Place:Wakefield (metropolitan borough), West Yorkshire, England

NOTE: This page refers to the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield which came ito existence in 1974, at the same time that West Yorkshire replaced the West Riding of Yorkshire. References to the earlier municipal borough of Wakefield will be found separately and may be of more interest to the ordinary family historian.

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

The City of Wakefield is a local government district in West Yorkshire, England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. Wakefield is the district's administrative centre. The district includes the "Five Towns" of Normanton, Pontefract, Featherstone, Castleford and Knottingley. Other towns include Ossett, Hemsworth, South Kirkby & Moorthorpe and South Elmsall. The City and borough are governed by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.

History

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

The former Borough of Wakefield was raised to city status by letters patent in 1888. It became a county borough in 1913, taking it out of the jurisdiction of the West Riding County Council. The present boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, when the county borough of Wakefield merged with a number of its neigbouring municipal boroughs. The new metropolitan district's city status was reconfirmed by letters patent in 1974. The Council's headquarters is County Hall, originally built for the West Riding County Council and acquired by Wakefield in 1989.

The joining boroughs were as follows:

• Castleford,
• Ossett and
• Pontefract,
• Featherstone Urban District,
• Hemsworth Urban District,
• Horbury Urban District,
• Knottingley Urban District,
• Normanton Urban District and
• Stanley Urban District,

along with

• Wakefield Rural District
  and parts of
• Hemsworth Rural District and
• Osgoldcross Rural District.

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