Wakefield Cathedral - (a church was built on this site in 1080),
01924 373923
Northgate
Wakefield
WF1 1HG
THE CHURCH OF ALL-SAINTS or ALL-HALLOWS, WAKEFIELD,stands in the centre of the town, near the Market Place and at the junction of the three principal streets, Kirkgate, Westgate and Northgate. Till within the last few years it was so surrounded by houses that the whole of it could not be seen at any one point; but through the praise-worthy exertions of the Inhabitants, these obstacles were in the year 1821 removed, the church yard increased in extent and surrounded by an elegant iron railing which allows a full view of the beautiful fabricwithin it.
The Church itself is a spacious and lofty structure of Gothic Architecture, onsisting of a nave, chancel, side aisles, clere story, and two porches, one on the North, the other on the South-side; over this latter is a small room, now unoccupied, which used formerly to be the place wherein the Governors of the Free Grammar School, who are also Trustees of numerous other Charities in this Town, held their meetings. The Tower is very large,embattled and pinnacled, containing a Clock and Chimes, together with a fine peal of ten bells, and having a Spire,which is one of the loftiest in the kingdom. The chancel door is also on the south side of the building.
This Church was given by William Earl Warren to God and St. Pancras, and the Monks of Lewes in Sussex.Geoffrey Plantagenet, Archbishop of York confirmed to them the pension of sixty shillings out of it, most probablyas a compensation for releasing the advowson to the representative of the original patron.
On the 4th of the Ides of August, Anno 1329, William de Melton, Archbishop of York, dedicated and consecrated the "Parish Church of Wakefield", together with these altars therein, viz. <snip>