Edward III. had granted Sandal and Conisborough Castles to his son Edmund, the Duke's grandfather. The Duke himself had frequently resided at Sandal, sometimes with his wife and family. The castle stood on a grassy knoll, steep on one side, with a gentle slope to the south. It is a little less than a mile from the bridge which spans the river Calder at the town of Wakefield, the intervening space sloping gently from Sandal. It was then partly wooded. Leland tells us the bridge was of stone, with nine arches, and that it had on it 'a right goodly chapel of our Lady.' It led to the {12} market place whence two streets, called Norgate and Wrengate,[3] formed communications with gates on the northern side of the town. The houses were then nearly all of timber, but there was a handsome parish church consecrated in 1322, with a tower and spire 228 feet high. From the bridge one road went south by Sandal to Barnsley and Sheffield; another branched off to the eastward, and divided again into two, one leading to Doncaster, the other to Pomfret. To the westward the river Calder flanked the fields between Sandal and Wakefield Bridge. Near the castle is the fine cruciform church of Sandal Magna, where there was a chantry belonging to the castle. There are scarcely any remains of Sandal Castle, which was razed by order of the Long Parliament in 1648. But fortunately a drawing was made in 1560 and preserved in the office of the Duchy of Lancaster. It is engraved in the 'Vetusta Monumenta.' A lofty donjon, with flanking round towers, stood on the verge of the steep descent to the north-east, and two smaller square towers, connected by a wall, formed the western face. The principal gate, protected by a barbican, was in the centre of the southern face; and on this side the _enceinte_ consisted merely of a wall without towers. An arcade or cloister led from the gate to the main entrance of the donjon, and the roofs of various buildings appear above the parapet of the southern wall. On the north-western side of the inner courtyard a flight of steps led to a covered archway opening on a semicircular stone pulpit supported by a single pillar. The castle was surrounded by a moat, and the ground it covered was about forty yards square. We {13} gather these details from the drawing. The existing ruins consist of part of the gatehouse, three arches of the arcade leading to the keep, bits of wall on the west side, and the great mound covering the ruins of the keep.