Heritage Open Days
An opportunity to visit heritage venues and events for FREE . Find out what is open to visit near you.
An opportunity to visit heritage venues and events for FREE . Find out what is open to visit near you.
Join Beccy from Story Trails for an interactive storytelling session. Discover stories about everyday people from Pontefract’s past doing extraordinary things!
Learn About Pontefract’s Liquorice Past
This talk was first delivered for Liquorice Shoots and the Liquorice Festival, and is being reprised for Heritage Open Days in Pontefract Library.
The giant pin-hole camera will be operational in the former summer house/aviary, giving the chance to see live images of the gardens, projected through the pin-hole. A brief outline will be given of liquorice growing in the Valley Gardens.
A walking tour giving the history of liquorice growing in Friarwood Valley Gardens by Dr Colin White.
Pontefract has been synonymous with liquorice, a flowering plant of the bean family, for centuries.
David Hardcastle, is a retired West Yorkshire Police constable of 20 years and is a volunteer at a local police museum. He will be giving an interactive presentation on the history of the police service over the last 120+ years. The presentation will feature historical artefacts that will be available to handle during the talk for proper immersion in the history of policing, artefacts ranging from 1880, covering the Victorian period, both World Wars and into the 21st Century. A big assortment of various police uniforms, helmets, hats and even a working radio from the 1980s for the audience to try!
Setting up the Commonwealth War Graves Commission - David Jones
John Gully - A Journey back to Ackworth. A Talk by Stephen Carlile
Peter of Pontefract, the wise man of England. A talk by David Wilcox