Areas we cover

Castleford, Pontefract, Selby and Goole

These towns don't have their own page, but they're covered in just the same way as the five above.

Castleford

Castleford grew up where the Aire and Calder meet, on the site of a Roman settlement, and boomed in the 19th century as the collieries opened. It was known for its potteries and glass bottle works too, and the council describes its character as, for many, that of a mining town. Many of the streets around the centre are brick terraces built before 1919, with shallow slate roofs and stone chimney stacks. Airedale and Ferry Fryston are mainly inter-war and post-war estates of semis, some of them steel-framed houses that have since been refurbished. At Whitwood, the terrace built in 1904 for colliery foremen, with roughcast walls and tiled roofs, is Grade II listed, and in February 2026 the council approved a new conservation area in the town centre, around Bank Street, Wesley Street and Carlton Street.

Pontefract

Pontefract is a historic market town on high ground, known for its castle, where Richard II died in 1400, for liquorice, grown in the castle grounds by 1720, and for coal, until the Prince of Wales colliery closed in 2002. Around the Market Place, red-brick and rendered buildings have Welsh slate and stone slate roofs, and the council's policy is to keep and repair original roofing and chimneys, or copy them when they have to be replaced. The Mount, a Victorian and Edwardian suburb of large red-brick houses, has hipped roofs in Welsh slate or clay plain tiles and tall chimney stacks, and Northgate has late-Victorian brick terraces. Semis are the most common home in the town, making up nearly half. Pontefract has three conservation areas: the castle, the Market Place and The Mount.

Selby

Selby grew up around its abbey, founded in 1069, as a market town and river port on the tidal Ouse. It sits on the flat, low-lying Humberhead Levels, and its shipyard and coalfield have both gone. In the older streets, the council's appraisals describe dark red-brown brick with a mix of original Welsh slate and clay pantiles, from Millgate's early-1800s workers' cottages to the slate-roofed terraces of Armoury Road and Brook Street and the villas along Leeds Road. They also note how often old roofs have been replaced in reconstituted modern materials, and the loss of brick chimneys, so like-for-like work matters here. Over a quarter of homes in and around the town have been built since 2000. Selby has four conservation areas and has been part of North Yorkshire Council since 2023.

Goole

Goole was founded in the 1820s by the Aire and Calder Navigation as a company town and port, and 2026 is its bicentenary. It's still the UK's furthest-inland port, on flat, low-lying land beside the Ouse. Around 40% of its homes were built before 1919, twice the English average, and most of its later Victorian housing is brick terraces in a deep red-brown brick. The first buildings were made with clay dug out for the docks. Slate is the main roof covering, brought in from Wales or the Lake District, clay plain tiles are common on early-20th-century buildings, and pantiles are rare in the conservation area. Most chimney stacks carry several flues. Goole has one conservation area, in three parts, and comes under East Riding of Yorkshire Council.