team have picked 100 objects that tell the rich heritage of our district.  Most of them are already on display, so we asked our friends at Wakefield Civic Society and Wakefield Historical Society to pick a selection from our storeroom. Their members have picked an interesting mix of objects. These cover work and industry, sports and leisure, entertainment and creativity, politics and protest, and law and order. The objects are no ..read more

We’re picking back up our time-travelling archaeological adventure with the Anglo-Saxons! It follows on from our previous blog exploring prehistory to the Romans. Anglo-Saxons and Vikings In the 5th century AD central Roman rule collapsed and Britain dropped out of the Roman empire. Small kingdoms began to emerge in Britain. In the Wakefield area the British kingdom of Elmet formed. In turn this was taken over by the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.  Very few objects survive locally from the Anglo-Saxon and then Viking periods. This makes what we do have even more special!  W ..read more

Our 100 Years of Collecting Online Exhibition spans thousands of years of human history. We’ve got a little bit of everything, from a prehistoric hand axe to a Prime Energy drink! This month, we’re focusing on some of our amazing archaeology collection highlights. We’ve got so much we’ll post it over two parts. For part 1, join us on a whistle-stop tour from prehistory through to the Romans: Prehistoric tools and technology Did you know that some of the oldest evidence of human life in Britain comes from Wakefield? It includes this hand axe, on display at Wakefield Museum. It was origi ..read more

In 2025, we'll be opening our New Library and Museum in the former BHS Wakefield building!  Digital Volunteer Rebecca has been looking back at BHS Wakefield's history, and explores how it influenced 'what Wakefield wore' in this guest blog: BHS Wakefield - at the heart of Kirkgate The department store British Home Stores (commonly referred to as BHS) was founded in 1928 and ran for a total of 88 years.  There were over 160 BHS stores, located at the heart of high streets across the country. They all closed in 2016. BHS Wakefield opened in the 1930s on Kirkgate and quickly became ..read more

Wakefield Museum has now existed in some form for 100 years! The doors of Wakefield’s first civic museum and art gallery opened at Holmfield House in Thornes Park in 1923.  It was formally opened on 10 October 1923 by the Mayor, Councillor Harold H. Holdsworth. Holmfield House in the 1940s In his speech, the Mayor hoped the museum would inspire civic pride at the city’s long history.  He said it would be a place of both education and recreation, somewhere that the people of Wakefield could go to escape the hustle of city life. Formal invitation to the openi ..read more

When it comes to sporting heritage, Wakefield District has lots to celebrate… even more than you might think! We've dug out some sporty showpieces from our collection, many of which also feature in our 100 Years of Collecting Online Exhibition. We are Rugby League The Wakefield district is often defined by Rugby League. It both unites and divides our communities. David Storey encapsulates this in his classic 1960 gritty northern novel, This Sporting Life: Our copy of This Sporting Life, on display at Wakefield Museum The story follows a Wakefield Trinity player as he navigates his spo ..read more

Our Collections Volunteer Sue has recently transcribed a collection of over 40 letters from the Second World War.  She uncovered a beautiful story of love and resilience during very difficult times. Read on as Sue pieces the letters together to tell the story of Jack and Marie. We believe Jack is the man in uniform, and Marie is the woman to his right Introducing Jack and Marie Jack and Marie were a young couple, very much in love.  They got married in May 1939, and moved into a house together on the Lupset Estate in 1940. This estate was developed by Wakefield Corporat ..read more