During the project, the local Northallerton & District Local History Society Latin Group transcribed and translated one of the Court Rolls from the Graham collection, for the Manor of Kippax, located to the north of Pontefract.

We discussed several questions, one of which related to the name of Pontefract, which is mentioned in the document concerned. We discussed the Latinised version of the name – Pons Fractus (meaning broken bridge), which is what we would have expected to see, however, this is not what is written down.

Kippax court roll excerpt – words 6 and 9 on the last line are the word in question [ZKZ]

One option is that it might be a contraction of Pomfret, i.e. Pomit, a local name for Pontefract.

In the Domesday Book of 1086, Pontefract is recorded as Tateshale and in records contemporary to that, also as Tanshelf, but that wasn’t the right answer here.  I then contacted the West Yorkshire Archive Service to see if they could assist as they love a mystery too!

Another question was, if Pons Fractus means broken bridge, when did this happen? One suggestion is that the area flooded c.1200 and affected the bridge, thus the main road was diverted eastwards closer to Ferrybridge and remains there still. Another is that a group of Anglo-Scandinavian rebels destroyed the bridge in 1069, thus preventing William the Conqueror crossing to put down an uprising in York.

As with most historical queries, the answer is often a composite one, but it’s always intriguing to see which direction just one word in one document from the many in the Graham collection can send you.