Bed and breakfast availability
Wakefield b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Wakefield and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Wakefield, West Yorkshire. An important weaving and dyeing centre as far back as the 13^th century, Wakefield did not grow quite so highly industrialized as other south Yorkshire towns. In the mid- 19^th century it was the chief grain market (the Corn Exchange, built in 1838, was reckoned the best building in town, but was demolished in 1963 just the same) and it also became the administrative headquarters of the West Yorkshire. Wakefield builders have been fond of towers and turrets, which give the place an interesting skyline as it spreads up the hillsides from the River Calder. The Cathedral Church of All Saints, completed in 1329, then pulled down and rebuilt in the 15^th century (and altered again in the 19^th and 20^th), added its 247-ft spire, the highest in Yorkshire, in 1861. The clock tower on the 1880 Town Hall on Wood Street rises 200 ft and the County Hall, opened in 1898, has a 130-ft dome. The city centre is the Bull Ring, redeveloped with modern shops and flower-beds. The cathedral towers overhead. Kirkgate leads to the Old Bridge, a nine-arch stone structure with a tiny chantry chapel, St Mary's, the best example in England. Traffic now flows over the New Bridge of 1933. The chapel is l4^th-century and was heavily restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The original west front was removed and now stands in the Kettlethorpe Hall grounds. The chapel has lovely traceried windows, pinnacled buttresses and an embattled turret.

Some good Georgian houses remain, for example those on South and West Parades behind Kirkgate on a green square and in the northern parts of the city. In 1954, the city bought Newmillerdam, a suburb to the South with a lake noted for bird life. The grassy mounds marking the site of the castle at Sandal are now part of the city, too. St Helen's Church nearby is chiefly 14^th-century.

Only a mile from the city centre is Heath Common, a rough open space around which were loosely gathered three houses of major architectural importance, one Elizabethan and two Georgian. Heath Hall, however, is the only one to get needed attention. It was rescued after 50 years of neglect by Mr and Mrs Muir M. Oddie. The central part of the handsome grey stone block was built in the early 18^th century and then incorporated into a much grander design of John Carr in the 1750s. As completed, it is 11 bays wide with detached pavilions on either side. Among the finely restored rooms, the drawing-room is the most elaborate with its dashing stucco work. The Hall was once the home of the eccentric Charles Waterton.

Nearby cities: Bradford, Leeds

Nearby towns: Barnsley, Huddersfield, Pontefract

Nearby villages: Ackworth Moor Top, Altofts, Alverthorpe, Batley, Batley Carr, Beeston, Beeston Hill, Belle Isle, Birstall, Carlton, Castleford, Churwell, Clayton West, Clayton West, Crigglestone, Cudworth, Darton, Denby Dale, Dewsbury, Drighlington, Emley, Fitzwilliam, Flockton, Gildersome, Gomersal, Haigh, Healey, Heckmondwike, Hemsworth, Hightown, Hill Top, Horbury, Hunslet, Kippax, Kirkhamgate, Knowsthorpe, Ledston, Lofthouse Gate, Methley, Middlestown, Normanton, Ossett, Oulton, Purston Jaglin, Robin Hood, Royston, Ryhill, Sandal, Shafton, Skelmanthorpe, Staincross, Stanley, Swillington, Tong, West Bretton, Woodlesford

Have you decided to visit Wakefield or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Wakefield bed and breakfast (a Wakefield B&B or Wakefield b and b)
• a Wakefield guesthouse
• a Wakefield hotel (or motel)
• a Wakefield self-catering establishment, or
• other Wakefield accommodation