If you are a lover of liquorice then Pontefract is not just a last resort, it is the only resort. History has been less than kind to Pontefract. Shakespeare cruelly immortalised the town as "Bloody Pomfret" because of the death at Pontefract Castle (in mysterious circumstances) of Richard II. The 11th-century castle, an architectural miracle of its time, was where Richard was imprisoned. It was almost completely razed to the ground at the end of the Civil War, as punishment for Pontefract being the last royalist base to hold out against Cromwell's Parliament, despite being under seige three times. Happily, and perhaps ironically, Pontefract is now a good stopping off point for what the local museum curator describes as "Yorkshire castle hoppers".

Shortly after the end of the...