Made a cathedral in 1888; Pevsner thinks this building still looks like 'a large and proud parish church'. It has the tallest spire in Yorkshire, 75m high. Little of the 12thc. building survives, although in 1974 archaeologists found 'Norman' foundations (Speak and Forrester 1976, 4-6; Swann, Roberts and Tweddle 2006). Restored in 1858-74 by Sir Gilbert Scott (Pevsner 1967, 527-28). Building has continued into the 20thc.: most recently the nave has been paved and the pews removed. Plan in Speak and Forrester 1976.

Originally a simple cruciform building, there are remains of a N arcade of c.1150, also walling in various parts, although some features noted by Micklethwaite, when he had oversight of the building between 1864 and 1874, later disappeared (Micklethwaite, 1888, 37n.). There is a Norman wall which contained a staircase on the SW angle of the S transept at end of S nave aisle. Micklethwaite (1888, 37) says: 'The large block of masonry in the south-west corner of the south chapel is the corner of the twelfth-century transept, though the facing is all of later work. Inside it there are the remains of a stair which were exposed during the work of Sir Gilbert Scott.'

Sculpture is confined to pier bases in the N arcade.

Faull and Moorhouse suggest that there was an Anglo-Saxon urban nucleus. There were three priests and two churches in the manor in DB: the second church is thought to be at Sandal Magna and the third priest perhaps at a chapel in Horbury. Wakefield church with its dependencies were granted by William Warenne II to Lewes Priory, along with the gift of Conisbrough and its dependencies between 1091 and 1097 (Walker 1888, 1-2; Hunter, I, 105).

‘Masonry in the nave walls and south chancel aisle is interpreted as representing an aisleless cruciform church of the early 12thc., to which a north aisle is thought to have been added c.1150 and a south aisle c.1220’ (Ryder 1993, 177; 74-5, 98-100). An extended description is given by J. T. Micklethwaite (1888, 36-48; figs. 1-3). Recent archaeological work during the repaving of the nave revealed evidence of the twelfth-century building.