Castleford Civic Society

15/10/2025

For those who want to take part in the Castleford Glassworks History Project being led by Queen's Mill Castleford please see further below ⬇️

If you would like to know more about or take part in our Glassworks project, please come along to our first meeting on:

Thursday 23rd October, from 7.00 – 8.00pm, at Queen’s Mill.
No Booking needed.
Refreshments available.

You will hear more about our plans and how you can get involved. 😀

15/10/2025

*Spring Bulb News*

While we’re all enjoying the mists, mellow fruitfulness and colours of Autumn 🍂 🍁, we thought we would let you know the Spring bulb planting completed so far by:

Castleford Civic Society
Friends Of Castleford Library - FOCAL



We hope Castleford folk, businesses and railway users will enjoy seeing them each Spring.

Thank you to Pat and the following for their kind donation of bulbs:

Rods and Reels
Northern Railway

14/10/2025

Interested in history? Castleford Historical Society organise some great talks. This month hear all about Crime and Punishment from Anglo Saxon Times to the present day. 👇

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CvBPAbLge/

Make a date in your diary for the next presentation by Castleford and District Historical Society on Tuesday 21 October. Our popular speaker, Eric A Jackson, returns to entertain and inform Members and guests with a talk entitled “Crime and Punishment” from the Anglo Saxons to the present day.

Doors are open from 7 pm at Trinity Methodist Church, Castleford, on Powell Street WF10 1EL. Light refreshments are available for a small charge. There is no charge for Members, whereas visitors and guests pay £2. There is free parking in and around the Church. Both Rail and Bus Stations are a short walk from the Church. The presentation will start at 7.30 pm when Main doors are closed for security reasons. Entry for latecomers is gained by using the doorbell.

12/10/2025

Castleford in Bloom 2025 will be drawing soon to a close as we shortly expect the plants to be cleared and the baskets to be emptied. We want to say a huge thank you to Councillor Richard Forster, Castleford Central and Glasshoughton for organising these floral displays every year for many years. They have brightened up our town for many a summer so thank you very much Richard.

We also need to thank our sponsors once again as without your generosity the floral displays would not be possible. Therefore in no specific order a big thank you to:

West Riding Personal Financial Solutions Ltd
Wakefield District Markets
Castleford and Pontefract District Lions Club - CIO Reg No.1179659
Wakefield Council
Northern Railway
Vico Homes

If anyone would like to provide sponsorship next year we would love to hear from you.

Thank you also to GREAT Residents Group and Castleford Civic Society for applying for grants to pay for some of our displays too.

Finally our last thanks go to First Impressions Nursery, Ackworth for producing the displays and keeping them tended and watered each night. Given we’ve had at least four heatwaves this year, your efforts in watering them each night from your bowser has been amazing.

We hope will be back bigger and better. Our station gardeners from the Friends of Castleford Railway Station, the town centre planter team and Friends Of Castleford Library - FOCAL will continue tending their plants throughout the Autumn 🍂 and Winter ❄️ too.

11/10/2025

The wallpapering and decorating is just beautiful 🤩. So are the coffee and cakes 🍰 we had.

10/10/2025

Here we have a ‘post’ about a ‘post’.

As part of ‘having pride in our town’ two of our volunteers, Mark and David, recently completed restoration of this heritage post on Beancroft Road near the subway. Here you can see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos. We got the inspiration from the Friends of Valley Gardens, Castleford who had a similar post restored on Bridge Street. Thank you to Siobhan from Robertsons Facilities Management for helping with both projects.

We’re aware also that a heritage bench is sited near the subway and we’re looking to have that restored too, again like the ones recently restored by Wakefield Parks and Countryside in Valley Gardens. We’ve pictured the Bridge Street post and the before and after bench photos too.

09/10/2025

Castleford Museum has a new website with all details below ⬇️ and their ‘poster boy’ is a Castleford boy too!

Wheldon Infant School & Nursery

We've got a new website! 🥳

Check it out at https://museumsandcastles.wakefield.gov.uk/

Photo: Rose Hulme and her new television set, the first in Fryston, circa 1953. Taken by Jack Hulme.
(But she probably wasn't watching our lovely little poster boy on it back then...)

09/10/2025

Castleford Branch Royal British Legion would like to thank everyone who helped with the collection tins and poppy boxes yesterday. We’re sharing their message to make sure everyone sees it. Great work and well done 👏 to everyone involved from Castleford Civic Society!

08/10/2025

Well done 👏 to our Chair Audrey and Councillor Richard Forster, Castleford Central and Glasshoughton for spending today helping Castleford Branch Royal British Legion prepare for . This is an appeal that we know the whole of our town supports and we’re so grateful to our local branch of the Royal British Legion for all their hard work every year.

Well done 👏 to all the volunteers from Castleford Branch Royal British Legion who have spent today preparing boxes of poppies in preparation for Remembrance Sunday. Thank you to all the schools, businesses and charities who sell the poppies to raise much needed funds to support veterans and their families.

07/10/2025

Thank you to each and everyone of them for all their hard work these last few weeks. We’re very grateful!

Reflections House Recovery

07/10/2025

Our friends at Queen's Mill Castleford have secured a Wakefield Council Culture Grant for a project entitled ‘Glass in Cas’. One of our historians David is leading on this project. You can read more about it here at this link but the project team would love to hear people’s stories related to the Castleford Glass Industry. This should be a really interesting project which hopes to produce a lasting commemoration of the industry and those who belonged to it here in Castleford too.

Billions of bottles were produced in the town between 1829 and the closure of the United Glass – better known as Lumb’s – works in 1983.