FAMOUS FOR LIQUORICE and being the place where King Richard II died in 1400, the town of Pontefract in West Yorkshire is an interesting place to visit.

Apart from the remains of an extensive castle, destroyed by the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War, there are plenty of other sites worth viewing. These include the market square, a modern church built within the ruins of a much older gothic church, a late Victorian covered market, and various other old civic buildings. The town’s museum  is housed in an early twentieth century Art Nouveau edifice with some fine mosaic covered floors.

We ate a good lunch in the Old Counting House pub, which is within a well-preserved half-timbered building, which was constructed in 1609. The place is rich in timber beams, and the upper storey has a fine hammer-beam ceiling.

As for the liquorice, this was grown in and around Pontefract. We saw some plants growing in a herb garden in the grounds of the ruined castle. When I was a child, I  used to love eating Pontefract cakes. Named after the town, these were soft coin sized discs containing liquorice and sweetened with sugar. I used to call them ‘pomfret’ cakes. It turns out that is or was how some people pronounce the name of the town.

We spent only a few hours in Pontefract,  but the place deserves a much longer visit.