Castleford
 |
Castleford Borough Arms |
Castleford is one of the five towns in the
Wakefield borough, in the
county of
West Yorkshire,
England, near to
Pontefract, with a population of 37,525. To the north are the
River Calder, the
River Aire and the
Aire and Calder Navigation. To the west and south is the
M62.
Castleford is built upon the site of a
Roman army settlement that was named
Lagentium or
Legioleum. Funeral
urns dating from the time of the Romans have been found there. The modern name of the town is derived from the fort, Castle (referring to the fort) and Ford (referring to the River Aire which runs through Castleford.)
Castleford started as a quiet village, but between
1811 and
1891, its population increased from 890 to 14,143, due to the
Industrial Revolution. Many people worked in coal mines and in the glass-making, chemical and textile industries. The Castleford area was worked extensively for coal by a combination of shallow open-cast mining and deep mining for over 150 years. The main collieries were at Fryston, Glasshoughton and Wheldale. Castleford Pottery is still famous amongst avid collectors.
The
sculptor Henry Moore was born in Castleford, the son of a miner; some of his work can be seen at the
Yorkshire Sculpture Park at
West Bretton. The main church is called
All Saints. The local MP is
Oxford-educated
Yvette Cooper for
Pontefract and Castleford.
Castleford's favourite sport is
rugby league. The local team,
Castleford Tigers plays in the
Super League, the sport's top division in the U.K.
The town is home to
Burberry, the clothing manufacturer and retailer. The company has two factories in the UK - one is in Castleford making the firm's signature raincoats, including its Pink Leather Trench Coat, modelled by
Kate Moss.
Nestle has a factory on Wheldon Road, near the Castleford Tigers' ground, making popular sweets like
Toffee Crisp and
After Eight.
Some areas of Castleford are poor and run down. In part, this is because of the closure of the town and its surrounding area's
collieries in the
1980s and 90s. Official male unemployment rates reached 20% in the mid-1980s. According to the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000, Castleford Ferry Fryston ward falls today within the top 5% of most deprived wards in England. According to the Child Poverty Index, over 45% of 0-16 year olds living in Castleford are living in families claiming means tested benefits.
Despite a decline in industries such as coal mining and textile manufacturing, significant economic and employment growth has occurred in recent years in service sectors, especially in the retail and distribution sectors. This includes the Junction 32 Outlet village (formerly known as Freeport) and
Xscape leisure complex, Europe's largest indoor real
snow slope, which has turned the periphery of the town in to a
mecca for UK
snowboarders. Developments such as these have taken place because of the town's easy motorway accessibility and twenty-minute rail connection to the regional city of
Leeds. Distribution companies include HI Group Plc, Tibbett & Britten Ltd and Argos Distributors Ltd.
Castleford town centre and several residential neighbourhoods are improving as part of a unique program of revitalization known as the
Castleford Project. This started in 2003, founded by
City of Wakefield,
English Partnerships,
Yorkshire Forward and
Channel 4. It is delivering over £10m ($17m) of improvements to the town's public spaces and involves community leaders, residents, local business and a creative team of designers and visual artists from UK and overseas.
The Project has acted as a trigger for a larger programme of urban renewal in the town, a project programme now valued at over £200m ($350m) and including new retail and residential development, an £11m ($20m) architect-designed library and art museum and £14m ($25m) bus/rail transport interchange.
The work of The Castleford Project and revitalization of the town will be the subject of a major series of television shows on Channel 4 in 2007, produced by
TalkbackTHAMES and presented by
Kevin McCloud of the series
Grand Designs. The Project is increasingly considered an important, innovative example of civic regeneration — and for this reason has featured in conferences and exhibitions in the U.K.,
Hong Kong and
Moscow and will be presented in
Philadelphia,
New York,
Beijing and
Athens in 2006. One of the Project's key qualities has been the powerful and innovative participation of local community groups in the programme of regeneration.
Castleford offers the nearest available shopping for residents of the new
Allerton Bywater Millennium Community, now under construction just to the west of the town. This is a development of commercial and community space and over 500 homes, some of which will be built using innovative and modern off-site manufacturing techniques. Allerton is the second development in a Millennium Community program which started at
Greenwich Peninsula, London.
Castleford has a number of football teams that play in the
Castleford & District Sunday FA League.
Castleford has its own newspaper,
the Pontefract and Castleford Express.
The town is in Wakefield District [
1] and is covered by three wards: Altofts and Whitwood, Castleford Central and Glasshoughton, and Airedale and Ferry Fryston.
Castleford is the name of a fictionalised version of the English university city of
Cambridge in the children's books of
Philippa Pearce, most notably "Tom's Midnight Garden" and "Minnow on the Say".
In the
BBC series
Who Do You Think You Are? it was revealed that the ancestors of writer and broadcaster
Jeremy Clarkson lived in Castleford and ran a factory producing Kilner pottery.
Sir
John Harman, Chairman of the UK
Environment Agency was born in the town.
There is a town in Idaho, USA called Castleford.
*
Castleford and District Badminton League*
Garforth Jets Badminton Club* Castleford Tigers - http://www.castigers.com
* Castleford web pages - news, tour the town, famous people, etc. - http://www.castlefordwebpages.co.uk
* XSCAPE leisure complex - http://www.xscape.co.uk/castleford
* The Castleford Project - http://www.channel4.com/castleford
* Castleford Churches - http://www.castlefordchurches.co.uk
* Castleford - My Home Town - http://www.castleford.org
* Burberry - http://www.burberry.com
* Henry Moore Foundation - http://www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk
* Allerton Bywater Millennium Community - http://www.englishpartnerships.co.uk/page.aspx?pointerid=22302wnacz19MrBYMdgj5JJ1O9WlavZ8&thelang=001lngdef
* Castleford Bus/Rail Station - http://www.wymetro.com/ProjectsAndPlans/ProposedProjects/CastlefordBusandRailStation.htm
* Junction 32 - http://www.junction32.com/home.asp
* Ridings FM - http://www.ridingsfm.co.uk
* Yvette Cooper - http://www.yvettecooper.com
