Jane McDonald has put Wakefield back on the map as a place for Britons to holiday closer to home, calling the Yorkshire city a perfect UK staycation destination during a chat on Alan Carr's podcast Life's A Beach. The 63-year-old singled out local attractions, food and walks as she made the case for her hometown.
The timing matters because listeners heard her sell Wakefield as a break in its own right while she was talking up the city on a current podcast appearance. McDonald and Carr discussed Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which she described as beautiful, with both its indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces drawing praise from the singer as the conversation turned to what makes the area worth visiting.
Carr also brought up The Hepworth Wakefield and Trinity Walk Shopping Centre, and McDonald said she had recently been to Trinity Walk while doing an HMV signing. From there, she moved straight to one of the more local pleasures: Allums Butchers. She said she picked up pork pies there and called them second to none, adding that the meat was seasoned well, the pastry was just right and the jelly was lovely.
Her pitch for Wakefield did not stop at food. McDonald said the city has Newmillerdam, a beautiful spot where people can walk around, as well as Pugneys lake, which she described as lovely for a walk. Sandal Castle, she said, was beautiful and would suit a DIYer. The comments were presented as a friendly argument for holidaying in West Yorkshire, even as she has elsewhere said she sold her five-bedroom detached home in Wakefield after two decades at the property.
That is the part that gives the story its edge: McDonald is speaking warmly about the city as a place to visit, not settle in, and she has already moved on from the house she kept there for 20 years. The gap readers are left with is simple enough — when she sold it, and what prompted her to let go of the home that sat at the center of her own Wakefield story.
For now, though, her message is clear. If the goal is a staycation with sculpture, shopping, pork pies and a few decent walks, McDonald says Wakefield is more than worth the trip.
