Editing Pontefract (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:An almost deserted Market Place, Pontefract during the COVID-19 pandemic (23rd May 2020).jpg|thumb|Pontefract Market Place]]
At the end of the 11th&nbsp;century, the modern [[Township#United Kingdom|township]] of Pontefract consisted of two distinct localities, Tanshelf and Kirkby.<ref name="Eric Houlder 2012 p.7">Eric Houlder, Ancient Roots North: When Pontefract Stood on the Great North Road, (Pontefract: Pontefract Groups Together, 2012) p.7.</ref>  The 11th-century historian Orderic Vitalis recorded that, in 1069, [[William the Conqueror]] travelled across Yorkshire to put down an uprising which had sacked York. 

Upon his journey to the city, he discovered that a crossing of the [[River Aire]] near what is modern-day Pontefract had been blockaded by local [[Anglo-Scandinavian]] [[insurgent]]s, who had broken the bridge and held the opposite bank in force.<ref>Orderic Vitalis, ''Ecclesiastical History of England'', 2:27.</ref> Such a crossing point would have been important to the town, providing access between Pontefract and other settlements to the north and east, such as York.<ref name="Ayto & Crofton">Ayto & Crofton</ref> Historians believe that it is this historical event which gives the township of Pontefract its modern name. The name "Pontefract" originates from Welsh and Latin for "broken bridge", formed of the elements ''pont'' (bridge in Welsh) and ''fractus'' (broken in Latin). Pontefract was not recorded in the 1086 ''[[Domesday Book]]'', but it was noted as Pontefracto in 1090, four years after the Domesday survey.<ref>Frank Barlow, ''William I and the Norman Conquest'' (London: The English Universities Press, 1965) p.95. David Crouch, ''The Normans: The History of a Dynasty'' (London: Hambledon and London, 2002) p.105</ref>