Walton, Wakefield

Walton is a village and civil parish in the county of West Yorkshire, England, 3.5 miles south-east of Wakefield. It has a population of 3,377. By the time of the 2011 Census the village had been incorporated in the City of Wakefield ward called Hatton, Stretton and Walton. The population of this ward at the Census was 3,084.Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the village lies on the Barnsley Canal and is home to Walton Hall, once the residence of Charles Waterton, the naturalist and explorer who, in 1820, transformed the grounds of the Walton Hall estate into England's first nature reserve. Nearby, the site of the now demolished Sharlston West colliery, has been transformed into another nature reserve. Large lakes were constructed when the reserve was landscaped in the mid-1990s and the excavated earth was then used to cover the colliery's vast spoil heaps. The village also contains a small park, a tennis club, football and rugby pitches, a newly renovated pub and a sports and social club.