Interesting stuff. I would be good to see Wakey get a new ground, it would be a real shame for them to miss out on a franchise because of the state of Belle Vue, they seem to have put a decent team together.

Im sure getting a new ground would give a good boost to attendences for Wakey too, I think Warrington's crowds have improved a lot since they moved to the HJ.

hence the rhyme
"The grand old Duke of York"

whilst on the subject of rhymes, "here we go round the mullberry bush" was also about Wakefield or Wakefield prison to be more precise. The mullberry bush in question was and still is at the centre of the old excercise yard and the prisoners would chant the rhyme as they walked around it.

Also on the subject of Wakefield prison, when it was redesigned it became the model for new prisons around the world.

There have been m any candidates for the owner of this rhym... the modern form, has become fixed on the Duke of York.

Candidates for the duke in question include:

Richard, Duke of York (1411–60), who was defeated at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460. Richard's army, some 8,000 strong, was awaiting reinforcements at Sandal Castle in Wakefield (the castle was built on top of a Norman motte). He was surrounded by Lancastrian forces some three times that number, but chose to sally forth to fight. Richard died in a pitched battle at Wakefield Green, together with between one third and one half of his army.

James II (1633-1701), formerly Duke of York , who in 1688 marched his troops to Salisbury Plain to resist the invasion from his son-in-law William of Orange, only to retreat and disperse them as his support began to evaporate.

The most common attribution is to Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763-1827), the second son of King George III and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. His one field command of significance was the Flanders Campaign of 1793-4, which resulted in the heavy defeat at the Battle of Tourcoing (1794), followed by his recall to England. Flanders has something of a reputation for being flat, the specific location of the "hill" in the nursery rhyme has been attributed to be the town of Cassel which is built on a hill which rises 176 metres (about 570 feet) above the otherwise flat lands of Flanders in northern France.

An unquestionable reference is the rhyme to remember the colours of the rainbow Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet)

Y-Town forever.

Brrapp.

All the battles of the Wars of the Roses were in the 15th century


No, but nearly 200 years later, it did figure in the English Civil war.


Re: the so-called wars of the roses ... it has long been a puzzle to me why the battle of Towton isn't more widely known about.
It was the bloodiest battle ever fought in England and more died at Towton on that one snowy March day than died on the first day of the Somme.
Estimates range between 25,000 and 37,000 dead.
When you remember that, after the initial archery showers, it was mainly hand-to-hand killing, it is a huge number.

Maybe if Shakespeare had written a play about it, more people would know the name ... but then, he'd have probably slanted it against the Yorkists, as he did with Richard III.

So many interesting and entertaining facts about Wakefield – doesn’t really stop it from being a bit of a dross pot though does it?