Wakefield Historical Society was shocked to learn recently that an application had been made to demolish the Old Vicarage on Zetland Street without any research or architectural survey. It is potentially the oldest building in Wakefield. Over 1,000 comments have been made opposing the application.
William de la Zouch, Archbishop of York, designated the requirement for a vicarage for Wakefield in 1349, after the prestigious Dean and College of St Stephen’s, Westminster took over the parish church and its income. De la Zouch decreed that the building should consist of ‘One competent mansion with sufficient buildings, that is to say a hall, two chambers at the least, a kitchen, a stable, a grange and one house for animals and necessaries proper for the Vicar himself, with one garden surrounded and enclosed with a sufficient fence around it, to be found and constructed at the expense of the said Dean and College.’ It was apparently rebuilt in 1666 – 1671, but when renovations were carried out in 1908, the architect found traces of a much older timber building, subsequently enclosed.
There should be no alteration or demolition without research and a full building survey of its significance. On behalf of the Historical Society we have written to object to the application.