What does the name 'Pont' as in Pontefract or Pontypoolmean?
Pontefract the north and east, such as York. Historians believe that, in all probability, it is this historical event which gives the township of Pontefract its modern name. The name "Pontefract" originates from the Latin for "broken bridge", formed of the elements pons ('bridge') and fractus ('broken'). Pontefract was not recorded in the 1086 "Domesday Book", but it was noted as Pontefracto in 1090, four years after the Domesday survey. In 2007 a suspected extension of Ferrybridge Henge – a Neolithic henge – was discovered near Pontefract during a survey in preparation for the construction of a row of houses. Once
Pontefract the arrival of the Normans in 1068 is known as the Anglo-Scandinavian age. The modern township of Pontefract consisted of two Anglo-Scandinavian settlements, known as Tanshelf and Kirkby. In Yorkshire, place-name locations often contain the distinctive Danish '-by' i.e. Kirkby. And even today, the major streets in Pontefract are designated by the Danish word 'gate' e.g. Bailygate. The Anglo-Scandinavian township of Tanshelf recorded variously as "Tateshale", "Tateshalla", "Tateshalle" or "Tatessella" in the 1086 "Domesday Book" existed in the region that is today occupied by the town of Pontefract. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes its first reference to Tanshelf in the year