Ackton

Human settlement in England

Featherstone

Metropolitan borough

Wakefield

West Yorkshire

Region

Yorkshire and the Humber

CountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townPONTEFRACTPostcode districtWF7Dialling code01977PoliceWest YorkshireFire West Yorkshire Ambulance Yorkshire UK Parliament

Hemsworth

List of places: UK; England; Yorkshire

53°41′31″N 1°22′34″W / 53.692058°N 1.376018°W / 53.692058; -1.376018

Ackton is a hamlet in the parish of Featherstone, in the Wakefield district of West Yorkshire, England. It is near Pontefract. In 1931 the parish had a population of 961.^[1]

History

Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the name "Ackton" means "oak-tree farmstead". It is formed from the Old Scandinavian word eik ("oak-tree") and the Old English word tūn ("farmstead, village, enclosure").^[2] The first element of the name indicates the presence of settlers from Scandinavia in Ackton whose dialect influenced the name of the settlement. Ackton appeared as Aitone [sic] in the Domesday Book of 1086.^[3] The village is mentioned again, this time more correctly, c. 1166 as Aicton.

Ackton was a township in the parish of Featherstone,^[4] from 1866 Ackton was a civil parish but on 1 April 1938 the parish was abolished and merged with Snydale to form "Ackton and Snydale".^[5]

References

^ "Population statistics Ackton Tn/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
^ Ekwall, Eilert (1960). The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names (4 ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 2. ISBN 0-19-869103-3.
^ Powell-Smith, Anna. "Ackton | Domesday Book". opendomesday.org. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
^ "History of Ackton, in Wakefield and West Riding". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
^ "Relationships and changes Ackton Tn/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 10 August 2023.