Sandal | |
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Sandal Castle remains |
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Sandal shown within West Yorkshire | |
Population | 5,432 |
OS grid reference | SE340180 |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | WAKEFIELD |
Postcode district | WF2 |
Dialling code | 01924 |
Police | West Yorkshire |
Fire | West Yorkshire |
Ambulance | Yorkshire |
EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
UK Parliament | |
Sandal Magna or Sandal is a suburb of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England with a population in 2001 of 5,432. It is an ancient settlement and is the site of Sandal Castle and a parish church that predates the Domesday Book. It is two miles (3 km) south from Wakefield, eight miles (13 km) north of Barnsley, nine west from Pontefract and thirty from York. The Battle of Wakefield was fought here in the 15th century during the Wars of the Roses.
The name Sandal derives from the Early Scandinavian sandr meaning sand or gravel and healh, a meadow.
In the Domesday Book of 1086 Sandal is recorded as a berewic (a village where barley was grown) in Wachefeld (Wakefield) where there was a church with a priest. The church was on the site of the present church of St Helen.
William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey (1081–1138) was granted the Sandal estates in 1107 and began the building of Sandal Castle which became the baronial seat of the lords of the manor of Wakefield.
In 1460, during the Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was killed on 30 December in the Battle of Wakefield between Sandal Castle and St Helens Church.
There are records of mining for coal and quarrying for stone in the 14th century.
The highwayman, John Nevison was arrested on 6 March 1684 at the Three Houses Inn and tried for the murder of Darcy Fletcher, a constable who had tried to arrest him near Howley Hall at Soothill in Batley.
Sandal, situated on the south side of the River Calder on the road from Wakefield to Barnsley, covers 1,700 acres (688 ha). It is 2 miles (3.2 km) from Wakefield, 8 miles (13 km) from Barnsley, 9 miles (14 km) from Pontefract and 30 miles (48 km) from York. The main road through Sandal is the A61 Wakefield to Barnsley road.