Pontefract

For other uses, see Pontefract (disambiguation).

Pontefract
Town
The Town Hall The Castle The Marketplace Horsefair Flats The Museum
Pontefract Location within West Yorkshire
Population	30,881 (North+South Wards 2011)
OS grid reference	SE455215
• London	257 mi (414 km)
Metropolitan borough	City of Wakefield
Metropolitan county	West Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	PONTEFRACT
Postcode district	WF8
Dialling code	01977
Police	West Yorkshire
Fire	West Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
UK Parliament	Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley

Arms of Pontefract depicting the castle, used before Pontefract was incorporated into Wakefield.

Pontefract is a historic market town in the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. It lies to the east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 30,881 at the 2011 Census.

Pontefract's motto is Post mortem patris pro filio, Latin for "After the death of the father, support the son", a reference to the town's Royalist sympathies in the English Civil War. Small villages and settlements in the immediate area include Stapleton.