Willow Garth Nature Reserve
An exerpt from a recent YouTube video which may be of interest to visitors to the Knottingley website.
Pontefract Memories
Our 'pontefractus' website ended a few years ago and since that time all those wonderful and priceless memories of Pontefact 'as submitted to me' during publication of the Pontefract Digest magazine have been unavailable online.
It is no longer practicable for me to reinstate the entire Pontefract website but I am able to make those Pontefract memories available again in a section of the Knottingley & Ferrybridge website. If you are interested in Pontefract memories then you can find some of them here now, with the remainder to be added as time permits.
...Pontefract Memories Index
Wartime Section
The Unveiling of Knottingley War Memorial
Sunday 25th September 1921
Photograph from the private collection of Ron Gosney
A less visited section of the old style website, possibly due to my lack of understanding of web design and navigation, but one that I share with a great deal of fondness.
The wartime section was the idea of our dear friend and 'Digest Magazine' colleague Maurice Haigh. It was a project that he cared deeply about and one that he urged me to incorporate into the Knottingley website as well as into the Knottingley and Pontefract Digest magazines.
It may not be a large section but I know it is a collection of memories and articles that meant so much to Maurice.
...Wartime Memories Contents
John Harker Launch Day
A collection I first began adding to the website a decade ago remains an ongoing task as additional images are uploaded.
The majority of the photos depict the days dignitaries and guests but there are also some spectacular images as the vessels are launched and enter into the narrow canal, an occasion that will be fondly remembered by many local schoolchildren of the day, myself included.
...John Harker Launch Day Photographs
Knottingley & Ferrybridge Memories
A section that has always proved extremely popular both here on the website and as part of the old Knottingley Digest magazine. Sadly since the demise of the magazine there has been no new additions to our memories section so it may be that you've already read all of them in one format or the other. However, if you haven't already seen them, or would like to revisit any of them, then our entire collection is available here.
...Knottingley & Ferrybridge Memories
'Dakky' Street Photography
Our photo gallery contains a collection of photographs submitted by visitors to the website, many of which you will already be familiar with. However, one of my own personal favourite collections are the photographs taken during the 1930s by a local street photographer referred to by many in the town as 'Dakky', though few people appear to know anything about him.
Through his lens he captured community life in and around our streets and workplaces, recording scenes that would otherwise have been long since resigned to history.
It's been said that 'Dakky' used to have a small studio in the vicinity of the Bendles alongside the canal where he would develop his film. It's such a shame that we know little about him or have any idea of just how many images he managed to take through his time in the town. How many previously unseen photographs remain to be discovered? Our collection offers just a few.
...Dakky Street Photography
How it all began
The Knottingley website was created in May 2000 and in February 2002 it featured in the local Pontefract & Castleford Express as the 'Internet Guide to Knottingley'
