The most famous plays of the Towneley collection are attributed to the Wakefield Master, an anonymous playwright who wrote in the fifteenth century.

In the mid-18th century the growing towns of Yorkshire including Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford, were trading increasingly.

By the beginning of the 18th century, the Aire and Calder Navigation had made the River Calder navigable as far upstream as Wakefield.

During the 18th century Wakefield continued to develop through trade in corn, coal mining and textiles and in 1888 its parish church, with Saxon origins, acquired cathedral status.

Wakefield was probably settled by the Angles in the 5th or 6th century and after 876 AD the area was controlled by the Vikings who founded twelve hamlets or thorpes around Wakefield.

The townsfolk of Wakefield amused themselves in games and sports earning the title " Merrie Wakefield ", the chief sport in the 14th century was archery and the butts in Wakefield were at the Ings, near the river.

At the start of 19th century Wakefield was a wealthy market town and inland port trading in wool and corn.

During the 19th century more mines were sunk so that there were 46 small mines in Wakefield and the surrounding area by 1869.

During the 19th century Wakefield became the administrative centre for the West Riding and many of today's familiar buildings were constructed at that time.

During the 19th century, the Wakefield Asylum played a central role in the development of British psychiatry, with Henry Maudsley and James Crichton-Browne amongst its medical staff.

Other major 18th century English novelists are Samuel Richardson ( 1689-1761 ), author of the epistolary novels Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded ( 1740 ) and Clarissa ( 1747-8 ); Henry Fielding ( 1707 – 54 ), who wrote Joseph Andrews ( 1742 ) and The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling ( 1749 ); Laurence Sterne ( 1713 – 68 ) who published Tristram Shandy in parts between 1759 and 1767 ; Oliver Goldsmith (? 1730-74 ) author of The Vicar of Wakefield ( 1766 ); Tobias Smollett ( 1721 – 71 ) a Scottish novelist best known for his comic picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle ( 1751 ) and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker ( 1771 ), who influenced Charles Dickens ; and Fanny Burney ( 1752-1840 ), whose novels " were enjoyed and admired by Jane Austen ," wrote Evelina ( 1778 ), Cecilia ( 1782 ) and Camilla ( 1796 ).

From the 17th century, Barnsley developed into a stop-off point on the route between Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield and London.

By the turn of the century ( 2000 ) no direct descendants of the Wakefield family are left in New Zealand with the exception of William Wakefield Lawrence Clague resident in Kapiti, and some Torlesses.

Daniel Bell Wakefield ( 1798 – 8 January 1858 ) was a notable judge in New Zealand during the mid-19th century.

There was a wooden bridge over the Calder on the main road from Wakefield to Huddersfield in the 15th century and probably.

Tawa Flat was first settled by Pākehā in the mid-19th century, under direction of Edward Gibbon Wakefield of the New Zealand Company.

Paul's form on the Junior, and then subsequently New Zealand team tour, did not go unnoticed by astute talent scouts in England and in the off season of 1993 / 94 he joined the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats of the English Rugby Football League Championship and was highly impressive, especially against the almost invincible at the time – Wigan Warriors, where he almost pulled off the upset of the century against a team of legends including but to name just a few – Dean Bell, Dennis Betts, Shaun Edwards, Andy Farrell, Martin Offiah and Va ' aiga Tuigamala.

Wakefield was a focus for settlement due to its location on the Saugatucket River and the old Post Road, which was laid out early in the 18th century.

The local textile mill continued to operate and expand through the 19th century, but in the mid-century, as nearby Peace Dale grew as a manufacturing center and factories were established in other water power sites in the area, Wakefield became the commercial center of South Kingstown.

The Wakefield Mill underwent several ownership changes and expansions in the 20th century.

Wakefield believed that the main reason for the apparent barrenness of the Tanganyika was local primitive farming practices that would be easily solved by Western equipment.

From then on to Perth via Port Wakefield Road and the Eyre Highway, Coolgardie-Esperance Highway, South Coast Highway, South Western Highway.

Today there are five ' Steamers ' plying the waters of Ullswater: Raven, Lady of the Lake, Lady Dorothy, Lady Wakefield, and, since 2010, Western Belle.

The college was founded in 1867 as Western Maryland College, and was named for the Western Maryland Railroad because the college's first Board chairman, John Smith of Wakefield, was also the president of the railroad.

The Division was named after Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who promoted colonisation as a tool for social engineering, plans which formed the basis for settlements in South Australia, Western Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

These roads include the main highways from Adelaide to Western Australia and the Northern Territory ( via Port Wakefield Road ), New South Wales ( via Main North Road ), the northern suburbs of Adelaide and the northern parts of South Australia ( both roads ).

However, according to Gordon Wakefield, " To translate ' hesychasm ' as ' quietism ', while perhaps etymologically defensible, is historically and theologically misleading.

There is a village in West Yorkshire called Robin Hood, on the A61 between Leeds and Wakefield and close to Rothwell and Lofthouse.

A 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield, originally published in The Lancet, presented supposed evidence that the MMR Vaccine ( an immunization against measles, mumps and rubella that is typically first administered to children before their first birthday ) was linked to the onset of autism spectrum disorders.

* The chocolate chip cookie is invented in the United States by Ruth Wakefield.

* March 7 – Shrigley Abduction: Ellen Turner, a wealthy heiress in Cheshire, England, is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the future politician in colonial New Zealand.

* January 13 – Serial killer Harold Shipman is found hanged in his cell at Wakefield Prison, four years after being convicted of murdering 15 patients in Cheshire, England.

The most complete is the York cycle of forty-eight pageants ; there are also the Towneley plays of thirty-two pageants, once thought to have been a true ' cycle ' of plays acted at Wakefield ; the Ludus Coventriae ( also called the N Town plays " or Hegge cycle ), now generally agreed to be a redacted compilation of at least three older, unrelated plays, and the Chester cycle of twenty-four pageants, now generally agreed to be an Elizabethan reconstruction of older medieval traditions.

Unfortunately, we cannot know whether the plays of the Towneley manuscript are actually the plays performed at Wakefield but a reference in the Second Shepherds ' Play to Horbery Shrogys ( line 454 ) is strongly suggestive.

Regularly appearing characters include Wakefield Damon, an older man, whose dialogue is characterized by frequent use of such expressions as " Bless my brakeshoes!

Claims have been made that the MMR vaccine is linked to autism and inflammatory bowel disease, including one study by Andrew Wakefield ( the paper was discredited and retracted in 2010 and Wakefield was later stripped of his license after his work was found to be an " elaborate fraud " ) that indicated a link between gastrointestinal disease, autism, and the MMR vaccine.

Wakefield is said to have been making chocolate cookies and on running out of regular baker's chocolate, substituted broken pieces of semi-sweet chocolate from Nestlé thinking that they would melt and mix into the batter.

Washington County is home to the site of St. Stephens, the first territorial capital of Alabama, and was the scene of the 1807 capture of Aaron Burr at Wakefield, Alabama during his flight from prosecution for treason.

In the course of his achievements, Wakefield became the owner of a vast tract of land including what is now Heyworth.

It is on US 2 with Ironwood several miles to the west and Wakefield several miles to the east.

It is on the Black River just south of U. S. Highway 2 a few miles west of Wakefield and a few miles east of Bessemer.

Wakefield Township is on the east and Bessemer Township on the south ( along with Ironwood ).

Wakefield is about 15 miles northwest and Watersmeet about 27 miles southeast on US 2.

Wakefield is a city in Gogebic County in the US state of Michigan.

The city is situated within Wakefield Township, but is politically independent.

The Wakefield ancestry is traced back to John Wakefield, who was born about 1614, probably in Gravesend, County Kent, England and immigrated to Virginia aboard the " America " in June 1635, along with his brothers Richard Wakefield and Thomas Wakefield.