The Diocese of Wakefield is a former

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...

based in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, covering

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough ha ...

Kirklees Kirklees is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Kirklees Council with the status of a metropolitan borough. The largest town and administrative centre of Kirklees is Huddersfield, and the district also inclu ...

and

Calderdale Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, whose population in 2020 was 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the u ...

. The cathedral was Wakefield Cathedral and the bishop was the diocesan Bishop of Wakefield. The Diocese of Wakefield was created out of the Diocese of Ripon in 1888 in response to the rapid expansion in population due to the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

. Immediately prior to its dissolution it extended north to south from the suburbs of

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

to Barnsley and east to west from

Kellington Kellington is a small village and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, on the banks of the River Aire. Situated almost equidistant between the towns of Pontefract and Selby, the village dates back to at least the 11 ...

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax. In 2011 it had a population of 15,481. Todm ...

. The diocese was dissolved on 20 April 2014 by the creation of the new Diocese of Leeds.The Transformation Programme – First new diocese for more than 85 years created on April 20
(Accessed 19 April 2014)

History

After discussions in the mid-1870s as to where a new diocese in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

should be, Wakefield, with a population of under 30,000, was chosen before

and

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

and

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence i ...

and Halifax. Wakefield was then the county town of the West Riding and had a large

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

church. The new Diocese of Wakefield was taken out of the southern part of the Diocese of Ripon, which was formed in 1836 out of the vast

Diocese of York The Diocese of York is an administrative division of the Church of England, part of the Province of York. It covers the city of York, the eastern part of North Yorkshire, and most of the East Riding of Yorkshire. The diocese is headed by the ...

, and divided the industrial area of the West Riding separating Wakefield, Huddersfield and Halifax from Leeds and Bradford which remained in Ripon. The diocese was enlarged in 1926 to include the deaneries of Hemsworth and Pontefract from the Diocese of York. As constituted on 18 May 1888, the diocese comprised the archdeaconries of Halifax and

. In 1927, the archdeaconries were reorganised into the archdeaconries of Halifax and of

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wak ...

. The old archdeaconry of Halifax, in the northwest, the deaneries of Birstall, Halifax and Dewsbury, became the archdeaconry of Pontefract, covering the deaneries of Barnsley, Birstal, Dewsbury, Pontefract and Wakefield in the east and the archdeaconry of Huddersfield, which covered the deaneries of Hemworth, Huddersfield, Pontefract, Silkstone and Wakefield, became the new archdeaconry of Halifax, covering the west (the deaneries of Halifax and Huddersfield).

Merger

On 2 March 2013, the diocesan synod voted against proposals to abolish the diocese in order to create a Leeds diocese however the proposal was approved on 8 July 2013 by the General Synod.The Church of England – Synod approves new Diocese of Leeds for West Yorkshire and The Dales
/ref> The merger came into force on 20 April, at which point the

, Ripon & Leeds and Wakefield dioceses merged.

References

Bibliography

Church of England Statistics 2002

The Dioceses Commission's Yorkshire Review — A Guide to the Report

External links

Diocese of Wakefield
{{authority control Religious organizations established in 1888 1888 establishments in England 2014 disestablishments in England

Wakefield, Diocese of Christianity in West Yorkshire Christianity in South Yorkshire Christianity in Yorkshire Wakefield