Celebrating Wakefield’s Railway Heritage and Blue Plaque Unveiling
2nd October at WX, Wakefield
Wakefield Historical Society was delighted to attend the event hosted by Wakefield Civic Society at WX yesterday evening, part of the Railway200 national commemoration. Kevin Trickett, President of Wakefield Civic Society described the historic development and importance of the railways to Wakefield, well-illustrated for the large audience to appreciate. Tony Wade, an artist based at the Arthouse in Wakefield had been commissioned to paint the 99 arches, the viaduct that runs between Westgate and the River Calder and a well-known feature to all Wakefield residents. He described how he had gone about this, and the difficulties involved. Wakefield Railway Modellers’ Society displayed their model of Stanley Canal Basin, where coal was loaded on to ‘Tom Puddings’ that took it down the Aire and Calder Navigation. How these worked and the link to the railways which brought the coal to be loaded was described. A speaker from LonGBoat described their ongoing involvement with caring for Wakefield Kirkgate Station where they are based. LonGBoat is an LGBT+ charity supporting the local community and creating a space where everyone feels welcome. The last event of the night was to unveil a blue plaque to locomotive builder Thomas Peckett whose company Peckett and Sons built a range of industrial locomotives from their works in Bristol for around 80 years. Some of these locomotives have been popularised in model form by Hornby in their range of OO gauge models. Peckett was born in Wakefield in 1834 on Garden Street, and several of his family who had contributed to the plaque were present, the unveiling being performed by a descendant of the Peckett family.
As part of Wakefield Historical Society’s participation in the event we published a free booklet ‘Discovering Wakefield’s Early Railways’ authored by Anthony Dawson. It describes the first horse-drawn railways in the district, the different companies that drove their lines through Wakefield, and the first stations in the Wakefield district including Kirkgate and Westgate. It highlights some of the Wakefield ‘firsts’ in the evolution of the railways.
Our appreciation is due to Wakefield Civic Society for organising this event.
