Pontefract

Pontefract, or Pomfret, a municipal and parliamentary borough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 24 miles S.W. of York, and on the river Aire, near its junction with the Calder, with a station on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. It is a finely-situated and well-built town, notwithstanding its antiquity. The old castle, founded in the 11th century, the scene of Richard II.'s murder, was reduced to ruins by the Parliamentary army in 1649. All Saints' church has some remains of 12thcentury work, and St. Giles's shows traces of Norman architecture. Liquorice is grown in the neighbourhood for the manufacture of Pomfret cakes, and there are iron-foundries, brick and terracotta works, tanneries, and breweries. Till 1885 the borough returned two members; it now has one.