Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Wachefeld, Wachefelt 1086 DB

• Wachefeld(a) 1121 YChviii a.1127 Dugdvi 1138–47,1147 YChviii

• Wakefeld(a) 1091–7 YChviii 12 1106–1202 YChviii 1197 Ebor 1301 DodsN 1204 P 1209 Pat 1217 FF 1219,1226 Ebor 1237 ADv 1267 WCR 1274 RH 1276 FF 1489

• Wakefyld 1461 Pat

• Wakefild 1556 FF

• Wakefield 1509 HCY 1641 Rates

• Wakefeild 1597 SessnR

• Wakfeld 1180–1202 YChviii 13 Lewes23d 1210–12 RBE 1335 FF 1428 FA

• Wakefeud 13 ADv 1231 FF 1233–40 YChviii 1238–54 ADi 1240,1250 FF 1251 Pat 1258 Ch 1323 WCR

• Wackefeud 1246 Ass4

• Wackefild 1583 NCWills

• Waik(e)feld(e), Waykefeld(e) 1486,1531 Testiv 1534 WillY 1545 1643 YDi

Etymology

Like Wakefield Nth 105, the name of this important place could be 'Waca's stretch of open country', from an OE  pers.n. Waca suggested for certain p.ns. such as Wakeham Sx 43, Wakeley Hrt 210, etc. and recorded as e.ME  Wache (1155); this otherwise unrecorded pers.n. would correspond to the common OHG  Wacho . But Ekwall (Studies 189) makes the interesting and likely suggestion that the first el. is OE  wacu 'a watch, a wake' and in this p.n. it would refer to some great annual wake or festival, during which in later times the well-known cycle of mystery plays (the Towneley plays) was regularly presented. Wakefield itself is the traditional capital of the West Riding and it was certainly the centre of the very extensive manor which extended some 30 miles through the whole of Calderdale to the Lancashire border; as Goodall notes, it was within 10 miles of the meeting-places of five wapentakes: Osgoldcross (9 miles away at Pontefract 79supra ), Staincross (near Darton 6 miles away i, 317 supra ), Agbrigg (1 mile away in Warmfield 117supra ), Morley (6 miles away at Tingley 175infra ), and Skyrack (10 miles away at Headingley pt. iv infra ). Even Strafforth Wapentake met only 15 miles away (i, 78 supra ). This concentration of wapentake meeting-places so close to Wakefield also suggests that from very early times it was a convenient place of assembly for the southern half of the Riding (that is, the part which lies south of the R. Wharfe); its location indicates at least a pre-Conquest importance, which the name itself would explain and which is partly supported by its standing as a post-Conquest centre of administrative and popular affairs; v. Introd. 'Open country where the annual wake or festival took place' is the most likely interpretation, v. feld , which here refers to the open country which formerly lay between the R. Calder on the south and the great wood of Outwood (156supra ) to the north of the old town. The numerous spellings with -feud for -feld are due to AN influence (IPN 113).