History of Leeds

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An 1866 map of Leeds.

The name "Leeds" came from "Leodis", which was a name recorded in Anglo-Saxon sources for a Celtic kingdom that survived in the area for a while after the Anglo-Saxon invasion.

[edit] Early History

Leeds has been known since being mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086. Leeds was an agricultural market town in the Middle Ages, and received its first charter in 1207. In the Tudor period Leeds was mainly a merchant town, manufacturing woollen cloths and trading with Europe via the Humber estuary and the population grew from 10,000 at the end of the seventeenth century to 30,000 at the end of the eighteenth. At one point nearly half of England's total export passed through Leeds.

[edit] Industrial Revolution Expansion

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 was catalysed by the introduction of the Aire & Calder Navigation in 1699, Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816 and the railway in 1848. 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 was extracted on a large scale and the still functioning Middleton Railway, the first commercial railway in the world, transported coal into the centre of Leeds.

[edit] Modern history

By the 20th Century this social and economic had started to change with the creation of the academic institutions that are known today as the University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University. This period had also witnessed expansion in medical provision, particularly Leeds General Infirmary and St James's Hospital. Following World War II 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 retail, call centres, offices and media. Today Leeds 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. ^[1]