Chevet, West Yorkshire

Chevet is a civil parish in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It has a population in 2001 of 66. In the 2011 Census this civil parish was included in the ward of Wakefield South. Chevet Hall was a country house which stood in an estate, part of which is now Newmillerdam Country Park. The house was built in 1529 by the Nevile family and was bought in 1765 by Sir Lionel Pilkington, 5th Baronet and passed down through the Pilkington family. In 1954 the estate was acquired as a country park by Wakefield Council, who demolished the hall in the 1960s.

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Newmillerdam

Newmillerdam is a village and suburb of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. The name refers to the lake and country park adjacent to the village. The park is a local nature reserve. Formerly known as Thurstonhaigh, the village is currently named from the construction of a grain mill powered by water from the dammed lake, and thus it is called the new mill on the dam. The mill still stands, although it is non-operational and privately owned. The mill was originally owned and operated by the Pashley family, who lived in the village until the 1980s. The Pashleys owned many local businesses during the centuries, which included blacksmiths, coal mines and a furniture making business. These furniture makers were also general carpenters and installed one of the first public toilets in the yard of The Three Houses Public House in 1852. The Pashley family were Methodists and were provided money to build two chapels in the village. The chapels are situated on School Hill and Barnsley Road. The Pashley reference is noted by the dedication stones to William M Pashley. The family also funded and built Newmillerdam School, which is located on School Hill. However, the landowning gentry of the time, the Pilkington family, took most of the credit and introduced the Miss Pilkington Scripture Prize as an annual award in the school. One of the last pupils to receive this prize before the school was closed and sold by the local council was a Pashley family member, Sharon Mulheir (now Smith). She is the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of the school's founder, William Pashley. Chevet Hall was a mansion that stood on the site of an older hall to the east of Newmillerdam and was built in 1529 by the Neviles. The hall was demolished as a result of mining subsidence in the 1960s, despite a massive outcry from locals. In 1765, the hall and estate was acquired by the Pilkingtons; in 1820, they built the boathouse on the lake on their private grounds. The Pilkingtons built lodges around their 2,340 acres (9.5 km2) private estate to deter poachers; some of them survived. It was opened to the public after Wakefield Council bought the estate in 1954. The boathouse is a Grade II listed building. There was a Newmillerdam Colliery, close to the small village of Hall Green; it closed in 1981. As with many Wakefield collieries, the closure was agreed with the NUM on the basis that the workers could transfer to the new Selby Coalfield. Seckar Woods nature reserve, located near the more affluent village of Woolley, is an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest).

Walton Hall, West Yorkshire

Walton Hall is a country house in Walton near Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It was built on the site of a former moated medieval hall in the Palladian style in 1767 on an island in a 26-acre (11 ha) lake. It was the ancestral home of the naturalist and traveller Charles Waterton, who made Walton Hall into the world's first wildfowl and nature reserve.

Sandal and Walton railway station

Sandal and Walton railway station was opened on 1 June 1870 by the Midland Railway on its line from Derby to Leeds Wellington Station. The station was south of Wakefield, lying between Sandal and Walton in West Yorkshire, England. It was of typical Midland brick-built construction. In 1926 the line was quadrupled, with the new goods lines passing to the east of the two platforms. It closed on 12 June 1961. To the north of the station a junction had been built in 1868 with a curve to meet the West Riding and Grimsby Railway jointly owned by the MS&LR and the GNR. This enabled goods services and southbound passenger trains to run from Wakefield. However this service finished during the First World War.

Walton, Wakefield

Walton is a village and civil parish in the City of Wakefield in the county of West Yorkshire, England, 4 miles south-east of Wakefield. At the time of the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 3,231. At the time of the 2011 Census the parish was part of the City of Wakefield's ward of Crofton, Ryhill and Walton. The population of this ward at the Census was 15,144. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the village lies on the Barnsley Canal and is home to Walton Hall, once the residence of Charles Waterton, known as 'Squire' Waterton. He was a naturalist and explorer who, in 1820, transformed the grounds of the Walton Hall estate the world's first nature reserve. The estate is also often referred to on Ordnance Survey maps, etc., as Walton Park and, less frequently, as Walton Hall Park. More recently, it has become widely known as Waterton Park. Walton Hall is now Waterton Park Hotel. The park is now largely given over to a golf course, also named Waterton Park. There are public rights of way crossing the park. Nearby, the site of the now demolished Walton Colliery, formerly known as Sharlston West colliery, has been transformed into a nature park (Walton Colliery Nature Park). Large lakes were constructed when the reserve was landscaped in the mid-1990s and the excavated earth was then used to cover the colliery's vast spoil heaps. The village also contains a small park, a tennis club, football and rugby pitches, a newly renovated pub and a sports and social club.