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The following studies by Terry Spencer are now available on the Knottingley website:
KNOTTINGLEY CARNIVAL
By the last quarter of the nineteenth century the August
Bank Holiday period at Knottingley abounded in fun and frolic with the
Feast as the hub of the festivities. The fair was supplemented by
community sports and of the sporting element within the town none was more
prominent than Knottingley Town Cricket Club.
KNOTTLA FLATTS:
Situated on the southern bank of the River Aire, to the north side of Aire Street,
lies Knottingley Flatts. Today, the Flatts occupy only a small portion of the original
layout which comprised the greater part of Knottingley Ings.
KNOTTLA FEAST:
The modern image of the fair is one of outdoor entertainment for pleasure seeking
people but such a concept is one which has developed over the last two centuries
being born as a result of the Industrial Revolution.
HOSPITAL SUNDAYS:
Prior to the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948 local people relied
for health care in the event of sickness or serious injury upon charitable institutions
such as Pontefract Dispensary and Leeds Infirmary.
KNOTTINGLEY COAT-OF-ARMS:
The application by Knottingley Urban District Council for a grant of arms was made
to the College of Arms, London, in mid 1942.
FERRYBRIDGE GLASSWORKS:
That there was a glassworks at Ferrybridge is indisputable for it was both documented
and photographed. That it was situated on the north bank of the River Aire "..where
the Parish of Brotherton merges into the Parish of Ferrybridge" is confirmed by
map reference. The doubt lies not in the existence or location of the furnace but
with its origin.
NINETEENTH CENTURY KNOTTINGLEY:
The township of Knottingley, situated three miles north-east of Pontefract in the
Wapentake of Osgoldcross, developed from a 6th century Saxon settlement in a forest
clearing on the south bank of the river Aire. By the time of the Norman Conquest
of 1066 the settlement had acquired the status of a manorial vill
KNOTTINGLEY PLAYING FIELDS:
As the process of industrialisation and urban development gained pace in the second
half of the nineteenth century the provision of public spaces such as municipal
gardens and parks for the purpose of public recreation and amenity became increasingly
desirable.
CAPTAIN PERCY BENTLEY:
Percy Bentley, scion of a prominent Knottingley family, was born in that town on
the 18th January 1891, the son of James William and Helena Bentley, and was baptised
in the parish church of St. Botolph on the 11th February.
KNOTTINGLEY WAR MEMORIAL:
On Wednesday, 25th September 1918, a committee previously sanctioned by Knottingley
Urban District Council in meeting assembled, met in the Council Chamber at Knottingley
Town Hall to consider the form of memorial to the men who had fallen during the
Great War.
FERRYBRIDGE WAR MEMORIAL:
No less than the citizens of its larger neighbour, the inhabitants of the village
of Ferrybridge decided to honour those drawn from the community and slain in the
Great War.
THE 'K' SISTERS:
For approximately a decade from the mid 1940's the 'K' Sisters, Marjorie and Pamela
Kellett, were prominent throughout the town and district of Knottingley as all-round
entertainers who harnessed their talent to providing public enjoyment and in so
doing raised large amounts of money for local charities.
THE PALACE CINEMA:
The new cinema, one of the earliest purpose-built picture houses in the country,
was situated on an oblique strip of land some 560 square yards in extent, adjacent
to Ship Lane at the junction with lower Aire Street. The hall was designed to seat
600 people: 500 in the area and 100 in the balcony.
KNOTTINGLEY PUBLIC HOUSES & BREWERIES:
In 1752, eighteen residents of the township of Knottingley in company with John
Mitchell, the Parish Constable, agreed to be bound over in the sum of £10 each to
observe the legal and moral obligations attendant upon being granted a licence as
an innkeeper.
KNOTTINGLEY TOWN HALL CLOCK:
In the Spring of 1994, the recently deceased and much lamented Edwin Beckett arranged
for the installation of a clock at the top of the Town Hall turret. The event was
celebrated in verse by Mrs Joyce Bell who concluded her eulogy by stating that her
mother, Dolly Lightowler, had always wished to see a clock set in the "bare face"
of the Town Hall - a wish which had now come true.
STATUE OF THE BLACK PRINCE:
Awareness of a link between my native Knottingley and the Prince's statue came quite
recently when Mrs Shirley Bedford of Knottingley informed me that her great grandfather
was the master of a barge which had transported the statue from Hull to Leeds in
1903.
KNOTTLA NICKNAMES:
It was in the course of a recent conversation with Roger Ellis that the subject
of nicknames arose, following which, in an idle half-hour, I casually began to compile
a list of those I recalled. My list quickly exceeded fifty in number and I was seized
by a natural desire to list as many more as I could obtain.
KNOTTINGLEY SILVER BAND:
The origin of Knottingley Band is obscure. In 1980 the Band celebrated its conjectured
centenary year, the date being taken from an old letterhead of 1880. However,
a subsequent documentary source has been located which indicates that the genesis
of the Band may lie much further in the past.
KNOTTINGLEY TOWN HALL:
The burgeoning spirit of civic pride found practical expression on 29th October
1864, when a group of prominent citizens of the town formed the Knottingley Town
Hall & Mechanics’ Institute Company Limited.
FIELD SYSTEMS AND PLACE NAMES OF OLD KNOTTINGLEY:
The purpose of this study is to consider the topography of modern day Knottingley
and formulate a theoretical model concerning the development of the settlement during
the medieval and post medieval eras as reflected in the field systems adopted.
GAZETTEER OF KNOTTINGLEY PLACE NAMES:
An A-Z listing of Knottingley field and place names.
WAR SAVINGS WEEKS:
Conflict is fuelled by finance so it is unsurprising that following the outbreak
of war in 1939, local savings committees were established to encourage people to
curb personal expenditure and invest surplus cash in the National War Savings Scheme
in order to assist the cost of the war.
SELECT VESTRY RIOTS 1874:
The township of Knottingley became a semi-autonomous parish in 1789 following the
ecclesiastical reorganisation of that period but remaining under the patronage of
the Vicar of Pontefract until it became an independent parish in 1846
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