Castleford

Castleford is a town in the county of West Yorkshire, England, near to Pontefract, with a population of approximately 40,000. To the north are the River Calder, the River Aire and the Aire and Calder Navigation. To the west and south is the M62 motorway.

The town today

The town has suffered great social and economic deprivation over the last few years, with the closure of the collieries having had a great impact on the population. The Selby coal field, now entirely closed, employed many people from the Castleford area, and the Prince of Wales colliery in Pontefract took many workers from the surrounding area.

Related Topics:
Collieries - Selby - Coal - Prince of Wales

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In a bid to alleviate this deprivation, Castleford has seen numerous developments in the last couple of years, all aimed at making Castleford and the surrounding area a better place. The Freeport Outlet village and the XSCAPE leisure complex (Europe's largest indoor real snow slope) have added jobs and brought commerce to the town.

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Castleford is now part of a unique program of revitalization known as The Castleford Project. The Project is delivering £10m ($17m) of new investment in the town's public spaces: a programme of work that has attracted £150m ($260m) of new private investment proposals for the town, as well as plans for a new library, art museum and transport interchange. The Project is supported by a host of public agencies and organisations, including Channel 4 and will be the subject of a major series of shows on the television channel in 2006/07.

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Castleford's favourite sport is Rugby League. The local team, Castleford Tigers, was relegated from Super League in 2004.

Related Topics:
Rugby League - Castleford Tigers - Super League

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Castleford is also the name of a fictionalised version of the English university city of Cambridge in the children's books of Philippa Pearce, most notably "Tom's Midnight Garden" and "Minnow on the Say". The most obvious difference between this "Castleford" and the real Cambridge was that "Castleford" did not have a university.

Related Topics:
Cambridge - Philippa Pearce

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