MyCastleford Glass Houghton

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GLASSHOUGHTON

To the south of Smawthorne, towards the motorway and Pontefract, is Glasshoughton (or Glass Houghton).

The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book of Norman times. It was originally called Hocton later Houghton but became Glass Houghton because of the glass making industry that used be situated there. Nowadays it is usually spelt as one word.

For information about the new developments at Glasshoughton (such as Xscape and the Junction 32 Shopping Village) click here.

The residents group for Glasshoughton is called GREAT.

Front Street Glasshoughton

Front Street is the high street of Glasshoughton.

urinal at Front Street Glasshoughton

On Front Street is a listed building - a Victorian urinal (no longer in use).

On the way from Castleford to Pontefract there are shops called Castle Parade at the roundabout. On Leeds Road a new centre has been built, replacing the welfare, and further along Leeds Road is an Asda (now owned by the American company Wal-Mart) supermarket.

On Leeds Road in Glasshoughton is the new Glasshoughton Centre devoted to sport, health and education. There are football, cricket and bowls matches, a nurse, slimming clubs, and local councillor advice surgeries there.

From The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1872) by John Marius Wilson:

GLASS HOUGHTON, a township in Castleford parish, West Riding of Yorkshire; 2 miles NW of Pontefract. Acres: 1, 500. Real property, £2, 372; of which £15 are in mines, and £160 in quarries. Pop., 489. Houses, 113. Excellent limestone is here; also an excellent bed of sand, much used by glass makers and iron founders. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a Church of England preaching house and school.

Glasshoughton or Glass Houghton? That is the question villagers have been asking for years and recently debated in the local newspaper, the Pontefract and Castleford Express. The newspaper opted for the the two words because Glass Houghton is the traditional phrase. The village was originally called Hoctun and later Houghton with the Glass added fairly recently to emphasise its industry (now gone) and to distinguish it from the other Houghtons.