Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in Yorkshire in the north of England. The River Aire runs through the city. In 1974 the former a county borough of Leeds was merged with the towns of Wetherby, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, and other surrounding areas to form a metropolitan borough ? the city status of the county borough being conferred the new metropolitan borough. Somewhat confusingly therefore, the City of Leeds contains a number of towns including the former county borough of Leeds, which can be thought of as Leeds proper. For the purposes of this article Leeds refers to the city as it was prior to 1974 as to distinguish it from the metropolitan borough called the City of Leeds. According to the 2001 UK census the core of Leeds had a population of 429,243 while the City of Leeds had a population of 726,939 and is one of England's core cities.

History

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. At one point nearly half of England's total export passed through Leeds. The city's industrial growth was catalysed by the introduction of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816 and the railway in 1848. Now, Leeds is the UK's 3rd largest and fasting growing cities, much of the importance taken from nearby Manchester which is now a much smaller and less important town.

Related Topics:
1207 - Tudor period - Humber - Estuary - Leeds and Liverpool Canal - 1816 - 1848 - Manchester

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