Pontefract - Pontefract Today

Pontefract Today

Pontefract has been a market town since the Middle Ages; the market days are Wednesday and Saturday, with a smaller market on Fridays. The covered market is open all week, except Thursday afternoons and Sundays. Thursday afternoon is half-day closing in the town. The town is called Ponte/Ponty by its citizens and sometimes jokingly referred to as Ponte Carlo, in reference to Monte Carlo. This theme is continued in the name of bars in the xscape complex, Glasshoughton between Pontefract and Castleford, referred to locally as 'Cas Vegas'.

Pontefract's deep, sandy soil makes it one of the few British places in which liquorice can be successfully grown. The town has a liquorice-sweet industry; and the famous Pontefract Cakes are produced, though the liquorice plant itself is no longer grown there. The town's two liquorice factories are owned by Haribo (formerly known as Dunhills) and Monkhill Confectionery (part of the Cadbury's Group - formerly known as Wilkinson's), respectively. A Liquorice Festival is held annually. Poet laureate Sir John Betjeman wrote a poem entitled "The Licorice Fields at Pontefract".

Close by is the coal-fired power station at Ferrybridge, although the local coal mines had largely closed by the 1990s, contributing to high unemployment in the local area.

There are Tesco and Morrisons supermarkets, and most recently Asda, which changed hands from Kwik Save. The schools in the town are Carleton Community High School in Carleton, and The King's School on Mill Hill Lane; both are comprehensive schools, for ages 11–16.

Pontefract General Infirmary is a large general hospital, beneath which is an old hermitage, open to the public on certain days. It is the place at which serial killer Harold Shipman began to murder his elderly patients. The hospital has been rebuilt and reopened in 2010. Pontefract Museum, from which the hermitage schedule can be obtained, is in the town centre, housed in the former Carnegie library. There is now a modern library building. Pontefract has three railway stations: Pontefract Baghill, on the Dearne Valley Line, which connects York and Sheffield; and Pontefract Monkhill and Pontefract Tanshelf, which connects with Leeds and Wakefield. There are also rail services to London from Pontefract Monkhill

The local Police force is West Yorkshire Police, with a local police station behind the Tesco supermarket and next to the Magistrates Court.

Fire cover is provided by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue with one pump (sometimes two) based at Pontefract Firestation. The location will move soon to a new station been built on the A645 halfway between Pontefract and Knottingley.

The Terrortial Army, Army Cadets and Air Training Corps all have a presence within the town who are all based at the historical barracks building. This used to house the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI). It now house a Rifles Regiment Recruitment team.