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The Village of Sandal
 Behind the neat facades and the bustle of everyday life, Sandal has quite a history to tell.
Lying perhaps little more than two miles south of Wakefield, its big brother city neighbour, the village of Sandal may hide some of its past behind the inevitable growth of modern development, but not all.
William the Conqueror’s Great Survey recorded Wakefield and Sandal as being in the king’s ownership. Sandal itself was described as being one of eight berewicks or barley farms in the manor of Wakefield.
That relationship with its neighbour has always been a close one, but the village has long forged its own history and continues to do so. Though without an obvious physical centre – its development strung out ribbon like along either side of the Barnsley Road – the village maintains its own identity. At its heart is a feeling of community that you sense has long existed and thrived.
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 It is, in many ways, possible to look at Sandal and see how this village, mentioned in the Domesday Book, has managed to reflect many of the events and changes seen in England across the centuries.
Even when that Domesday Book entry was recorded, the village had some prosperity denoted by the fact that it already had a church.
Its most visible slice of history today is Sandal Castle, thought to have first been built in the 12th century after William de Warenne received the manor of Wakefield from Henry I and his family set about fortifying the nearby hill.
The site’s earthwork motte and bailey castle were probably completed by about 1130 but the archaeologists think that the rebuilding in stone started at the end of the 12th century with work continuing into the next.
Documents relating to the work contain references to materials supplied for building in 1270 and 1275. Would today’s builders or new home owners leave behind records enabling those who follow several centuries to marvel at what was and wasn’t done? We hope that they would.
For the de Warennes, the darkest period in their family history perhaps came in 1317 when the castle was attacked by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and remained in Lancastrian or royal hands for a decade.
 During the Wars of the Roses, the castle provided the backdrop for the death of Richard Plantagenet, the Duke of York. The Duke was fatally wounded as he fought for the White Rose cause on Wakefield Green below the castle on a winter’s day in late December 1460.
A year after his death, a cross was erected on the spot where he fell. But that was later destroyed and his only memorial became three willow trees which survived down the years until the 1890s when a group of local people decided that it was time for a more permanent tribute.
The Misses Clarkson of Alverthorpe Hall, working with local historian Dr J W Walker, raised 140 pounds from voluntary subscriptions to pay for the Duke to be remembered.
His memorial was crafted from a 14 feet high piece of Bolton Wood stone by a Wakefield monumental mason, Mr W T Thresh.
 The design, by Mr Gerald C Horsley of London’s Gray’s Inn Chambers, included the arms of the Duke, his motto, the Tudor rose and genista (broom), the emblem of the Plantagenets.
The monument was unveiled in 1897 by the Bishop of Wakefield on a stormy Thursday in December. The weather was so bad that it was decided to hold the first part of the day’s event indoors and the dignitaries headed for the old billiard room at Castle Grove, a house higher up the road from the battlefield site.
Just as the Bishop began to speak, there were loud creaks and noises from beneath the party’s feet. The floor, not used to carrying the weight of so many, was groaning in protest. The Bishop hurriedly advised people to stand close to the walls, avoid the centre of the room, and the proceedings continued.
Once outside, many people gathered to watch the unveiling. There were streamers, three cheers for the Duke led by the Bishop and the feeling of a hero saluted.
 Little more work was done on the structure of Sandal Castle until the 1480s when Richard III ordered major rebuilding in order to make the castle a fitting base for his household in the north. That was, however, to be a pretty short-lived episode in the castle’s history for Richard was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth and the rest, as they say, is history.
Things might have been so different – and not just for Sandal. But with Richard’s defeat came a process of decay which saw the castle fall into disrepair.
Yes there were surveys which detailed the building’s sad deterioration, but nowhere, it seems, was there money to prevent the ravages of weather and neglect.
By the late 1500s, it seems that there were floors and roofs missing from various parts of the castle and the only parts of the building which remained occupied were those by the main drawbridge, the domain of the Constable of the Castle.
Briefly refortified in the 17th century as a Royalist garrison during the Civil War, Sandal Castle’s final rout came in 1646 when, on the orders of Parliament, it was stripped of its defences.
Today, the castle remains a monument, a testament to some of the most telling events and personalities in the region’s history.
The site is in the care of Wakefield Council and offers a fascinating place to visit, if you have a little time and imagination to spare.
Sandal, which lies on the south side of the Calder, continues to offer pleasant surroundings for the many who have chosen to make it their home and a sense of history for those willing to look carefully.
The increasing wealth of Victorian and Edwardian periods left their mark on the area with some of the houses built by the newly wealthy attracted to the area still gracing the village.
So prosperous was the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that David Denton and Sons flourished as tailors to the gentry, making liveried clothing for the servants and bespoke suits for their employers.
Many had already prospered in other ways – though at least one didn’t forget his home village. George Scholey achieved in real life what Dick Whittington did in fiction. George was born in Sandal in 1758, went to London to earn his fortune, did so and yes, became Lord Mayor of London.
But he clearly never forgot his roots. For when he died, George Scholey left 10,000 pounds to the village of Sandal. Half went to the poor, the other half to the trustees of Sandal Endowed School for improvements.
The school’s first benefactor was Richard Taylor who in 1686 left money in his will for a school which he hoped would help the less fortunate. Others, like Scholey, were to follow and share that vision.
Not everyone favoured giving money away though. Some preferred to take it. But notorious highwayman John Nevison, the scourge of travellers in the 1680s, met his match in local JP Captain William Hardcastle and the Constable of Sandal.
The pair, plus another man, John Ramsden, caught up with Nevison, who was said to have ridden from London to York in 15 hours, in Sandal.
Local stories say that he was cornered in The Three Houses inn and the presence in the village church of a chair in which the highwayman was found sleeping suggests that here was one criminal who was definitely caught napping.
Whatever the circumstances, facts say that Nevison was arrested, charged with the murder of the landlord of an inn near Howley Hall and taken to York where he was hanged.
Other long-standing local hostelries had less gruesome claims to fame. A Sandal pub called first The Cross Keys and then the Castle Inn, had age on its side even in 1827.
When it went on the market even then, it was referred to in the sale notice as an old established and well accustomed inn.
What it also had a history for was its skittle alley. But by 1837, the passion at the pub was for bowls and at one time, its green was said to be played on by the oldest established bowling club in England.
It’s a proud claim and one that signals for many generations, an unhurried feel to life.
Imagine stage coaches and wheeled vehicles would have passed Sandal Castle on their way to Wakefield. And pack horses too travelled the local roads on their journeys to and from the south.
It’s a far cry from the busy roads around the area today, but there is still a tranquility to be found and definitely that sense of history in the air.
Published Autumn 2007. All information correct at time of print
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