140-540: Loidis, from which Leeds , Yorkshire derives its name, was anciently a forested area of the Celtic kingdom of Elmet . The settlement certainly existed at the time of the Norman conquest of England and in 1086 was a thriving manor under the overlordship of Ilbert de Lacy . It gained its first charter from Maurice de Gant in 1207 yet only grew slowly throughout the medieval and Tudor periods. The town had become part of
280-399: A 15th-century building replacing an earlier one. All around the town lay the open fields and meadows, cultivated on the principle of strip-farming. And beyond these lay the forest of Elmet. The Tudor period was a time of transition for Leeds, from a relatively mean settlement to a solid cloth-trading town. In 1470, it was obscure enough to be described as being "near to Rothwell ", which in
420-468: A charter of incorporation, which was granted in 1626. The new charter incorporated the entire parish, including all eleven townships, as the Borough of Leeds and withdrew the earlier charter. Improvement commissioners were set up in 1755 for paving, lighting, and cleansing of the main streets, including Briggate and further powers were added in 1790 to improve the water supply. The borough corporation
560-622: A county council, so Leeds City Council is the primary provider of local government services for the city. The district is in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. Most of the district is an unparished area . In the unparished area, there is no lower tier of government. Outside the unparished area, there are 31 civil parishes, represented by parish councils . These are the lowest tier of local government and absorb some limited functions from Leeds City Council in their areas. The district
700-481: A further 30,000 sub-standard houses were demolished by the council and replaced by 151 medium-rise and high-rise blocks of council flats in estates at Seacroft, Armley Heights, Tinshill, and Brackenwood. Leeds has seen great expenditure on regenerating the city, attracting in investments and flagship projects, as found in Leeds city centre . Many developments boasting luxurious penthouse apartments have been built close to
840-461: A further contribution to the war effort, although it was perhaps less historically notable than that of the first. Although the result of the sinking of the third Royal naval vessel named 'Ark Royal' which was Leeds's adopted ship the people of Leeds raised over £9 million in 1942 for a new ship, surpassing the £5 million target. Leeds escaped the worst of The Blitz , due mainly to its inland location and lack of any significant industrial targets. On
980-490: A layer of coal measure sandstones forming the Yorkshire Coalfield . To the north parts are built on older sandstone and gritstones and to the east it extends into the magnesian limestone belt. Outside Leeds centre, there are a number of suburbs and exurbs within the district. Some of Leeds suburbs include Headingley, Harehills and Hunslet. while exurbs of Leeds include Pudsey, Horsforth and Morley. Lying in
1120-591: A major centre of transport and commerce, Hunslet and Holbeck became major engineering centres. Armley , Bramley and Kirkstall became milling centres and areas such as Roundhay became middle class suburbs , the building of the Leeds Tramway allowing them better connections with the rest of the city. Leeds made a notable contribution during the First World War. Barnbow in Cross Gates
1260-403: A population of 474,632 and had an area of 112 square kilometres (43 sq mi) with a population density of 4,238 inhabitants per square kilometre (10,980/sq mi). It is bounded by, and physically attached to, the other towns of Garforth to the east, Morley to the southwest and Pudsey to the west, all being within the wider borough. 63% of the borough's population of 751,485 live in
1400-498: A population of 812,000 ( 2021 census ). The city is part of the fourth-largest built-up area by population in the United Kingdom, West Yorkshire Built-up Area , with a 2011 census population of 1.7 million. The name derives from the old Brittonic *Lātēnses (via Late Brittonic Lādēses ), composed of the Celtic root *lāt- "violent, boiling" and the borrowed Latin plural derivational suffix -ēnses meaning "people of
1540-516: A problem, the wealthier residents left the industrial conurbation to live in Headingley, Potternewton and Chapel Allerton which led to a 50% increase in the population of Headingley and Burley from 1851 to 1861. The middle-class flight from the industrial areas led to development beyond the borough at Roundhay and Adel. The introduction of the electric tramway led to intensification of development in Headingley and Potternewton and expansion outside
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#17327933166821680-868: A similar trend to the rest of England. The population density was 1,967/km (5,090/sq mi) and for every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. Leeds is a diverse city with over 75 ethnic groups, and with ethnic minorities representing just under 11.6% of the total population. According to figures from the 2011 UK Census , 85.0% of the population was White (81.1% White British , 0.9% White Irish , 0.1% Gypsy or Irish Traveller , 2.9% Other White ), 2.7% of mixed race (1.2% White and Black Caribbean, 0.3% White and Black African, 0.7% White and Asian, 0.5% Other Mixed), 7.7% Asian (2.1% Indian , 3.0% Pakistani , 0.6% Bangladeshi , 0.8% Chinese , 1.2% Other Asian), 3.5% Black (2.0% African, 0.9% Caribbean , 0.6% Other Black ), 0.5% Arab and 0.6% of other ethnic heritage. Leeds has seen many new different countries of birth as of
1820-601: A small area just to the south east of the city centre, where the elevation declines to under 20 metres (66 feet). This is 2 °C (3.6 °F) milder than the typical summer temperature at Leeds Bradford airport weather station (shown in the chart below), at an elevation of 208 metres (682 feet). Situated on the eastern side of the Pennines, Leeds is among the driest cities in the United Kingdom, with an annual rainfall of 660 mm (25.98 in). Though extreme weather in Leeds
1960-520: A small, probably tenth- or eleventh-century treasure hoard of items from the early 7th century onwards, in the Leeds area. It seems likely that the Anglo-Saxon settlement consisted largely of an ecclesiastical site, a ford over the River Aire, and Kirkgate. Other evidence for occupation in the Anglo-Saxon period lies in the old Shire Oak at Headingley, which is believed to have lent its name to
2100-407: A temple were uncovered "with many beautiful ornamented bricks, and an altar, having a patera at the summit, on one side a cornucopia, and an original staff on the other. The edifice had been dedicated to the goddess Fortune, by one Antonius Modestus or Modestinus, of the sixth conquering legion". The Huddersfield Archaeological and Topographical Society, whose secretary was George Lloyd , excavated
2240-682: A town or city would suffer heavy losses of its male population. Leeds was one city unfortunate enough to suffer this. By the Second World War, regiments weren't so geographically based. The battalion formed in 1914 and suffered its worse losses in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. During the period between the two world wars, the Leeds Women Citizens League was active in advocating what women's needs for housing were to
2380-427: A triangle formed on the lines of the present lower Briggate , Kirkgate, and the River Aire, with the parish church at one angle somewhere about, perhaps on, the site of the modern one . The streets would be narrow, unpaved and unlighted. The houses, in spite of the fact that stone is so plentiful in the district, were of wood, whitewashed, in many cases, thatched. St Mary's Whitkirk is the only medieval church remaining,
2520-537: A varied collection of museums. Leeds has multiple motorway links such as the M1 , M62 and A1(M) . The city's railway station is, alongside Manchester Piccadilly , the busiest of its kind in Northern England . Public transport, rail and road networks in the city and wider region are widespread. It is the county's largest settlement with a population of 536,280, while the larger City of Leeds district has
2660-492: A varying extent by context such as the city centre , the built-up sprawl around the centre, administrative boundaries and the travel to work area . The city centre lies in a narrow section of the Aire Valley at about 206 feet (63 m) above sea level . The land use in the central areas of Leeds is overwhelmingly urban. while being less than twenty miles (32 km) from the rural Yorkshire Dales National Park . It
2800-404: Is oceanic ( Köppen : Cfb ), and influenced by the Pennines. Summers are usually mild, with moderate rainfall, while winters are chilly, cloudy with occasional snow and frost. The nearest official weather recording station is at Bingley, some twelve miles (20 km) away at a higher altitude. July is the warmest month, with a mean temperature of 16 °C (61 °F), while the coldest month
2940-538: Is January, with a mean temperature of 3 °C (37 °F). Temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) and below −10 °C (14 °F) are not very common but can happen occasionally. Temperatures at Leeds Bradford Airport fell to −12.6 °C (9.3 °F) in December 2010 and reached 31.8 °C (89 °F) at Leeds city centre in August 2003. The record temperature for Leeds is 34.4 °C (94 °F) during
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#17327933166823080-560: Is above regional averages. At the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001 , the Leeds urban subdivision occupied an area of 109 square kilometres (42 sq mi) and had a population of 443,247; making it the fourth-most populous urban subdivision within England and the fifth largest within the United Kingdom. The population density was 4,066 inhabitants per square kilometre (10,530/sq mi), slightly higher than
3220-527: Is considered the cultural, financial and commercial heart of the West Yorkshire Urban Area . Leeds is also served by four universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and the country's fourth largest urban economy . The student population has stimulated growth of the nightlife in the city and there are ample facilities for sporting and cultural activities, including classical and popular music festivals, and
3360-646: Is contained within the Leeds Inner Ring Road , formed from parts of the A58 road , A61 road , A64 road , A643 road and the M621 motorway . Briggate , the principal north–south shopping street, is pedestrianised and Queen Victoria Street, a part of the Victoria Quarter , is enclosed under a glass roof. Millennium Square is a significant urban focal point. Inner and southern areas of Leeds lie on
3500-453: Is in the banking, finance and insurance sectors that Leeds differs most from the financial structure of the region and the nation. There are 130,100 jobs in the city centre, accounting for 31% of all jobs in the wider district. In 2007, 47,500 jobs were in finance and business, 42,300 in public services, and 19,500 in retail and distribution. 43% of finance sector jobs in the district are contained in Leeds city centre and 44% of those employed in
3640-537: Is known as one of eight core cities that act as a focus of their respective regions and Leeds is generally regarded as the dominant city of the ceremonial county of West Yorkshire . Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire , England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough , which is the second most populous district in
3780-553: Is known of any Roman , British or Anglo-Saxon predecessors to Leeds. As well as scattered Bronze Age objects throughout the Leeds area, there were, according to 19th-century records, two Bronze Age barrows on Woodhouse Moor . In the pre-Roman and Roman Iron Age, the vicinity of Leeds was associated with the Brigantes ; as well as possible Roman-period earthworks, a paved ford across the River Aire has been discovered, and
3920-414: Is locally known as a Loiner , possibly derived from Loidis. Leeds City Council maintains "a photographic archive of Leeds" using the title "Leodis", thought to be an Old English or Celtic form of the name. There is no dependable reference to any place that might be associated with Leeds, before Bede's mention in circa 730 AD; and that was to a region rather than a village or town; thus little
4060-549: Is located in ...regione quae vocatur Loidis (Latin, "the region which is called Loidis"). An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner , a word of uncertain origin. The term Leodensian is also used, from the city's Latin name. Leeds developed as a market town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy. Before the Industrial Revolution , it became a co-ordination centre for
4200-408: Is no mention of education in Leeds until 1552, when one William Sheafield, who seems to have been a chantry priest of St. Catherine in Leeds, left property in the town for the establishment of a learned school-master who should teach freely for ever such scholars, youths, and children as should resort to him, with the wise proviso that the Leeds folk themselves should find a suitable building and make up
4340-431: Is overwhelmingly urban. Attempts to define the exact geographic meaning of Leeds lead to a variety of concepts of its extent, varying by context include the area of the city centre , the urban sprawl, the administrative boundaries, and the functional region . Leeds is much more a generalised concept place name in inverted commas, it is the city, but it is also the commuter villages and the region as well. Leeds has
History of Leeds - Misplaced Pages Continue
4480-472: Is relatively rare, thunderstorms, blizzards, gale-force winds and even tornadoes have struck the city. The last reported tornado occurred on 14 September 2006, causing trees to uproot and signal failures at Leeds City railway station . Leeds forms the main area of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire. This district includes Leeds itself as well as surrounding towns of Horsforth , Morley , Otley , Pudsey , Rothwell and Wetherby , Leeds
4620-696: Is represented by ten MPs , for the constituencies of Leeds Central and Headingley ( Alex Sobel , Labour) ; Leeds East ( Richard Burgon , Labour); Leeds North East ( Fabian Hamilton , Labour); Leeds North West ( Katie White , Labour); Leeds South ( Hilary Benn , Labour); Leeds South West and Morley ( Mark Sewards , Labour); Leeds West and Pudsey ( Rachel Reeves , Labour); Selby (constituency shared with North Yorkshire ) ( Keir Mather , Labour); Wakefield and Rothwell (constituency shared with City of Wakefield ) ( Simon Lightwood , Labour); and Wetherby and Easingwold (constituency shared with North Yorkshire ) ( Alec Shelbrooke , Conservative). Leeds has
4760-425: Is supposed to date to Roman times. Brigantian remains have been found in villages and towns in the vicinity of Leeds, and there are Roman remains in nearby settlements, notably at Adel , and at Alwoodley ; in the suburb of Headingley a stone coffin was found in 1995 at Beckett's Park which is believed to date from Roman times. Bede's account indicates activity in the vicinity of Leeds, though not necessarily near
4900-420: Is the local government district covering Leeds, and the local authority is Leeds City Council . The council is composed of 99 councillors, three for each of the district's wards . Elections are held three years out of four, on the first Thursday of May. One third of the councillors are elected, for a four-year term, in each election. The council is currently controlled by Labour . West Yorkshire does not have
5040-471: Is the central city of the Leeds City Region , a classification for the city region's metropolitan area . The city region has a population of over 3 million, making it the second most populated metropolitan city region in the United Kingdom, behind Greater London . In January 2011, Leeds was named as one of five "cities to watch" in a report published by Centre for Cities. The report shows that
5180-622: Is the largest component of the West Yorkshire Urban Area and is counted by Eurostat as part of the Leeds-Bradford larger urban zone . The Leeds travel to work area in 2001 included all of the City of Leeds, a northern strip of the City of Bradford, the eastern part of Kirklees, and a section of southern North Yorkshire; it occupies 751 square kilometres (290 sq mi). In 2011, the Leeds urban subdivision had
5320-536: Is the most diverse of all the UK's main employment centres, and has seen the fastest rate of private-sector jobs growth of any UK city and has the highest ratio of private to public sector jobs. Leeds is home to over 109,000 companies, generating 5% of England's total economic output of £60.5 billion, and is also ranked as a high sufficiency city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network . Leeds
5460-458: Is well above the national average, like many other English major cities. In July 2006, the think tank Reform calculated rates of crime for different offences and has related this to populations of major urban areas (defined as towns over 100,000 population). Leeds was 11th in this rating (excluding London boroughs, 23rd including London boroughs). Total recorded crime in Leeds fell by 45% between March 2002 and December 2011 The City of Leeds
5600-456: The Bank of England in the UK. In 2012 GVA for the city was recorded at £18.8 billion, with the entire Leeds City Region generating a £56 billion economy. Key sectors include finance, retail, leisure and the visitor economy, construction, manufacturing and the creative and digital industries. It has one of the most diverse economies of all the UK's main employment centres and has seen
5740-535: The Brittonic *lāto- meaning "rut, heat" (in animals ready to mate), an element represented in Welsh as llawd , "heat", and possibly cognate to Greek plōtós , "flowing". It has been surmised that the name denoted either a forest covering most of the kingdom of Elmet , which existed during the fifth century into the early seventh, or an early river-name, presumably that of the River Aire . An inhabitant of Leeds
History of Leeds - Misplaced Pages Continue
5880-550: The Duchy of Lancaster and reverted to the crown in the medieval period, so was a Royalist stronghold at the start of the English Civil War . In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Leeds prospered and expanded as a centre of the woollen industry and it continued to expand rapidly in the Industrial Revolution . Following a period of post industrial decline in the mid twentieth century Leeds' prosperity revived with
6020-407: The Globalization and World Cities Research Network . Today, Leeds has become the largest legal and financial centre outside London, with the financial and insurance services industry worth £13 billion to the city's economy. Office developments, also traditionally located in the inner area, have expanded south of the River Aire and total 11,000,000 square feet (1,000,000 m ) of space. In
6160-515: The Leeds and Selby Railway in 1834, provided improved communications with national markets and, significantly for its development, an east–west connection with Manchester and the ports of Liverpool and Hull giving improved access to international markets. Alongside technological advances and industrial expansion, Leeds retained an interest in trading in agricultural commodities, with the Corn Exchange opening in 1864. Marshall's Mill
6300-485: The River Wharfe for several miles (several kilometres), but it crosses the river to include the part of Otley which lies north of the river. The Leeds postcode area covers most of the City of Leeds district and is almost entirely made up of the Leeds post town . Otley, Wetherby, Tadcaster, Pudsey and Ilkley are separate post towns within the postcode area. Leeds is within a green belt region that extends into
6440-463: The UK Census including Zimbabwe , Iran , India and Nigeria all included in the top ten countries of birth in the city. Large Pakistani communities can be seen in wards such as Gipton and Harehills. Chapel Allerton is known for having a large Caribbean community. The majority of people in Leeds identify themselves as Christian. The proportion of Muslims (3.0% of the population) is average for
6580-560: The United Kingdom . It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines . The city was a small manorial borough in the 13th century and a market town in the 16th century. It expanded by becoming a major production and trading centre (mainly with wool ) in the 17th and 18th centuries. Leeds developed as a mill town during the Industrial Revolution alongside other surrounding villages and towns in
6720-540: The University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University . This period had also witnessed expansion in medical provision, particularly Leeds General Infirmary and St James's Hospital . Following the Second World War there has been, as in many other cities, a decline in secondary industries that thrived in the 19th century. However this decline was reversed in the growth of new tertiary industries such as finance retail , call centres , offices and media . Today Leeds
6860-469: The West Riding of Yorkshire . It was also known for its flax industry, iron foundries , engineering and printing, as well as shopping, with several surviving Victorian era arcades, such as Kirkgate Market . City status was awarded in 1893, and a populous urban centre formed in the following century which absorbed surrounding villages and overtook the population of nearby York . Leeds' economy
7000-535: The West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority . From 1988 two run-down and derelict areas close to the city centre were designated for regeneration and became the responsibility of Leeds Development Corporation , outside the planning remit of the city council. Planning powers were restored to the local authority in 1995 when the development corporation was wound up. In 1801, 42% of the population of Leeds lived outside
7140-495: The interwar period when over 18,000 houses were built by the council on 24 estates in Cross Gates , Middleton, Gipton, Belle Isle and Halton Moor. The slums of Quarry Hill were replaced by the innovative Quarry Hill flats, which were demolished in 1975. Another 36,000 houses were built by private sector builders, creating suburbs in Gledhow, Moortown, Alwoodley, Roundhay, Colton, Whitkirk, Oakwood , Weetwood, and Adel. After 1949
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#17327933166827280-454: The wapentake of Skyrack , and in the presence of many places around Leeds which have the termination of their names in ley : such as Bramley , Rodley , Farnley , Armley , Wortley , and Farsley , which is derived from the Anglo-Saxon leah , an open place in the wood. Leeds parish is thought to have developed from a large British estate sub-divided, under Anglo-Saxon occupation, into smaller land holdings. The ancient estate straddled
7420-553: The wapentakes of Morley and Skyrack, encompassing Leeds, Headingley , Allerton , Gipton , Bramley , Armley , Farnley , Beeston and Ristone ( Wortley ). Leeds parish in Skyrack was the most important of these holdings. Leeds was then further sub divided so that when the first dependable historical record about Leeds (as "Ledes") was written in the Domesday book of 1086, it was recorded as having comprised seven small manors in
7560-438: The 1086 Domesday Book denoting a settlement, in the later Old English form Ledes . (The 1725 map by John Cossins spells it as Leedes .) The name is not Old English in form, so is presumably an Anglo-Saxonisation of an earlier Celtic name. It is hard to be sure what this name was; Mills's A Dictionary of British Place-Names prefers Celtic * Lādenses 'people living by the strongly flowing river'. This name may be derived from
7700-439: The 1970s, the clothing industry was in irreversible decline, facing cheap foreign competition. The contemporary economy has been shaped by Leeds City Council 's vision of building a '24-hour European city' and 'capital of the north'. The city has developed from the decay of the post-industrial era to become a telephone banking centre, connected to the electronic infrastructure of the modern global economy. There has been growth in
7840-507: The Crown reserved to itself the rights of appointment to any of the thirty vacancies which might occur by death: popular election did not come for some time. Eighteen years after the granting of the charter of incorporation, Leeds joined with other towns in the neighbourhood in a Memorial to the King wherein he was besought to settle his differences with the rebellious Parliament. Of this no notice
7980-459: The Leeds district is green belt land and it surrounds the settlement, preventing further sprawl towards nearby communities. Larger outlying towns and villages are exempt from the green belt area. However, smaller villages, hamlets and rural areas are 'washed over' by the designation. The green belt was first adopted in 1960, and the size in the borough in 2017 amounted to some 33,970 hectares (339.7 km ; 131.2 sq mi). A subsidiary aim of
8120-425: The Leeds parish absorbed Beeston , Chapel Allerton , Farnley , Headingley cum Burley and Potternewton from within the borough. In the twentieth century the county borough initiated a series of significant territorial expansions, growing from 21,593 acres (87.38 km ) in 1911 to 40,612 acres (164.35 km ) in 1961. In 1912 the parish and county borough of Leeds absorbed Leeds Rural District , consisting of
8260-575: The National Church. In 1626, Leeds received its first charter of incorporation from Charles I . The charter, premising that Leeds in the County of York is an ancient and populous town, whose inhabitants are well acquainted with the Art and Mystery of making Woollen Cloths, sets up a governing body of one Alderman, nine Burgesses, and twenty Assistants. But the privilege for some years was a limited one:
8400-624: The Parliament on any further occasion. Though not a very great affair, it settled the question of King or Commons so far as that part of the West Riding was concerned. The Puritan regime followed on the first successes of the Parliamentarians, and Leeds saw two Puritan ministers placed in the parish church and the new church of St. John. But in 1644 Leeds folk had something else to think: an epidemic , so serious as to rank with
8540-422: The UK (after Birmingham ), and the second greatest area of any English metropolitan district (after Doncaster ), extending 15 miles (24 km) from east to west, and 13 miles (21 km) from north to south. The northern boundary follows the River Wharfe for several miles but crosses the river to include the part of Otley which lies north of the river. Over 65% of the Leeds district is green belt land and
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#17327933166828680-543: The York to Chester route as well as being close to the Wharfedale to Skipton route through the Pennines. The manorial lords were keen to increase their revenues by exploiting these advantages. The preamble of the charter reads: The charter made various provisions for the appointment of a bailiff (prator) to preside over a court of justice, to collect rents and dues, and to fine recalcitrants; others stipulated for aids when
8820-431: The accession of Henry IV , and the folk still ground their corn at the King's mills and baked their bread at the King's oven. There was as yet no charter of incorporation, and though the people were rapidly approaching to conditions of liberty their lot was still not very appreciably different from that of their forefathers. Up to the end of the sixteenth century Leeds may be looked upon as existing in semi-feudalism. There
8960-662: The answer which was doubtless expected, and in the teeth of a heavy snowstorm, Fairfax led his troops forward to the assault. The action began about two o'clock of the afternoon and appears to have developed on all sides of the town. It rapidly went in favour of the assailants, and by four o'clock the Parliamentarian leaders and their troops were in Briggate and Boar Lane, while Savile and others were fleeing for their lives. Fairfax took nearly 500 prisoners and immediately released them on their promising not to take up arms against
9100-431: The average resident in Leeds earns £471 per week, 17th nationally and 30.9% of Leeds residents had NVQ4+ high-level qualifications, 15th nationally. Employment in Leeds was 68.8% in the period June 2012 to June 2013, which was lower than the national average, whilst unemployment was higher than the national average at 9.6% over the same time period. Leeds is overall less deprived than other large UK cities and average income
9240-553: The banks of the river; erecting breastworks at the north end of the bridge, and placing demi-culverins in a position to sweep Briggate. Against him on Monday, January 23, advanced the redoubtable Sir Thomas Fairfax , at the head of a Parliamentary force which appears to have numbered at least 3000 horse and foot. Finding the bridge at Kirkstall broken down, Fairfax crossed the Aire at Apperley Bridge, and came on to Woodhouse Moor , from where he called on Savile to surrender. Savile returned
9380-519: The borough into Roundhay. Two private gas supply companies were taken over by the corporation in 1870, and the municipal supply provided street lighting and cheaper gas to homes. From the early 1880s, the Yorkshire House-to-House Electricity Company supplied electricity to Leeds until it was purchased by Leeds Corporation and became a municipal supply. Slum clearance and rebuilding began in Leeds during
9520-409: The central area including the borough. Leeds began to rank with the more prosperous towns to the east. In 1217 Maurice de Gant lost the Leeds estate by figuring on the wrong side at the battle of Lincoln . His holding passed from him to Ranulf, Earl of Chester , and through him reverted to the de Lacy family; when the de Lacy estates became merged by marriage in the Duchy of Lancaster they passed to
9660-504: The city centre is less than twenty miles (32 km) from the Yorkshire Dales National Park , which has some of the most spectacular scenery and countryside in the UK. Inner and southern areas of Leeds lie on a layer of coal measure sandstones. To the north parts are built on older sandstone and gritstones and to the east it extends into the magnesian limestone belt. The land use in the central areas of Leeds
9800-405: The city centre live more than nine kilometres (5.6 miles) away. In 2011, the financial and services industry in Leeds was worth £2.1 billion, the fifth-largest in the UK, behind London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham. Tertiary industries such as retail, call centres , offices and media have contributed to a high rate of economic growth. The city also hosts the only subsidiary office of
9940-420: The city centre. At 53°47′59″N 1°32′57″W / 53.79972°N 1.54917°W / 53.79972; -1.54917 (53.799°, −1.549°), and 190 miles (310 km) north-northwest of central London , central Leeds is located on the River Aire in a narrow section of the Aire Valley in the eastern foothills of the Pennines . The city centre lies at about 206 feet (63 m) above sea level while
10080-579: The corporate and legal sectors, and increased local affluence has led to an expanding retail sector, including the luxury goods market. Leeds City Region Enterprise Zone was launched in April 2012 to promote development in four sites along the A63 East Leeds Link Road. Leeds was a manor and township in the large ancient parish of Leeds St Peter , in the Skyrack wapentake of the West Riding of Yorkshire . The Borough of Leeds
10220-421: The country, selling cloth on credit terms; and that an export trade existed. In 1758, a coloured or mixed cloth hall was built near Mill Hill – a quadrangular building 66 yards (60 m) by 128 yards (117 m), with capacity for 1800 trading stalls, initially let at three guineas per annum, but later at a premium of £24 per annum. (In the 1890s both the hall and a subsequent hall were demolished to make way for
10360-411: The country. Leeds has the third-largest community of Jews in the United Kingdom, after those of London and Manchester. The areas of Alwoodley and Moortown contain sizeable Jewish communities. 16.8% of Leeds residents in the 2001 census declared themselves as having "No Religion", which is broadly in line with the figure for the whole of the UK (also 8.1% "religion not stated"). The crime rate in Leeds
10500-485: The daily influx of workers. The railway station had an 850-foot (260 m) platform and 38 special trains from surrounding towns and cities. An explosion from Hall 42 killed 35 workers and mutilated many more. Mechanic Mr William Parking was presented with an engraved silver watch for his bravery in saving factory workers during the incident. During the First World War, regiments were made up of men from particular towns, meaning that if one regiment suffered heavy losses,
10640-570: The days of Edward the Confessor . At the time of the Norman conquest, Leeds was evidently a purely agricultural domain, of about 1,000 acres (4 km) in extent. It was divided into seven manors, held by as many thanes; they possessed six ploughs; there was a priest, and a church, and a mill: its taxable value was six pounds. When the Domesday records were made, it had slightly increased in value;
10780-621: The de Lacy family to the Paynel family; Ralph Paynel is mentioned often in the Domesday entries. He was one of the principal tenants-in-chief in Yorkshire. It was from a descendant of the Paynels, sometimes described as Maurice de Gant, that the inhabitants of Leeds received their first charter , in November, 1207. Leeds had the geographical advantages of being on a river crossing and being on
10920-430: The development of tertiary industrial sectors. The name " Leeds " is first attested in the form "Loidis": around 731 Bede mentioned it in book II, chapter 14 of his Historia ecclesiastica , in a discussion of an altar surviving from a church erected by Edwin of Northumbria , located in "...regione quae vocatur Loidis" ('the region known as Loidis'). This was evidently a regional name, but it subsequently occurs in
11060-409: The district ranges from 1,115 feet (340 m) in the far west on the slopes of Ilkley Moor to about 33 feet (10 m) where the rivers Aire and Wharfe cross the eastern boundary. The centre of Leeds is part of a continuously built-up area extending to Pudsey, Bramley, Horsforth, Alwoodley, Seacroft, Middleton and Morley. Leeds has the second highest population of any local authority district in
11200-451: The early August 1990 heatwave. It is likely this was exceeded during the heatwaves of July 2019 and July 2022 where many other areas broke their all time records. However, Leeds weather centre closed in the 2000s. As is typical for many sprawling cities in areas of varying topography, temperatures can change depending on location. Average July and August daytime highs exceed 22 °C (72 °F) (a value comparable to South East England) in
11340-494: The eastern foothills of the Pennines , there is a significant variation in elevation within the city's built-up area. The district ranges from 1,115 feet (340 m) in the far west on the slopes of Ilkley Moor to about 33 feet (10 m) where the rivers Aire and Wharfe cross the eastern boundary. Land rises to 198 m (650 ft) in Cookridge, just 6 miles (9.7 km) from the city centre. The northern boundary follows
11480-428: The fast-flowing river", in reference to the River Aire that flows through the city. This name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brittonic kingdom of Elmet , which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century. Bede states in the fourteenth chapter of his Ecclesiastical History , in a discussion of an altar surviving from a church erected by Edwin of Northumbria , that it
11620-403: The fastest rate of private-sector jobs growth of any UK city. It also has the highest ratio of private to public sector jobs of all the UK's Core Cities, with 77% of its workforce working in the private sector. Leeds has the third-largest jobs total by local authority area, with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. Leeds is ranked as a "High Sufficiency" level city by
11760-410: The fifteenth century had the rights of a market town . By 1536, when John Leland visited it, he was able to report of it that it was a pretty market town which stood most by clothing and was as large as Bradford , though not so "quik", by which he evidently meant not so enterprising. Nevertheless, much of the old life and conditions still existed. The Crown was now over-lord, and had been so ever since
11900-529: The fort was constructed of turf and wood to defend the Roman road in the time of Agricola in AD ;79. Outside the fort walls was a stone bath-house which was extended around AD 104 and AD 120. A vicus or small settlement of wooden huts grew outside the fort. In December 2016, a retired professor from Bangor University , Peter Field, hypothesised that the fort's site was a potential location for
12040-504: The fort's ramparts and the foundations of its gateways and corner towers. The ramparts, constructed of turves on a stone footing, surrounded an area 356 feet (111 metres) square. They were surrounded by a ditch, in some parts a double ditch when the fort was built in about AD 79. Inside are the outlines of several wooden buildings including the military headquarters and barrack blocks. Another phase of development about 20 years later added two granaries roofed with tiles stamped COHIIIIBRE,
12180-404: The green belt is to encourage recreation and leisure interests, with rural landscape features, greenfield areas and facilities including Temple Newsam Park and House with golf course, Rothwell Country Park, Middleton Park, Kirkstall Abbey ruins and surrounding park, Bedquilts recreation grounds, Waterloo lake, Roundhay castle and park, and Morwick, Cobble and Elmete Halls. Leeds has a climate that
12320-532: The house called Red Hall, in Upper Head Row. It seems curious that up to the middle of the seventeenth century Leeds had never been directly represented in Parliament. Many now quite insignificant places in Yorkshire had sent members to the House of Commons from a very early period-- Malton , Beverley , Northallerton had returned members as far back as 1298; Otley had had two members for centuries. But it
12460-403: The lord needed monetary help, and placed tenants under obligation to grind corn at his mill and bake in his oven. Leeds was granted some rights of self-government and it had burgesses who were freemen. Yet the charter granted to the townspeople of Leeds only the lowest conditions needed for urban development. It did not transform the manor into a borough but established a borough within a manor. It
12600-526: The main manorial landholding half a mile to the west of the church. In 1399, according to the Hardynge Chronicle, the captive Richard II was briefly imprisoned at Leeds, before being transported to another de Lacy property at Pontefract, where he was later executed. In 1147, Cistercian monks settled at Kirkstall , and there from about 1152 began to build Kirkstall Abbey . Leeds was subinfeudated – along with much other land in Yorkshire, by
12740-452: The manufacture of woollen cloth, and white broadcloth was traded at its White Cloth Hall . Leeds handled one sixth of England's export trade in 1770. Growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the creation of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 (with major additional works in the 18th century) and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816. In the late Georgian era, William Lupton
12880-492: The mark of the 4th cohort of Breuci who operated a tilery in the nearby Grimescar Valley. A phase of building in stone began in the early AD 120s. but by then the garrison had been reduced. The fort was occupied until about AD 140. Outside the fort to the east was the bath-house and to the north was a small civilian settlement which may have continued until AD 200. The Tolson Museum in Huddersfield has
13020-539: The master's salary to ten pounds a year. Here is the origin of Leeds Grammar School which, first housed in the Calls, and subsequently—through the beneficence of John Harrison —in Lady Lane, had by the end of that century become an institution of vast importance. As the sixteenth century drew to a close, and while the seventeenth was still young, the towns-folk of Leeds secured in the first instance at their own cost, in
13160-518: The medieval visitations of plague , broke out, and resulted in the death of 1300 inhabitants. The weekly markets were discontinued, and deaths occurred with such startling rapidity that it was impossible to keep pace with them in the parish registers. In 1646 Charles I. came to Leeds a prisoner. After his surrender to the Scottish generals at Kelham , near Newark , he was led northward to Newcastle ; on his return from that city, he spent one night in
13300-532: The most diverse economy of all the UK's main employment centres and has seen the fastest rate of private sector jobs growth of any UK city and has the highest ratio of public to private sector jobs of all the UK's Core Cities . The city had the third-largest jobs total by local authority area with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. 24.7% were in public administration, education and health, 23.9% were in banking, finance and insurance and 21.4% were in distribution, hotels and restaurants. It
13440-511: The mullets figured on the arms of Thomas Danby, first Mayor. The dependent sheep typifies the wool trade. In 1715 the first history of Leeds was written by Ralph Thoresby , entitled Ducatus Leodiensis; or the Topography of the antient and populous Town and Parish of Leedes . Leeds was mainly a merchant town, manufacturing woollen cloths and trading with Europe via the Humber estuary and
13580-563: The mythical Camelot . The site of the fort is on gently sloping ground sheltered by a hill rising to 1,200 feet (366 m) above sea level about 4 miles (6 km) from Huddersfield, mostly to the south of the present-day M62 motorway . Observation posts on the surrounding hills commanded views towards Blackstone Edge , Standedge , Huddersfield and the Stainland Valley in the Halifax direction. In 1743 The foundations of
13720-541: The national Women's Housing Sub-Committee . This was a parliamentary committee which was established in 1918 by the Ministry of Reconstruction in order discover what a woman's view on post-war housing would look life. Recommendations for the Leeds branch of the league included 'porcelain sinks with plugs' that children could be washed in, as well as 'an upstairs'. During the Second World War Leeds made
13860-751: The new General Post Office and the Metropole Hotel .) In 1831, a strike at Gotts Woollen Mill led to the establishment of the Yorkshire Trades Union . This soon dissolved, but in 1887 the Yeadon and Guiseley Factory Workers' Union was founded, this later becoming part of the National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers . The industrial revolution had resulted in the radical growth of Leeds whose population had risen to over 150,000 by 1840. The city's industrial growth
14000-439: The night of the 14 March and early hours of 15 March 1941, Leeds received its worst night of Luftwaffe bombing. Beeston had more bombs dropped on it than any other district of the city, yet escaped with the least damage. Flaxton Terrace was the only street to be damaged during the night-time blackout air raid , with nearly all the other bombs landing on Cross Flatts Park. In his 2005 poem 'Shrapnel' poet Tony Harrison , who
14140-548: The ninth- to tenth-century decoration characteristic of Anglo-Scandinavian culture, which were found in the fabric of the 14th-century Leeds Parish Church when it was demolished and replaced in 1838, now site of Leeds Minster . The best preserved, now in the modern church, depicts alongside other images the story of Wayland the Smith . Leeds's profile was raised by the 2008-09 discovery of the West Yorkshire Hoard ,
14280-585: The old one in 1642, but Charles II 's Charter was of a far-reaching nature. It set up a Mayor, twelve Aldermen, twenty-four Assistants or Councillors, a Town Clerk, and a Recorder; it also provided for local election to vacancies. From the Charter of Charles I and that of his son are derived the well-known arms of the town. The owls are the Savile owls famous throughout the county, where the Saviles have been legion;
14420-432: The parishes of Roundhay and Seacroft ; and Shadwell , which had been part of Wetherby Rural District. On 1 April 1925, the parish of Leeds was expanded to cover the whole borough. The county borough was abolished on 1 April 1974, and its former area was combined with that of the municipal boroughs of Morley and Pudsey ; the urban districts of Aireborough , Horsforth , Otley , Garforth and Rothwell ; and parts of
14560-436: The period from 1999 to 2008 £2.5 billion of property development was undertaken in central Leeds; of which £711 million has been offices, £265 million retail, £389 million leisure and £794 million housing. The city saw several firsts, including the oldest-surviving film in existence, Roundhay Garden Scene (1888), and the 1767 invention of soda water . Cambodunum (Britain) Slack Roman Fort
14700-644: The permission of the 3rd Viscount Irwin , holder of the Manor of Leeds, to erect the White Cloth Hall. The fact of Wakefield having erected a trading hall in 1710 was almost certainly a driver of change. The new hall opened on 22 May 1711 (It lasted for 65 years before being removed to a new site in The Calls; by the mid-19th century it was taking place in a dedicated trading hall.) Daniel Defoe (c. 1720) mentions that Leeds traders also travelled all over
14840-509: The population grew from 10,000 at the end of the seventeenth century to 30,000 at the end of the eighteenth. As a gauge of the importance of the town, by the 1770s Leeds merchants were responsible for 30% of the country's woollen exports, valued at £1,500,000 when 70 years previously Yorkshire accounted for only 20% of exports. During the Middle Ages, Cistercian monks, such as those at Kirkstall, were involved in sheep farming, and weaving
14980-517: The rest of the West Yorkshire Urban Area . It accounts for 20% of the area and 62% of the population of the City of Leeds. The population of the urban subdivision had a 100 to 93.1 female–male ratio. Of those over 16 years old, 39.4% were single (never married) and 35.4% married for the first time. The urban subdivision's 188,890 households included 35% one-person, 27.9% married couples living together, 8.8% were co-habiting couples, and 5.7% single parents with their children. Leeds
15120-562: The river was developed primarily for industry and secondarily for back-to-back workers' dwellings. The Leeds Improvement Act 1866 sought to improve the quality of working class housing by restricting the number of homes that could be built in a single terrace. Holbeck and Leeds formed a continuous built-up area by 1858, with Hunslet nearly meeting them. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, population growth in Hunslet, Armley, and Wortley outstripped that of Leeds. When pollution became
15260-434: The royal family, and, on the accession of Henry IV , were absorbed into the possessions of the Crown . For four centuries after the Norman invasion, the growth of Leeds was slow. Its site had no particular military advantages: the great strategic position of that part of Yorkshire was at Pontefract, close by. It had, at first, no commercial values—it may have been that its first beginnings in its staple wool trade sprang from
15400-466: The rural districts of Tadcaster , Wetherby , and Wharfedale . This area formed a metropolitan district in the county of West Yorkshire . It gained both borough and city status and is known as the City of Leeds . Initially, local government services were provided by Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire County Council . When the county council was abolished in 1986, the city council absorbed its functions, and some powers passed to organisations such as
15540-426: The second by a strictly limited Royal favour two important privileges—the right of electing their own vicar and of governing themselves in municipal affairs. In 1583 the town bought the advowson of the parish church from its then possessor, Oliver Darnley, for £130, and henceforth the successive vicars were chosen by a body of trustees—the most notably successful experiment in popular election which has ever been known in
15680-421: The seven thanes had been replaced by twenty-seven villeins, four sokemen, and four bordars. The villeins were what we should now call day-labourers: the soke or soc men were persons of various degrees, from small owners under a greater lord, to mere husbandmen: the bordars are considered by most specialists in Domesday terminology to have been mere drudges, hewers of wood, drawers of water. The mill, when this survey
15820-404: The site in 1865. It excavated the remains of a residence measuring 60 feet (18 m) by 68 feet (21 m) with a courtyard. Nearby was a cremation site and on the slope 80 yards (73 m) below the house are the remains of a hypocaust for the hot air bath . Also found nearby were a British stone axe, pottery, part of a brooch and a quantity of galena , (lead ore). A druidic 'rocking stone'
15960-610: The town as it is now known: his unidentified place-name Campodonum might refer to an important place in the area; and one Abbot Thrythwulf had a monastery nearby in Bede's time, though it did not last long into the medieval period. Campodonum is possibly, Elmet capital and Roman fort (analysed as camp+(l)odonum), Cambodunum . Cambodunum is a possible earlier Latin form name of Camelot , likely due to its location and early Brittonic ties. Evidence for major wealth and status comes from fragments of at least six stone crosses/other monuments, with
16100-581: The town was linked up with Hull , York , Sheffield , Bradford , Dewsbury ; with the Durham and Northumberland towns; with Manchester and Liverpool ; and with the Midlands and London. In 1893 Leeds had been granted city status. These industries that developed in the industrial revolution had included making machinery for spinning, machine tools, steam engines and gears as well as other industries based on textiles, chemicals and leather and pottery. Coal
16240-841: The township, in the wider borough. Cholera outbreaks in 1832 and 1849 caused the authorities to address the problems of drainage, sanitation, and water supply. Water was pumped from the River Wharfe, but by 1860 it was too heavily polluted to be usable. Following the Leeds Waterworks Act of 1867 three reservoirs were built at Lindley Wood, Swinsty, and Fewston in the Washburn Valley north of Leeds. Residential growth occurred in Holbeck and Hunslet from 1801 to 1851, but, as these townships became industrialised new areas were favoured for middle class housing. Land south of
16380-415: The underground factory that manufactured the parts for Avro Lancaster bombers. The factory was located alongside the current Leeds Bradford Airport . Rodley to the west had two factories, Smiths and Booths, that manufactured cranes and had been converted to make bombs. By the 20th century this social and economic had started to change with the creation of the academic institutions that are known today as
16520-468: The urban subdivision, while it takes up only 21% of its total area of 552 km . At the time of the 2011 UK Census , the district had a total population of 751,500, representing a 5% growth since the previous census ten years earlier. According to the 2001 UK Census, there were 301,614 households in Leeds; 33.3% were married couples living together, 31.6% were single-person households, 9.0% were co-habiting couples and 9.8% were single parents, following
16660-487: The wider surrounding counties and is in place to reduce urban sprawl , prevent the settlements in the West Yorkshire conurbation from further convergence, protect the identity of outlying communities, encourage brownfield reuse, and preserve nearby countryside. This is achieved by restricting inappropriate development within the designated areas, and imposing stricter conditions on permitted building. Over 60% of
16800-472: The wool growing of the Cistercians at Kirkstall Abbey, on its western borders. The township was concerned with little more than agriculture, and such trade as it knew was confined to those retailings which establish themselves wherever communities spring up—dealings in the necessities of life, which, reduced to a minimum, are merely food and clothing. The town itself was small—it was probably confined within
16940-612: Was a castellum near Outlane , to the west of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire , England. Its site is a scheduled monument . The ruins of the fort which lay alongside the Pennine section of the Roman road from Deva Victrix ( Chester ) to Eboracum ( York ) are no longer visible. The fort may have been the Cambodunum mentioned as a station on this route in the Antonine Itinerary . Archaeological digs indicate
17080-715: Was a large ammunitions factory producing ten thousand shells per week by August 1915. The worst tragedy ever to happen within Leeds (in terms of fatalities) happened at the Barnbow tragedy of 5 December 1916. 35 workers (all women aged 14 or over) were killed in the Barnbow Munitions Factory, which later became the Royal Ordnance Factory Barnbow. The plant employed 16,000 workers, from Leeds , Selby , Wakefield , Tadcaster and Wetherby and had its own railway station to cope with
17220-570: Was catalysed by the introduction of the Aire & Calder Navigation in 1699, Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816 and the railways from 1834 onwards; the first being the Leeds and Selby Railway opened on 22 September 1834. The first Leeds railway station was at Marsh Lane ; the Leeds Wellington station was opened in 1848; the Central in 1854, and the New station in 1869. Little by little
17360-453: Was created in 1207, when Maurice Paynel, lord of the manor, granted a charter to a small area of the manor, close to the river crossing, in what is now the city centre. King James I granted the borough to his wife, Anne of Denmark , and in 1612, she ordered a survey of the borough; in 1615 she was petitioned to remove the strict Calvinist preacher Alexander Cooke as vicar of Leeds, but she refused. The inhabitants petitioned Charles I for
17500-412: Was extracted on a large scale and the still functioning Middleton Railway , the first successful commercial steam locomotive railway in the world, transported coal into the centre of Leeds. The track was the first rack railway and the locomotive ( Salamanca ) was the first to have twin cylinders. Various areas in Leeds developed different roles in the industrial revolution. The city centre became
17640-455: Was fortunate; the probability is that the lands of the de Lacy ownership were spared when the harrying of the North took place. While the greater part of the county was absolutely destitute of human life, and all the land northward lay blackened, Leeds in 1086 had a population of at least two hundred people. There were two significant foci to the settlement; the area around the parish church and
17780-465: Was found with these on Golcar Hill. On another part of the site are the remains of a cold bath comprised a slab of concrete 13 feet 6 inches (4.1 m) long by 6 feet 3 inches (1.9 m) wide. The room it was in had a red tiled floor. Copper or bronze coins from the reigns of Vespasian and Nerva , an earthenware jar and a tile stamped "COH IIII BRE" were also uncovered. Excavations between 1913 and 1915 and 1958 to 1963 uncovered
17920-713: Was in Beeston on the night of the raid, speculates whether this was an act of heroism by the Luftwaffe pilot, a theory that has been explored ever since the raid. Significant damage was also caused in Holbeck and Headingley, while the Eastern side of the Town Hall was damaged. Bombs were also dropped on the Woodhouse area during nighttime air raids, as the Luftwaffe attempted to destroy an industrial target. ROF Thorp Arch
18060-410: Was introduced to West Yorkshire during the reign of Edward III . Leland records the organised trading of woollen cloth in a market that took place on a bridge over the Aire, at the foot of Briggate ; this trade occurred under tightly regulated conditions, including specific times. The cloth was predominantly manufactured in individual homes , in the villages surrounding Leeds. ( Bradford , by contrast,
18200-463: Was made, was worth four shillings. There were 10 acres (40,000 m) of meadow. The tenant in chief was Ilbert de Lacy to whom William the Conqueror had granted a vast Honour stretching widely across country from Lincolnshire into Lancashire , and whose chief stronghold was at Pontefract Castle , a few miles to the south-east. That Leeds was owned by one of the chief favourites of William
18340-415: Was not coextensive with the manor but consisted of only a group of tenements within it. The new town was laid out along the line of a street, later to be called Briggate, which was wide enough to hold a market, with about thirty burgage plots on either side. The south end of the street had a river crossing but the earliest recorded bridge, from which its name is derived (bridge gate), is in 1384. The population
18480-568: Was not until 1654 that Adam Baynes was returned to sit at Westminster; he was returned again two years later with Francis Allanson as a second member. This representation came to an end at the Restoration in 1660, and Leeds had no more members of Parliament until the Reform Act 1832 . But in 1661 it received some concession from the Crown which was perhaps of more importance to it—a new Municipal Charter. There had been some readjustment of
18620-470: Was one of a number of central Leeds landowners, some of whom, like him, were also textile manufacturers. At the time of his death in 1828, Lupton occupied the enclosed fields of the manor of Leeds , his estate including a mill, reservoir , substantial house and outbuildings. Mechanical engineering, initially to supply tools and machinery for the textile sector, rapidly became a diverse industry. The railway network constructed around Leeds, starting with
18760-404: Was one of the first of many factories constructed in Leeds from around 1790 when the most significant were woollen finishing and flax mills. Manufacturing diversified by 1914 to printing, engineering, chemicals and clothing manufacture. Decline in manufacturing during the 1930s was temporarily reversed by a switch to producing military uniforms and munitions during the Second World War. However, by
18900-436: Was reformed under the provisions of Municipal Corporations Act 1835 . Leeds Borough Police force was formed in 1836, and Leeds Town Hall was completed by the corporation in 1858. In 1866, Leeds and each of the other townships in the borough became civil parishes . The borough became a county borough in 1889, giving it independence from the newly formed West Riding County Council and it gained city status in 1893. In 1904
19040-484: Was small in 1207 and remained scanty for a long time afterwards. At the time of the Poll Tax of 1379 it appears not to have exceeded three hundred persons at the very outside; it was certainly one of the smallest towns in Yorkshire, such places as Snaith , Ripon , Tickhill , and Selby exceeding it in importance. Even in the thirteenth century, Leeds consisted of several distinct areas of habitation and activity. There
19180-566: Was taken, and in the earlier stages of the Civil War the town was garrisoned for the Royal cause under Sir William Savile . But it was a very small Leeds which he occupied for the King in January 1643, having under him 500 horse and 1,500 foot. He made elaborate preparations for the defence of the place, digging a six-foot trench from St. John's Church by Upper Headrow, Boar Lane, and Swinegate to
19320-433: Was the centre of the worsted cloth trade.) There was a fulling mill at Leeds by 1400, and cloth dying may also have been an early centralised activity. By the early 18th century, cloth trading had outstripped the capacity of the bridge, and had moved to trestle tables in up to two rows on each side of Briggate . Ralph Thoresby was involved in the establishment of the first covered cloth market, when with others he secured
19460-404: Was the main munitions factory in the area at this time. The facility which is now a trading estate and retail park, was situated near Wetherby and like Barnbow featured significant railway facilities. The works suffered minor damage from bombing raids. People from all over West Yorkshire travelled to work at the facility by train from Leeds and Wetherby stations. The town of Yeadon housed
19600-473: Was the old settlement around the parish church, the newly founded borough, the manor house and mill to the west and the town fields at Burmantofts (borough men's tofts). By establishing the borough the manorial revenues were increased and Leeds became more prosperous. Tax returns of 1334 and 1377 show that population of the whole parish before the Black Death was about 1,000 people of whom 350 to 400 lived in
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