Map - Crofton, West Yorkshire (Crofton)

Crofton is a village in West Yorkshire, England, about 4 mi south-east of Wakefield, some 6 mi to the west of the town of Pontefract, and 4 mi from the town of Featherstone. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 5,781.

Crofton is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as Scroftune.

The village has one church, the cruciform All Saints' Church, which is Anglican. It dates from the 15th century. It shares an incumbent with the Church of St Peter the Apostle at Kirkthorpe. A Roman Catholic church built in the 1920s closed in 2008.

Crofton New Hall was built in the 1750s for the Wilsons, who lived in the village until 1935, when a Colonel Wilson sold out. The hall was used by the army during the Second World War and later by the National Coal Board. It housed Brown's Tutorial School until 1980, when the building was demolished. Shortly afterwards, a housing estate was built there. Some of the Wilson family are buried in a large mausoleum in the cemetery.

Richmal Mangnall, author of an innovative schoolbook, was educated at Mrs Wilson's School at Crofton Hall. She stayed there as a teacher, then took it over in 1808 and ran it until her death on 1 May 1820. The eldest two Brontë sisters (Maria and Elizabeth) briefly attended.

The earliest free school in the village opened in 1877 as Crofton Board School. The building of the earlier school, which had been used by the local high school as a drama hall, was demolished in 2003 and is now the site of a youth centre. A blue plaque dedicated to Miss Magnall was installed on the new building in 2013.

Crofton was predominantly a farming community, but the mining of coal became important in the 19th century and continued until the 1980s. There were three coal mines within two miles of the village, at Nostell, Walton and Sharlston. By the early 1900s, Lord St Oswald had built houses at New Crofton, known locally as Cribbens or Scribbens Lump, for the workers of Nostell Mine. This area was populated until the 1980s, when it was demolished along with the closure of the mines. "The Lump" also had a mission hall, a local shop and a fish-and-chip shop, locally as "The Leaning Chippy" due to subsidence from the local mine at Nostell. In the 1970s, there were two shops near the Lump: "Alf's", which was a corner shop located where the Slipper public house is today, and another attached to the local car garage, "Mrs Moody's". There is also a disused well, from which villagers used to get their water. It can still be seen, but the well itself has since been filled in, as a hazard for local children.

The houses at the Lump were demolished after severe subsidence from Nostell mine, it being was cheaper to do so than to repair the damage the subsidence had caused. Once demolished, the area remained a wasteland for many years, but the old cobbled streets and other roads were still visible. Eventually the land was sold and a new housing estate built on it. Most of the old subsidence has ceased, with many of the old mines collapsed and filled in years ago, but some remain and will affect surrounding areas for years to come.

When the miners at Nostell were clearing new coal seams, they came across what was described as an underground church, which the monks from Nostell Priory had built years before. This church was complete with tunnels, which the monks used to use for transporting coal to the monastery. The church had wooden doors and seating inside. Exactly why they built it underground is unclear. The entrance and tunnel was eventually sealed off. Local miner and Nostell safety officer Leslie Simpson Sr and a fellow miner carved their names into the wood of the church door just before the tunnel was sealed. One theory is that the monks built the underground church to pray and worship in private, the monastery attached to Nostell Priory being dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540.