- Pontefract Castle 14th Century
- 1398 -
On 9th June 1398, John of Gaunt and his family were staying at Pontefract Castle until 14th July of the same year. Their stay at the castle was overshadowed by the threat of the impending duel between his son Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk. The picture is from a miniature of Henry Bolingbroke, circa 1402 - Pontefract Castle 16th Century
- 1588 - On 9th June 1588, a survey was made of Pontefract Park. In pre-Norman times, this land had been mainly waste moorland, forest and fenny marshes. The survey stated: ‘the said park is distant from Pontefract Castle half a quarter of a mile….the whole circuit of the pales include 700 acres, whereof we think there is none may be employed for meadow, 100 acres for arable ground, and all the rest for pasture……… (with) every of the 100 acres of arable land, and every acre of pasture.. worth by the year 12d….. in the pales of the said park (are) 1370 timber trees…(over one thousand) fuel trees. .and 400 saplings…595 deer….and three lodges or houses whereof two are in good reparation, and the third partly in decay….also there is a barn builded in the said park to lye hay in that is gotten for the deer, the reparation whereof is at the queen’s charges’.
- Pontefract Castle 17th Century
- 1645 - On 9th June 1645, the besieged Royalists heard the firing of cannon, which they supposed to be near Sheffield, and concluded that their friends were drawing near. The besieging Parliamentarians kept a strong guard at New Hall which they relieved in the evening. At the same time, two horsemen brought letters to Parliament's Governor Overton and a drum reported that the King and his troops had taken Derby.
- Pontefract Castle 21st Century
- 2021 - On 9th June 2021, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb, an historian, author, broadcaster, and award-winning professor emerita of history at the University of Roehampton and Professor Andy Wood, Professor of Social History at Durham University came to Pontefract Castle to film what was to become part of Episode 6 of the television series "Walking Tudor England". Episode 6 concentrated on the Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536 and its strong links with Pontefract Castle.
