Kevin Trickett MBE,

President, Wakefield Civic Society

@MrTrickett

​

 (via email)

​

I’m a native of Wakefield, so the ‘where the boundary lies’ issue has cropped up a number of times in my life but most recently with the Civic Society. Boundaries might not be physical barriers, but they are markers of difference. And not just tangible markers – post codes, telephone exchanges, which doctor you visit, etc, are all to some extent determined by which side of the boundary you live on – even West Yorkshire Metro Cards that can’t be used in South Yorkshire (and no doubt vice versa).

Of course, I go back to before local government reorganisation of 1974. I grew up in Newton Hill which was then part of Stanley Urban District Council. That meant my parents paid their rates at the council offices in Outwood Park, our dustbins had ‘SUDC’ on the side and they were emptied by the SUDC refuse men. Friends and family who lived only a few hundred yards away were in Wakefield – and they did things differently there.

Walking into Wakefield from Newton Hill, one entered Wakefield’s city limits on the Leeds Road at Newton Bar where there was a Wakefield sign, one of a number created by blacksmith Frank Foley (I think – his son refurbished some of them some years ago – there’s one near where I live now on Aberford Road, near Clarke Hall, although it needs refurbishing again). Passing that sign was a marker for moving from one local council area to another. When we first acquired a telephone, the number was Lofthouse Gate 2858, only later being absorbed into the Wakefield exchange.

I went to Rothwell Grammar School which was outside the Wakefield area – I think the dividing line was around Potovens Lane. I can’t remember for certain whether it came under Leeds at that time (1960s) but it was a marker of difference again.

And what we think of as Wakefield was actually two councils – Wakefield Corporation for the city and Wakefield Rural for the outlying bits, reaching as far as the boundary with Barnsley (I had relatives who lived in Darton – originally part of Wakefield Rural District but now, I think, part of Barnsley).

Having a Wakefield post code was no guarantee. So, for example, parts of Tingley and East and West Ardsley (which still have Wakefield post codes) went to Leeds Council while some Ossett addresses came into the Wakefield area as part of local government reorganisation. Thirteen councils were merged into the Wakefield Metropolitan District Council in 1974 but some of the old councils still have mayors and civic regalia, so the local identity is still, to some extent, evident.

And this local identity is important – when people complain to me about the council (and they do), their complaint is sometimes informed by where they live. People in Castleford and Pontefract think all the investment money is being spent in Wakefield – people in Wakefield suggest it’s spent in Pontefract and Castleford! (Having said that, allegiances to sports teams doesn’t always recognise local boundaries or local identities!)

At the Civic Society, where we were set up in 1964 before the local government reorganisation, we have to have regard to our charitable objects – and our ‘area of benefit’. Our constitution says we cover the Wakefield area but we have to interpret that in light of when it was written. This means we sometimes have to dig out the old maps to see where the old council boundaries used to lie – we don’t do Horbury, Ossett, Castleford, Normanton, etc  - but we do cover Stanley, Outwood, Wrenthorpe, and Kirkhamgate. This is because we interpret our area as that which used to be administered by three former councils – Wakefield Corporation, Wakefield Rural District and Stanley Urban District. However, it’s only old-timers like me that remember any of this – ask a new committee member about this and I suspect they’d stare blankly! If we didn’t make this distinction, however, we’d end up covering the whole district – which would have us treading on the toes of the other civic societies in the district – and they wouldn’t like that!

Within the district, and again with my Civic Society hat on, we have a number of Conservation Areas – and this affects how we look at planning applications. For example, the Wood Street Conservation Area includes all the buildings in Wood Street except the former Barclays Bank (now Qubana) which is in the Upper Westgate Conservation Area (the dividing line then runs up the centre of King Street). You have to pay attention to details like that!

Thinking even more locally – the deeds of my house include a map showing where the boundary of the property lies – and the little T signs along the boundaries indicate which fences I’m responsible for.

So, that’s my initial thoughts on this – I hope I’ve interpreted your quest correctly! Boundaries don’t have to be physical to make an impact. They can be signified by a line on a map, demarcated by a ditch or a fence and cut across plots of land irrespective of actual ownership. Sometimes, they can seem quite random but might be historical in their origins. There might be a visible sign to show where they are but often there won’t – there’s not usually a line drawn on a road or a path (although boundaries denoting the ownership of property in town and city centres can sometimes be marked out in studs – look for them when you’re next in Wakefield if you haven’t seen them). But you don’t usually encounter them when walking through the countryside!

And if a sign doesn’t exist, or gets taken down, it has no impact on the existence or otherwise of the actual boundary of course. It might need the farmer and his shotgun to remind you of that!

​

​