Wakefield Museums and Castles

Charles Waterton campaigned to protect Heath Common. It was the last area of open land in the Wakefield district.

Walton Common had become enclosed for private development in 1799. Westgate Common and the Out Wood were developed on before that.

Waterton believed that the residents of Wakefield needed this land for their mental and physical health. He recognised it as a haven for birds rarely seen elsewhere.

Waterton printed this poster and distributed it for free. It was crucial in his campaign to keep Heath Common open to the public. He was successful in his quest.

Today, Heath Common remains as common land. It is enjoyed by thousands of residents and visitors to Wakefield.

Heath Common.

Wakefield - once Merry Wakefield! - why art thou so no longer? What envious hand hath smote thee, and changed thy garland of roses into one of rue and wormwood? Formerly thy fair face must have beamed with many smiles; for thou wert known throughout the land, by the name of "Merry Wakefield."

And very merry must have been thy days: - for thy Merchants were prosperous; thy People happy; and thy Prison empty: - aye, so empty, that time was, when not one single Captive could be found within its walls.

There was Westgate Common open to thy people, and to all the world besides: - and the Outwood too. And here it was, that thy merry Sons and Daughters came to dance, and sing, and to drive dull care away.

But these once-famed rural haunts for mirth and glee, are now no longer thine. The iron hand of private interest fell heavy on them; - and they were lost to thee for ever. Oh, how cruel and unjust it was to sever from thee those delightful walks, which the foresight and good sense of our Ancestors had apportioned for thy welfare, and left at thy command.

All, all is now changed for the worse: and sad and sorrowful have the scenes become, which were once so bright and joyous: and woeful is the appearance of the avenues which lead to once Merry Wakefield.

On one of them there frowns a Bastile so huge and terrible, and so appalling with solitary cells, that, in viewing it, the soul of man recoils within him, and he begins to doubt if he is in a Christian country. Things were not so in the gone-by days of once Merry Wakefield.

On another is seen a widely-spreading structure, peopled by those whom sorrow, and misfortune, and want, and wretchedness, have deprived of the choicest gift of Heaven to man. We read in their countenances the mournful history of their sad destiny, and we fancy that we can hear them say, "You would have seen no sights so sorrowful as these, in the gone-by days of once Merry Wakefield."

On a third avenue we behold unsightly piles of buildings, - Granaries high and spacious, - but the workings of which are diametrically the reverse of those erected by benevolent Joseph in ancient Egypt.

And in passing over Calder's bridge, we see a gem of olden architecture, now mouldering into dust, - unheeded and untenanted; - and with its Windows broken. 'Tis said to have been endowed for Mass, for the souls of the slain at the great battle in the neighbourhood. Some years ago, it served as a Counting-House; but, probably, the pressure of the times drove the buyers and sellers from its polluted walls, which were kept so pure and bright in the gone-by days of one Merry Wakefield.

Wakefield, - once Merry Wakefield, - these sad innovations too plainly tell us, that all is not right within thee. But thy cup of sorrow is not yet filled up. Another bereavement still waits thee, - and it will be a final blow to the few remaining rural sports which are now within thy reach.

Heath Common is to be enclosed!

Then adieu, a long and last adieu, to thy delightful walks, and rides, and manly games, on the ever-enchanting wilds of Heath Common; thy unrestricted, undisturbed sejourn, time out of mind.

And when the fatal day of its enclosure shall have dawned upon thee, say, once merry Wakefield say, what is to become of thy Fifteen Thousand People, who will not have a land of public land remaining, whereon to recover that health of frame, and vigor of the mind, so apt to be enfeebled when debarred from the advantage of rural air and pastime?

I myself will join thee in thy lamentations on the near approach of this great and unexpected event; for many a walk do I take on Heath Common, to hear the wild notes of birds which are strangers to my own domain; and it is on Heath Common that I always expect to hear the first song of the Cuckoo, a sweet harbinger of returning spring.

Were I a Senator, - which God forbid, whilst Peel's Oath stares me in the face,- I would stand up, and fight thy battle to the last.

Wakefield, - once Merry Wakefield, - fare thee well! I would not have a hand in the projected enclosure of Heath Common, even though poor Charley Stuart himself could come back, and were to give his royal sanction to it.

Charles Waterton

Walton Hall, January 26 1844.

Rowland Hurst, Printer, Wakefield.