Knottingley is a town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire and the old A1 road before it was bypassed as the A1(M).

Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 13,503,[1] increasing to 13,710 for the City of Wakefield ward at the 2011 Census.

The town was the last in the United Kingdom to have a working deep coal mine, Kellingley Colliery, until it closed in December 2015.

[6] During the three Sieges of Pontefract Castle, Oliver Cromwell took residence in the town of Knottingley, believed to be in Wildbore House.

[7] Knottingley, inextricably linked with Ferrybridge, is a West Yorkshire town whose history is tied to river travel and industry.

It has managed to retain certain elements of that industrial history as thriving enterprises today, providing employment for many of its combined population of some 17,000.

It was originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement, though the ancient monument of Ferrybridge Henge shows it had significant indigenous habitation long before then.

Located on the Great North Road linking London with York and Edinburgh beyond that, the town became an important staging place for the coach traffic on that route.