Sandal Magna or Sandal is a suburb of Wakefield, West Yorkshire. It is an ancient settlement and is the site of Sandal Castle, now in ruins. It has a parish church, St. Helen's, that predates the Domesday Book. It is about two miles (3 km) south from Wakefield, on the A61 (Barnsley Road).
Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, was slain here during the Battle of Wakefield in 1460 during what we now know as the Wars of the Roses.

Sign of the times. The following extract laments the spread of housing that has resulted in Sandal Magna becoming a suburb of Wakefield.

"The quiet village and surrounding countryside havebecome more accessible to the many car owners, resulting in vast house building projects such as those at Kettlethorpe, Woolgreaves, Walton Lane across to Chevet and Pledwick - sprawling Suburbia! The warm comfort of a close-knit village community has gone."
Sandal Magna, a Yorkshire Parish and its People, Mary Ingham and Brenda Andrassy, ISBN 0 9506442 0 X, 1978.

That said, even though much has changed since the 1970s, Sandal is still a pleasant, largely residential, area. Find out more about Sandal at the Sandal Community Association.