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== External links ==
== External links ==
* Brigshaw High School - http://www.brigshaw.com
* Castleford Tigers - http://www.castigers.com
* Castleford Tigers - http://www.castigers.com
* XSCAPE leisure complex - http://www.xscape.co.uk/castleford
* XSCAPE leisure complex - http://www.xscape.co.uk/castleford

Revision as of 14:57, 14 April 2006

File:Castleford coatofarms.gif
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.

History

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 Bretton. The main church is called All Saints. The town is referred by its citizens as Cas. The local MP is Oxford-educated Yvette Cooper for Pontefract and Castleford.

The town today

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, recently its Pink Leather Trench Coat, modelled by Kate Moss and one of Barbie's special accessories. Nestle has a factory on Wheldon Road, near the Castleford Tigers' ground, making popular confectionaries like Toffee Crisp and After Eight.

Some areas of the town are poor and run down. In part, this is because of the closure of the town's eight [dubious – discuss] collieries in the 1980s and 90s and of the Selby coal field. Official male unemployment rates reached 20% in the mid-1980s with many more affected by hidden unemployment, either removing themselves from the register through ill health or the Redundant Miners Payment Scheme. According to the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000, Castleford Ferry Fryston ward falls within the top 5% of most deprived wards in England. Castleford Whitwood and Castleford Glasshoughton wards are ranked in the top 14% 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 employment growth has occurred in service sectors. The number of people employed in the public sector has increased alongside new jobs created in retail and distribution sectors.

The Junction 32 Outlet village (formerly known as Freeport) and Xscape leisure complex – Europe's largest indoor real snow slope – have created new jobs, brought new business and turned the area of Glasshoughton, on the periphery of the town, into a mecca for UK snowboarders.

To alleviate remaining deprivation and make the town a better place, Castleford has seen numerous developments in the last five years which are winning it new attention and signficant new investment. This is enabled in part by the town's easy motorway accessibility and twenty-minute rail connection to the regional city of Leeds. Major employers include HI Group Plc, Tibbett & Britten Ltd and Argos Distributors Ltd.

The 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 helped bring forward new development plans for the town, valued at over £150m ($260m), including new retail and residential development and an £11m ($20m) architect-designed library and art museum. This connects with additional plans for a £14m ($25m) transport interchange in the town centre.

The work of the 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. It 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 and Beijing in 2006.

Castleford offers the nearest available shopping for residents of the new Allerton Bywater Millennium Community, now under construction just to the north 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 its own newspaper, the Pontefract and Castleford Express and radio station Ridings FM.

Trivia

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.

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