Place:Sandall Magna, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Sandall Magna or Sandal Magna is a suburb of Wakefield with a population of 5,432 as measured by the UK census in 2001. It is an ancient settlement and is the site of Sandal Castle and a parish church that predates the Domesday Book of 1086. It is two miles (3 km) south from Wakefield, eight miles (13 km) north of Barnsley, nine west from Pontefract and thirty from York. The Battle of Wakefield was fought here in the 15th century during the Wars of the Roses.

Sandal Magna was originally an ancient parish in the Agbrigg Division of the Agbrigg and Morley Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1866 the status of civil parish was introduced and this was taken on by most ancient parishes and also by their subsidiary townships if they were of any size at all. In 1866 both Sandal Magna and its townships of Crigglestone, Walton (near Wakefield) and West Bretton became civil parishes.

In 1894 Sandal Magna became an urban district, but the townships were placed in Wakefield Rural District. In 1909 Sandal Magna Urban District was absorbed into the county borough of Wakefield and in 1925 it became fully part of the Borough. Since 1974 Sandal Magna has been a civil parish in West Yorkshire, specifically within the Wakefield Metropolitan Borough.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Sandall Magna from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"SANDALL-MAGNA, a village, a township, and a parish, in Wakefield district, [West Riding of] Yorkshire. The village stands near the river Calder, the Barnsley canal, and the North Midland railway, 2 miles S by E of Wakefield; contains many neat residences; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Wakefield. The township contains also five hamlets and a part, and comprises 1,529 acres. Real property: £7,830; of which £800 are in the canal. Population: 1,590. Houses: 337. The manor belongs to Sir L. M. S. Pilkington, Bart. [Sandall Magna] Hall, [Sandall Magna] House, [Sandall Magna] Grange, Portobello, Castle-Grove, Brooke House, Woodlands, Manygates, Woolgreaves, and Pledwick House are chief residences. [Sandall Magna] Castle was built in 1320, by the last Earl of Warren; went, at his death, to the Crown; was, for some time, the residence of John Baliol as vassal of Edward III.; passed to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who, in 1460, fell in the battle of Wakefield; became the residence of his son, the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III.; was dismantled, in 1646, by order of the parliament; and is now represented chiefly by some small fragments of grout-work, and some mounds of rubbish. Coal is worked at Standbridge.

"The parish contains also the townships of Crigglestone, Walton, and part of West Bretton. Acres: 7,273. Population in 1851: 4,036; in 1861: 4,214. Houses, 904. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ripon. Value: £157. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is cruciform, and has a tower. The [perpetual] curacy of Chapelthorpe is a separate benefice. There are a New Connexion Methodist chapel, an endowed school with £250 a year, alms-houses with £18, and other charities £280. The Wakefield cemetery also is here."

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